Fallout: Equestria - Fall of a Hero
by P-Berry
First published
This is the story of how Equestria's favorite and most well-known heroine fell to the wasteland - and of what happened in the years after.
[Spoilers for chapter 19 of Fallout: Equestria]
Saying goes that in the Equestrian Wasteland, no hero lives forever.
Some of them bite off more than they can chew, ending up with their heads on a stick.
Some of them simply give up, ending up somewhere in the gutter, drinking themselves to death.
And some of them ... some of them just lose it, giving up on everything and everyone they ever believed in, and living a savage life out in the wasteland.
This is the story of how Equestria's favorite and most well-known heroine fell to the wasteland - and of what happened in the years after.
Credit for the cover goes to Nukechaser24.
As always, credit for the original story goes to Kkat.
Note: The Dark tag is there for a reason. Read at your own discretion.
Chapter 1
Author's Notes:
Once again, this chapter spoilers major parts of the original Fo:E; the beginning essentially builds on the 'betrayal'-scene in the eponymous chapter 19. I strongly recommend reading that part again before starting with this story.
With that said, enjoy!
As Velvet Remedy floated the blanket over me, covering my body, I swore I’d kill her.
“She’s gone!”
Calamity still remembered it like if it was yesterday. He had been in Doctor Helpinghoof’s office, waiting for Velvet Remedy with the unconscious Littlepip in tow to arrive. Even though the doctor had told him several times that there was nothing he and Velvet could do help either him or Littlepip during the process, he had insisted on staying in the doctor’s office and with his friend until the procedure was over.
At least, this had been the plan.
He had known that something must have gone horribly wrong when Velvet had burst through the door half an hour late, drenched in sweat, eyes wide in horror, and repeated the same thing over and over again. “She’s gone! She’s … gone! I … I can’t believe she’s … she’s…”
Then she had collapsed, breaking into a sobbing heap right in front of Calamity’s and Helpinghoof’s eyes, blubbering, cursing herself, Littlepip, and this whole, messed-up world.
Three years had passed since then, and the two still knew just as little about the circumstances of Littlepip’s disappearance as they knew about her current whereabouts.
Between crying, blaming herself for the loss of their friend and cursing her own stupidity, Velvet Remedy had tried to explain to Calamity how it had been possible for her to lose Littlepip in the first place. After all, she was sure that she hadn’t taken her eyes off their unconscious friend for longer than five minutes – and even then only because two guards from Tenpony Tower had stopped her when she was halfway to Doctor Helpinghoof’s office.
They had –justifiably- been alerted by the unconscious body Velvet had in tow, and had insisted on her coming with them to be questioned; only after telling them the whole story behind her friend’s drug addiction, and only with some serious persuasion had she been able to keep the guards from arresting her for further examination.
However, when she had left the guards’ bureau –they hadn’t allowed her to take her unconscious friend with inside- she had noticed with horror that her red wagon was empty, and that Littlepip was gone – without a trace, it seemed.
Despite months of combing through seemingly every inch of the wasteland, despite a comprehensive search-campaign led by Homage as DJ-Pon3, and despite a search that almost compared to a hunt, seeming to get more desperate every day, Littlepip remained missing; lost without a trace – it was as if she had vanished off the face of Equestria.
That is, until today.
Possibly.
“Are you sure about this, Calamity?” Velvet Remedy asked cautiously, a touch of worry in her voice, “What if this is just another misunderstanding?”
The rust-colored pegasus cowering on the ground next to her replied nothing, his stern look focused on what lay ahead of them.
“I mean,” Velvet Remedy continued, “I want to find Littlepip just as badly as you, but what if this turns out to be just another raider’s nest? Don’t you think we’ve seen enough…” she had to cut herself off to swallow, “dead and dismembered bodies? I appreciate ponies trying to help us find her, but these hints we’re getting just keep getting more and more vague. What if this one turns out to be a prank too?”
“Then we’re gonna move on. An’ keep searching.” Calamity replied coldly. “She is somewhere out there, an’ Ah’ll be damned if Ah give up searchin’ before Ah find her.” Then, after a short pause, “Or at least her body.”
Velvet Remedy sighed heavily, giving her friend a pleading glance. “I know. And I … I understand your determination, but…” she wanted to end it there, but as her friend just replied with a raised eyebrow, she forced herself to continue, “We can’t spend the rest of our lives searching for her! We can't-“
“Why not?” Calamity cut her off sharply. “Why can’t we?” Before Velvet Remedy could reply, he proceeded, “She’s mah friend, Velvet. Heck, she’s like family for me.” He paused for a second, letting his words sink in, “If one of our friends suddenly disappears that’s a horrible thing, but if we can just shrug it off an’ say ‘Tough Luck.’ then that’s even more horrible if ya ask me.”
“I know, and she was my friend too, Calamity.” Velvet countered, “But what I am trying to say is: there still is a wasteland out there! There still is a long way to go to make this world a better place.”
“And?” Calamity asked skeptically.
“And we can’t do anything to make it a better place if we keep running from settlement to settlement searching for Littlepip just to end up finding another unicorn mare that roughly matches Littlepip’s description.” Velvet said emphatically. “Think about it: if she were still here, do you think she would want us to spend each and every sort of resources on finding her, or do you think she would want us to continue fighting her fight, and make this world a better one.”
Her words faded away, and a long period of silence followed.
Calamity said nothing for a while, just looking Velvet Remedy in the eyes, before he slowly turned his head back and his look went back to the buildings in front of them. Reaching over his shoulder, he opened a dust brown saddlebag fixed to the back end of his battle saddle and pulled out a set of binoculars, looking through them back at their destination.
Finally, after another moment of silence, he spoke up again. “Ponies say they’ve seen a short unicorn mare with some sorta device on her foreleg around here.” He explained calmly without lowering the binoculars. “Ah dunno ‘bout you, but that’s reason enough for me to go in there and see if it’s our unicorn mare.”
Velvet Remedy drew a breath to protest, but then cut herself off, thinking about what Calamity had just said. True, that ‘device’ could be just about any sort of device, and there certainly wasn’t a lack of short unicorn mares in the wasteland, but somehow … she couldn’t put her hoof on it, and maybe it was just hope induced by despair that made her think this way, but somehow this one sounded a little more promising than most of the other hints they had gotten before.
Then again, they had received hundreds, if not thousands of these, and so far none of them had ended up leading them to their lost friend.
“Ya don’t need to come with me if ya don’t want to.” Calamity continued, calmly, but with determination, “But until Ah know that this one’s a dead end too, Ah can’t just ignore it.”
Turning her head back, Velvet gave a defeated sigh. Then, after a moment of silence, said, “I know.” Determination now also swinging in her voice, she added, “And I won’t let you go in there.” Calamity lowered the binoculars, turning his head to give her a questioning look.
“Not alone.” She declared, forcing an encouraging smile onto her face, “I am with you. For better or worse.” She took in a short breath of the mild evening air, then got to her hooves, “Let’s go.”
“Easy there.” Calamity said, getting to his hooves as well, grabbing the charcoal unicorn by her tail and pulling her back down, gaining a startled shriek from her. “We can’t go. Not yet.” He explained, lifting his binoculars and offering them to Velvet Remedy who, after a moment of looking at him confused and with a light blush on her face, lifted it with her magic and levitated it over to her face.
Through the binoculars, the complex of buildings looked even more impressive: in a valley ahead of them was what looked like a prison from pre-war times: a brutalist gray building that looked like it had been carved from a single block of concrete, surrounded by two rows of ten feet-tall barbwire fence from three sides, with four watchtowers forming the corners, making for a rectangle about a hundred yards on each side. A lone sprite bot was bobbing around the building.
Facing the two ponies was the building's front: adorned by nothing but a heavy-looking metal door and a handful of small, slot-like windows, it indeed revealed the complex to be the ‘Misty Hills Correctional Facility’ which was written above the entrance door in faded black paint.
Within the limits of the high-security fence was another, smaller building, some random junk lying about, as well as several spots where the ground had been ploughed to reveal the brown soil underneath – something Velvet had last seen in the apple orchards back in Stable Two.
“Fields?” she asked herself, slightly confused, until she saw the dozens of ponies on the fields. While she certainly wasn’t an expert on wasteland-related topics, she had seen enough to know just what sort of ponies these ones were: if their empty, hopeless looks hadn’t given them away, Velvet would have recognized them from their malnourished bodies or –if nothing else- from the thick, black bomb collars around their necks.
“Slaves.” She noted sadly; then, with new hope, “Do you think Littlepip might be among them?”
“Ayep.” Calamity replied curtly, “That’s what Ah was thinkin’. But they ain’t the reason why we can’t go in there yet. Look at the watchtowers.” He said and directed her gaze into the right direction.
Indeed, aside from two big spotlights, each of the watchtowers also had two ponies on it – ponies carrying guns and armor, who didn’t look like they were too keen on letting intruders in.
Slowly, Velvet Remedy lowered the binoculars again, nodding her head. “I see…” she muttered, “So … I take it we should wait until the sun has set, right?”
“Ayep.” Calamity confirmed, nodding his head, “Ah’d say we wait till it’s dark an’ then sneak inside. No point in runnin' in there an' risking our lives till we know that she’s actually here.”
"Right.” Velvet Remedy agreed slowly, nodding as well, feeling new hope kindling in her heart. “Do … do you think we might actually find her this time?”
“Ah certainly hope so.” Calamity said, looking at his friend, then back at the complex, “Ain’t much else we can do anyway, right?”
The last beams of the afternoon sun were just about to vanish as Velvet awoke from a light slumber with a soft jolt. Alarmed by a sudden noise, her ears perked up, eyes scanning her environment for potential threats. However, she relaxed again as she saw that the source of the noise was nothing but a spritebot flying past her in a fair distance and playing that ever-repeating pre-war music - nothing to be worried about.
Feeling herself relax, Velvet let out a soft sigh and sank back to the ground.
The two had set up a makeshift camp, hidden from the prison's view behind a few rocks, and Calamity had insisted they would try and find some rest before starting their operation, seeing how it could very well turn into an adrenaline-loaded gunfight should their cover blow.
Breathing softly, keeping her half-lidded eyes focused on the cloud-covered sky above her head, Velvet could feel her thoughts drifting off - and an all too tempting feeling crossing her mind: hope.
The wasteland wasn't a place for hopes or dreams - she had known this even before her friend had disappeared. And she remembered all too well the numerous times she had gotten her hopes up during the years that lay behind them, only to watch them going down in flames as the pony they had found had turned out to be anypony but the one they were looking for.
Really, at this point she had a hard time believing that Littlepip was still out there at all. Thinking about all the days, weeks, months, Velvet and her friends had spent searching; searching every last corner of this Celestia-forsaken land.
She lightly raised her head, her look going into the far distance, and could feel herself bristle.
"Where are you, Littlepip?" she whispered softly, feeling sadness overwhelm her once again as her mind drifted into darker places.
What ... what if all their endeavors were meaningless after all? What if Pip had died years ago? Velvet could feel herself tear up as her mind pictured her friend, weakened from an anesthetic Velvet herself had applied, stumbling through the wastes, running into raiders or slavers or ... or hellhounds, or...
Her thoughts were cut short as she could feel another sob breaking loose, tears finally rolling down her cheeks.
"It's all my fault..." she breathed softly, her body trembling as her mind continued to descend into darkness.
What ... what if Littlepip was still alive; what if she knew about her friends searching for her, and was merely hiding from them? How could Velvet Remedy be sure that she would come with them, even if they should end up finding her? And if she was, why ... why didn't she just come back? Didn't she know that Velvet; that Calamity, Homage, SteelHooves, and all her friends were missing her dearly?
Clenching her teeth, fighting back tears, Velvet Remedy looked past the building ahead of them, into the distance, as if she would find her lost friend somewhere in the endless wasteland.
"Littlepip, I..." she whispered softly, her voice quavering, "I'm sorry. If you're out there; if you can hear me, please..." she had to cut herself off, sobbing again, "Please, know that you can come home. Anytime." her vision began to blur as tears once again flooded her eyes, "It's alright." she gasped, struggling to breathe for a second, "Whatever has happened between you and me ... I ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry! ... But ... but it's over now. It's all forgiven. If ... if only you could ... hear me."
Slowly, her words faded away, and she fell silent, looking into the distance with watery eyes for a few moments, before her own feelings overwhelmed her yet again and she dropped her head, sobbing heftily.
"Fuck!" she cussed loudly, frustration and desparation overwhelming her, "Where are you, Pip!?" she shouted into the nothingness, "Why can't you just come home already!?"
"Hey..." she could feel Calamity's reassuring hoof on her shoulder, though it did little to calm her down. "Shush." he said softly, resting his head against hers. "She's alright. Ah promise. We'll find her, and it'll all..." he swallowed, "It'll all be good again."
Slowly, Velvet turned her head to look at her friend and companion. While the look on his face was all too quick to reveal that Calamity wasn't much more hopeful than Velvet herself, it did manage to remind her that sitting here and whining wouldn't make things any better. That, in fact, there was a vanishingly small, but nonetheless existent chance that their friend was being held captive in the institution right in front of them. And that, if that were the case, it was up to them to come and save her. Not tomorrow, not in a week, but right now!
With that resolution in mind, Velvet softly nodded her head, gave a soft "Yes. Yes, of course." before arising to her hooves, a look of new determination spreading across her face as she watched Calamity, who had understood the gesture, arise to his hooves as well, and follow after her.
"Let's go find our friend."
“Somethin’s wrong here.”
Calamity could feel the hairs on his back stand on edge as the two left a narrow hallway and stepped into what must have once been the prison’s entrance hall.
His original plan had been to fly himself and Velvet Remedy over the fence surrounding the complex and enter the main building through the back door – it just seemed like common sense that the back entrance to a slaver’s nest wouldn’t be as heavily guarded as the main entrance.
However, after Velvet Remedy had pointed out that –due to the height of the fence and the positioning of the watchtowers- flying over it would bring them dangerously close to the guards who were still keeping watch from the towers and thus increase their chance to get caught right away.
Instead she had proposed to give the main entrance a try first – after all, it seemed to not be guarded at all, and the main building made for a small but noticeable blind spot, out of the guards’ line of sight.
The two had waited until the sun had set completely, using the cover of darkness to sneak up to the building. Maybe their sneaking-skills had increased noticeably, maybe they just had a lot of Celestia-damned luck, but they had managed to reach the front entrance without being noticed by any of the guards on the towers, and the door had not been guarded at all – the slavers probably saw the guards on the towers as sufficient during nighttime.
However, Calamity had become suspicious when they had arrived at the entrance door: while it was heavy, rusty, and appropriately hard to pry open, both, the doorlock that had been manufactured into the door as well as a heavy padlock that –from what it looked like- had been mounted on the door after the war were unlocked, making it almost too easy for the two to break into the former prison.
Even though -speaking from experience- Calamity had somehow expected to be met with a bullet-storm as they had entered the building, they had seen … nothing. No guards, no slavers, no turrets. It was as if the whole building had been abandoned years ago.
The door had led into a narrow, darkened corridor, leading them through a set of two heavy barred doors that were standing wide open, until it opened into the hall they were standing in right now.
From what it looked like, this might have once been the prison’s visitor center – broken, toppled tables were laying in the corners, a few deserted chairs were standing here and there, and motivational pictures and quotes had been painted on the walls – most of which had been repainted with obscene graffitis by now.
Nowadays it seemed the hall was used as some sort of common area for the slavers, as a set of old sofas and tables with playing cards on them suggested.
However, to their surprise, there was nopony here. Sure, it was nighttime and most of the slavers and slaves probably were asleep by now, but Calamity would have expected some sort of resistance – maybe a night guard, or at least a turret.
But there was nothing. If it hadn’t been for what they had seen earlier this day, he would have thought the place had been abandoned entirely.
A voice in his head had been shouting at him ever since they had set hoof into the building, warning him that this couldn't be a coincidence; that the unlocked door and the complete absence of guards were all signs indicating that him and Velvet were walking right into an ambush set up by the slavers.
The voice of reason in his head was telling him to turn around and bring himself into safety, but he knew that there was no other way: if they wanted to see if Littlepip was among the slaves kept here, they had to get an image of all the slaves, and it was clear that there would be no better chance to do so than now, during the night.
Shaking his head to drown out his reservations, Calamity stopped in the middle of the room and reached into his saddlebag again, this time pulling out a small flashlight that created a small, yellow-ish cone of light and looking around the room, looking for clues on where to start searching.
Velvet Remedy caught up with him a few seconds later, stopping next to him and letting her gaze wander through the room.
Aside from a set of doors that –according to the signs on them- would lead them to the building’s toilets, and another door that –based on the smell coming from its general direction- would lead to the actual toilets, the room didn’t have too much to offer – at least in terms of what they were looking for.
“Where should we start looking?” Velvet whispered after a moment, leaning closer to Calamity so as to cause as little noise as possible. Her look fell onto a metal door at the other side of the room, barely recognizable as such in the twilight the room was in.
“Look.” She whispered, pointing a hoof into the direction of the door, “I think this one leads into the backyard. Maybe the slaves are accomodated in that other building.”
Carrying the flashlight in his mouth, Calamity was unable to speak, but gave a muffled sound of disapproval and shook his head.
Slightly confused, Velvet Remedy turned her head to look at her friend, noticing only now that he had turned around and was pointing his flashlight at a door right next to the one they had come through. A mutilated metal sign on the wall next to it read ‘HOLDING CELLS’ and a thick arrow pointing downwards.
“Oh.” Velvet replied with an intrigued nod of her head, wondering how she could have missed the door when she had been looking around earlier.
“Ah say we check down there first.” Calamity whispered with some difficulties due to the flashlight in his mouth, “Seems like the best bet.”
Velvet just nodded in agreement, not wanting to talk more than necessary.
“Ah’ll go ahead.” Calamity clarified, “Stay close to me.”
Again, Velvet nodded, and the two ponies started walking towards the dark doorframe; the set of stairs that lay behind it led the two one floor below ground, and into a hall at least three times as big as the one above.
“Jackpot.” Calamity would have said if he hadn’t been carrying the flashlight in his mouth. He and Velvet were standing on a balcony that encircled the room's entire upper floor; a set of metal stairs in front of them would lead them to the bottom of the basement, where –in the middle of the room- a hole of about ten yards in diameter had been dug into the ground and covered with a makeshift cage of chainlink fence. A full set of neon lamps, including three big spotlights were fixed to the ceiling, but were all turned off, so that a few rows of emergency lamps on the walls were the only thing saving the hall from complete darkness.
However, neither of the two had eyes for this in that moment: on the level of the balcony they were standing on, as well as on the ground level, the walls were filled with prison cells, all filed with sleeping ponies – most likely slaves.
Calamity and Velvet Remedy turned to face each other with meaningful looks, then nodded almost simultaneously.
“Ah’ll check the lower cells. You stay up here.” Calamity said, storing his flashlight back in his saddlebag now that minimum lightning was provided.
Again, Velvet nodded in agreement, and the two ponies split up, Calamity walking down the stairs, careful, so as to not wake up anyone and maybe trigger an alarm, while Velvet started walking past the holding cells on her level, looking inside to see if the pony they were looking for was among the prisoners.
“She’s not on the upper level.” Velvet Remedy concluded resignedly as she approached Calamity from behind. The pegasus was standing in front of one of the lower holding cells like petrified, looking inside with a deadpan look.
“Have you found her?” Velvet asked with just a touch of new hope in her voice.
Slowly, reluctantly, Calamity shook his head, and his eyes trailed off to the ground. Slightly confused, Velvet now looked into the cell as well – and could feel her shoulders sink.
Laying on a metal plank bed that was lined with the smallest bit of moldy hay was a short mare. A short unicorn mare. A short unicorn mare with a device on her foreleg that –without a doubt- was a PipBuck.
Only that it wasn’t Littlepip.
The mare’s features seemed completely different to those from their friend – her body was a little more buff, her mane and fur had entirely different colors, and her cutie mark –barely visible in the nightly twilight- was a picture of a rusty cog wheel instead of a PipBuck.
Velvet Remedy could feel herself sink to her haunches as the integrity of things caught up with her, and she tasted bile in the back of her throat: another failure; another opportunity gone bust.
She could hear Calamity growling next to her. “It’s not her.” He hissed, “It’s not her!” In his anger, he shouted out a curse, giving the cell door a strong blow with his off. “Fuck!”
“Careful.” Velvet warned him. While she could understand his frustration –she was no less frustrated after all- she also knew that they were still intruding somewhere and thus had to keep their noise level reduced to a minimum. “Somepony might hear us.”
As if by command, the mare on the plank bed let out a muffled groan, before slowly lifting her head. “W-what?” she asked with half-open eyes, “Who are you?”
“Damnit!” Calamity cussed, ignoring her and turning away from the cell, “Damnit! Ah was sure we had her this time!” he gave the ground a hard stomp in frustration, "Three years! Three fucking years, and we're still clueless! Shit!"
“Calamity please!” Velvet begged, making sure to keep her voice low, “If we keep making noise, we will get caught! I know that you’re disappointed, but we can’t-“
Suddenly, with a click, followed by a soft whirr, the lamps on the ceiling came to life. The formerly dusky hall now was completely enlightened, and the spotlights, focused on Calamity and Velvet Remedy, left the two as exposed as a deer in the headlights.
Simultaneously, their heads shot up, and just as simultaneously, their jaws dropped.
The entire balcony on the upper level was filled with at least two dozen ponies – slavers, most certainly. Weapons ready and pointed at the intruders, mouths grinning with wicked smiles, eyes looking the two over with gazes like those of hungry predators, they were standing there, ready to shoot the two to pieces at a moment's notice.
Taking in a deep breath and suppressing a curse, Calamity focused, trying to come up with a way out.
To his surprise, the slavers hadn’t started shooting yet. For now they were just standing still, eyeing them with smug glares. They knew about their superiority, and wanted to let them know it too.
Slowly, Calamity leaned over to Velvet who was looking at the armed ponies like petrified.
“On the count of three, we’ll run over to the stairs and seek cover behind ‘em. You go ahead, Ah’ll cover you.” He muttered into her direction.
The charcoal unicorn replied nothing, seemingly unable to look away from the hordes of ponies above their heads.
“Understood?” Calamity asked carefully.
While she still seemed to have some trouble moving, Velvet slowly nodded her head, her eyes finally leaving the slavers and drifting over to the set of stairs.
“Alright then.” Calamity said, drawing in a long breath, “One…”
Slowly, reluctantly, Velvet turned around to face the stairs, tensing her legs.
“Two…”
Calamity grabbed the mouthpiece of his battle saddle, eyeing the mass of enemies. He would have to seek out and take down the ones with assault rifles first, as those would pose a bigger immediate threat than those equipped with shotguns and combat knives.
Having his eyes locked on his first set of targets, he lowered his body into a crouch, tensing each and every muscles in his body to the maximum.
“Three!”
...
Nothing.
It took Calamity’s mind less than a second to figure out what was going on, but even that second felt like a whole eternity to him. The whole world seemed to stand still: Velvet wasn’t running; the slavers weren’t shooting - he was doing neither.
He couldn’t move. Not by an inch. The slavers above them were laughing at their misery, cheering in delight, but –thank Celestia- not shooting them.
It was by then that Calamity noticed an aura of green magic around his and Velvet Remedy’s body. Seconds later he felt himself torn away from the ground and up into the air, leaving him hovering several feet above the ground.
He felt his heart pound, the sensation of flying without using his wings something he had never experienced before, and the instinct to struggle and break himself free from whatever was holding him in place overwhelming every other thought.
But the magic aura around him didn’t give in, and he could have sworn that the more he struggled against it, the tighter it would get, only adding to his primal rage and frustration.
From the corner of his eye, he saw that Velvet Remedy had suffered the same fate, her eyes wide with shock as she floated mid-air next to him, unable to move as well as she was engulfed by the magic green aura.
Once again, nothing happened; the world seemed to stand still for just a moment, then a voice cut through the room, drowning out the laughter of the slavers who altogether silenced abruptly.
“Well, what do we have here?” Calamity’s ears perked up as he heard the voice – that is, they would have, if he had been able to move.
This voice, it sounded familiar. Awfully familiar.
The raiders on the top end of the stairs stepped aside, and past them walked a single pony – the leader of the pack, based on the serious, respectful looks on the slavers' faces.
The pony slowly walked towards the stairs, then stopped, lifted her head, and looked at the two immobilized ponies; a grin crept onto her face.
Calamity was sure, even with the magic aura still holding his body in place, his jaw dropped by at least two inches as he saw her.
Velvet Remedy’s heart must have stopped as she saw her.
Littlepip!
She was here! They had finally found her! Their friend was back!
These were the thoughts shooting through her head in the first couple of seconds. But her optimism was short-lived: after keeping her look focussed on the pony for a few more seconds, she could feel her heart sink again.
No, this wasn’t Littlepip.
That is ... she was still wearing a PipBuck that looked awfully smilar to the model her friend had, but this ... this mare was dressed in heavy raider armor; her mane was militarily short, unkempt and done in a steep sidecut, and her eyes were cold, showing no signs of the fire and the determination she had seen in those of her friend.
Besides, looking at the integrity of things, it was clear that this mare could not be Littlepip: obviously, she was working with the slavers that had ambushed them! And looking at her brightly gleaming horn, it was her who was holding Velvet Remedy and Calamity in place.
But who was this mare, then? Her eyes, her mane, and those parts of her fur that weren’t covered by her armor did make her look like a perfect copy of Littlepip, and even in height she did come amazingly close to their friend.
A distant relative, maybe? A long-lost twin? Or a clone?
Velvet Remedy had to admit that none of these possibilities sounded particularly likely, but anything else would mean…
“Intruders, huh?” Velvet didn’t have time to finish that thought, as the pony spoke up again. Her words sent a shiver through Velvet’s body: even her voice sounded exactly like that of their friend.
Slowly, as if she were enjoying every step, the slaver mare walked down the stairs, her look constantly focused on the two ponies floating above her head; a group of slavers followed shortly after her, weapons at the ready.
“You sure look familiar…” she said, eyeing the two closely, “I could swear I had friends like you once.” she paused for a second, then her eyes narrowed and her features hardened, “Until they betrayed me!” she snarled; the magic aura around her horn vanished, and her two captives fell to the ground. Calamity, his instincts kicking in in the nick of time, was able to spread his wings and soften his fall at least a little bit, but Velvet Remedy crashed into the ground at full speed, letting out a pained groan as she struggled to get to her hooves.
“Velvet!” Calamity shouted appalled and wanted to run over to her, but was stopped as the green aura came to life again, holding the two ponies in place.
Littlepip walked over to Calamity and looked at him for a long moment, seeming to contemplate something, but then shook her head, turned her head towards the slavers behind her and said, “Get him out of my sight.”
Promptly, four slavers –three stallions and a mare- stepped from behind their leader and walked towards the still immobilized Calamity. The pegasus’ eyes widened and he prepared to fight as soon as Littlepip would release him from her magic, but he was hit with a wave of disillusionment as one of the slavers pulled out a syringe with a reddish fluid in it, and he could only watch helplessly as they walked up to him and rammed it into his shoulder.
It must have hit a vein, as the effects were immediate: within a few seconds, Calamity could feel his eyelids getting heavier, his legs getting weaker, and despite his fierce determination to resist whatever the slavers had in mind for him, he collapsed to the floor as the magic aura holding him in place vanished just a few seconds later, his eyes failing him as they drifted close and he lost consciousness.
Velvet Remedy could feel her heart in her mouth as she saw the body of her friend hitting the floor, before being picked up and carried away by the group of slavers. Her eyes were wide, breathing stifled. She didn’t remember when she had last felt this furious; maybe never. Even though her body still wasn’t moving and she could barely blink, she swore these ponies would pay for this! She would … she would break free and make them-
Her thoughts came to a halt as the leader of the slavers now walked up to her. Her eyes were cold and as emotionless as before, but the cold grin on her face didn’t bode well.
She stopped in front of Velvet who was still sitting on the ground, and looked her over.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” she said calmly, never breaking eye contact with Velvet Remedy, “Last time I saw you you were pointing a gun at me.”
Velvet’s breath caught in her throat as Littlepip’s horn glowed a little brighter and a revolver came flying from a holster on her flank, floating in front of Velvet Remedy’s face with its barrel pointing right between her eyes.
“Funny how tables can turn, right?”
Like petrified, Velvet looked past the revolver and at Littlepip, eyes wide in shock and sheer disbelief.
But Littlepip seemed unaffected, staring right back at Velvet with a cold glare and the weakest of smiles on her face. "What?" she asked casually, "Don't say you weren't expecting something like this." the gun floated closer to Velvet's face, its cold metal barrel now pressing against her forehead.
"What goes around, comes around, right?" Littlepip said with an almost innocent shrug, "You shoot me..." The revolver gave a soft click as its hammer was slid back; Velvet Remedy could feel her skin creep, her mind going heads over heels, trying to digest what was going on, but only descending into chaos.
"And I'll shoot you." Littlepip concluded with a grin.
With horror, Velvet watched how slowly, Littlepip's magic pulled the gun's trigger back. Seeing her life rush past her inner eye, she gave one last pleading stare at the pony she had used to call her friend, before she drew in a short breath and closed her eyes, expecting to meet her maker.
*click*
"But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?" Littlepip said with a chuckle, pulling the unloaded revolver away from Velvet Remedy's face and throwing it into a corner of the room. "And if the wasteland must have taught you one thing, it's that things are never easy, right?" she continued; her voice sounded almost friendly now.
And with that, she dropped her magic field around Velvet's body, causing the charcoal unicorn to fall onto her back with a breathless gasp, both out of relief and exasperation.
"No." Littlepip said with a shake of her head, "Since you went out of your way to sneak in here..." she paused for a second, her thoughts seeming to trail off, "And by the way, next time you're planning an infiltration..." she lifted her foreleg, typing something into her pipbuck.
"So … I take it we should wait until the sun has set, right?" Velvet heard her own voice coming from the device's speaker.
"Ayep. Ah’d say we wait till it’s dark an’ then sneak inside. No point in runnin' in there an' risking our lives till we know that she’s actually here.”
"Check your surroundings." Littlepip said sternly, her voice seeming almost annoyed, "Watcher isn't the only one who can hack into spritebots, you know. We have surveillance around the entire area. Nopony enters or leaves without my knowledge."
She shook her head, "Anyway, since you went out of your way to sneak in here, I think it'd only be fair to let you stay for a while." she announced with a malicious grin.
Velvet wanted to say something, but was too absorbed in her thoughts to bring out a word; all this was way too much for her!
"And," Littlepip continued, her face lightening up noticeably as she walked over to Velvet who was still laying on the ground, positioning herself over the bigger unicorn like a lion about to kill its prey with a bite to the neck, "I even have a welcome present for you!" Again, her horn lit up, and she floated something out of a pouch on her flank. Velvet was both, surprised and horrified to recognize it as a needle gun. Taking a closer look at it, she realized: it looked exactly like...
"You left this with me in Tenpony Tower." Littlepip explained coldly, "After you shot me!" her head shot forward, her face stopping mere inches away from that of Velvet, her eyes wide and teeth clenched in anger.
The shorter unicorn remained like this for a few seconds, before her mouth formed into a grin and she -just loud enough for her and Velvet to hear- slowly whispered, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment."
Engulfed by Littlepip's magic, the needle gun floated between the two, resting just more than an inch above Velvet Remedy's chest which was heaving in accordance with her horrified, ragged breathing.
With pure delight, as if she were savoring every single word, Littlepip bit her lip, then said, "Eat this, cunt."
Thwap!
Eyes torn open, mouth opened wide for a scream that never came, Velvet Remedy could feel the needle pierce her skin, and the poisoned dart do its job: within seconds, she could feel herself losing consciousness, and her mind drifting away from this world.
As her mind went fuzzy and her eyes began to drift shut, she could hear Littlepip growl in anger, the needle gun trembling in her magical grip.
Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!
Another three shots broke loose from the gun; only one found its target in one of Velvet's legs, the two others missed.
Thwap! Thwap!Thwap! Thwap!Thwap!
Chapter 2
"Velvet! Velvet, can ya hear me!?" Calamity gasped, grabbing Velvet Remedy's limp body by her shoulders and shaking her gently. He let out a sigh of relief as her eyes slowly fluttered open, and she awoke with a gasp, her head shooting up.
"What?" she panted breathlessly, her head shooting around, her wide eyes searching her environment, "Ca-Calamity?" she asked as her eyes settled on the rust-colored pegasus, "Where are we?
"In one of the prison-cells." Calamity replied sourly, offering his friend a hoof to help her up. "Ah woke up in here earlier, then some of them slavers came and threw you in here too." With a serious look, he asked, "Are you alright?"
Slowly, not completely over her anesthesia yet, Velvet nodded her head. "Yes. Yes, I'm okay." Her look went around their small cell, her eyes resting on the metal plank bed and the small jar that -based on its smell- served as a makeshift toilet for just a second before she spotted the wall of bars that offered her a good view of the very same hall in which she had passed out in earlier; she was indeed sitting in one of the correctional facility's prison cells on the upper level.
A shudder ran through her spine, and Velvet closed her eyes, her heart seeming to sink with every bit of memory she recalled. How they had been caught, trapped, and ultimately captured by none other than...
Feeling like she was about to choke, Velvet opened her eyes again, her glassy look staring at the spot where she had ... encountered one of her best friends not too long ago, and her mind going head over heels searching for ways to explain all this without having to accept the painful, but equally obvious truth.
Calamity could see his friend's eyes glaze over as she stared through the bars, drawing in a sharp breath as she seemed to recall what had happened earlier; her lips began to tremble.
"This ... this isn't happening." She murmured, her head slowly turning towards Calamity, her wide eyes tearing up, "This isn't happening, right? We're not ... Littlepip, she's ... she's not ... not..." Velvet swallowed, shuddering, "This is all just a bad dream, right?"
Calamity replied nothing, just giving his shivering friend a pitying look.
"Right?" Velvet Remedy asked again, her voice getting more desperate by the second, "That ... that mare..." she lifted a hoof, pointing into the courtyard-like ground level of the hall where the two had been ambushed earlier. "That wasn't Littlepip, right? That was ... a doppelganger, right? There's no way Littlepip could-" she cut herself off as Calamity remained silent. "None of this is actually happening, right?" she started another attempt, her voice clearer this time.
"Calamity!" Velvet said, stepping closer to the pegasus; her voice was weak; desperate, "Tell me." she said curtly, "Please, tell me!"
"Velvet..." Calamity said carefully, "Ah need you to stay-"
"It is real, isn't it?" Velvet said with quavering voice, looking at Calamity who bit his lip, giving her a helpless look, apparently not quite sure what to make of their situation either.
The charcoal unicorn took in a shaky breath, then turned around again, looking through the bars of their cell doors. She thought of the last time she had seen her friend before she had disappeared, then thought of what Littlepip had said earlier before paralyzing Velvet with the needle gun, and slowly but steadily, a painful realization entered her mind, and she could feel her heart sink.
For a long moment, the room was silent, Velvet's jagged breathing being the only thing that filled the room. Then, after a moment, she whispered, "It's my fault." she concluded curtly, "It's ... my ... fault."
"Hey, now that ain't true." Calamity said, walking up to her from behind and laying a comforting wing on her back, "Ah dunno what's happened to Pip that made her..." he cringed, "Like this, but it ain't your fault." he said determined.
"Don't you get it!?" Velvet's head shot around, her eyes, wet with tears were looking at him angrily, "I shot her! She said it herself! She thinks we've betrayed her, with me leading the way!" Her voice broke and she looked away, her tears running freely now. "It's my fault!" she shouted, ramming her head against the barred door.
"Careful Velvet!" Calamity shouted appalled, pulling her head back, "Ya might set it off!"
That made Velvet hesitate. "Set what off?" she asked, giving her friend a confused look. For the first time since she had woken up, she actually took a closer look at his body - and let out a gasp. She wasn't surprised to see that his battle saddle and saddlebag had been removed, but what had caught her eye was the collar around his neck: it was pitch black, about two inches thick, and had a small red button on one side - Velvet didn't need to look at it twice to figure out what would happen if that button were ever pressed.
Her friend was wearing a bomb collar.
Slowly, as if by instinct, she raised her hoof, leading it up to her neck where it touched the cold metal of a bomb collar of her own, and suddenly the once so distraught and panicking mare became very, very quiet. Swallowing, her hoof never leaving her collar, she sank to the ground, her back resting against the wall of bars, her glassy eyes casting an empty gaze at the opposite wall.
"Velvet..." Calamity said softly, walking over to the softly breathing mare and putting his hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll find a way out." But the charcoal unicorn still didn't react in the slightest, "And Ah promise we'll find out what's wrong with Li'lpip an' find a way to..." he paused, searching for the right term, but couldn't find one. "Cure her, Ah guess."
Velvet Remedy, who had lowered her hoof by now, letting it loosely hang from her side instead, took a long moment to breathe in, then breathed out again. "Just..." she breathed softly, her head slowly turning towards her companion, "How stupid are you!?" she snarled, getting back to her hooves in an instant, "Can't you see it?" she asked angrily, "It's me!" she almost shouted, tapping her hoof against her chest, "She's mad at me, not you! Because I shot her! Not you!"
Calamity said nothing for a second, wanting to argue that it was him who had shot -and almost killed- Littlepip way before Velvet, but thought better of it and instead said, "Y'know, she brought me here, too. Didn't seem like she's any more fond of me than of you."
"You didn't see her the way I did, Calamity." Velvet explained, slowly calming again, "When you were..." she cringed at the memory, "gone, she kept me with her for a while." A shudder ran through her body, "She threatened me, pretended to shoot me - and she did it with passion. I could see her enjoy it!" she explained with horror in her voice. "From the way she acted, she must hate me! Something must have-"
"For fuck's sake it's three in the morning, just shut it already!" the angry voice of a stallion made her silence abruptly, and their heads turned almost simultaneously. A short but sturdy earth pony stallion in the adjacent prison cell whose coat was either a bright gray or a dark white was giving them an annoyed look through the bars that separated their domiciles, "There are ponies here who are trying to get some rest!"
Like petrified, Calamity and Velvet Remedy stared back through the bars, looking at the stallion with wide eyes, neither of them having expected this sudden interruption.
"S-sorry." Velvet Remedy breathed after a moment - more out of good manners than anything else, "We ... didn't mean to disturb you."
With a grunt, the stallion rolled his eyes and was already turning away again, but then stopped in his movement, turned back and looked at Velvet again with a curious glance. "Wait a second," he said, lifting an eyebrow, "aren't cha that ... Velvet Remedy-gal?"
Slightly confused, Velvet nodded and opened her mouth, but before she could bring out a word, Calamity took an assertive step forward and asked, "What do you care, huh?"
The buck glowered at the pegasus, then snorted and asked, "No-one's asked you, featherbrain."
Ignoring the angry glare Calamity shot him, he then focused on Velvet again, and a malicious grin grew on his face as he looked her over. "It really is you..." he muttered; his look went back to her face and he began to chuckle softly.
Lifting an eyebrow, Velvet shot Calamity a confused glance, but his attention was still focused on the stallion, staring daggers at the gray earth pony.
"Oh boy..." their cell neighbor said, shaking his head, his eyes never leaving Velvet, though the maliciousness in them had given way to something that looked like pity. "I wouldn't wanna be in your horseshoes, girl."
"What?" Velvet Remedy asked with growing confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Yeah, yer just as much a prisoner as us." Calamity pointed out, pointing a hoof at the slave collar around their neighbor's neck, "We're in the same boat, y'know."
That gained another chuckle from the buck. "Oh no." he said, shaking his head, "You see, I'm trapped here, yes, but unlike you..." he paused for effect, casting a meaningful look at Velvet, "My name ain't on the death list of the mare running this place."
That made Velvet flinch. She still had some hopes left that, somehow, this had all been a big misunderstanding and Littlepip wasn't ... like she had been after all, but she couldn't deny that the stallion's words had stung in her heart.
Seeming to notice her reaction, the stallion gave a dry laugh. "Hurts, doesn't it?" He asked with a partly sympathetic, partly bemused grin, "From what she's told me you two must have been close friends at some point. She's been chasing after you for the better half of her life, always looked up to you as the voice of reason and peace. Hell, she would've caught a bullet for you without hestiating." With a knowing grin, he added, "And then you stabbed her in the back."
Again, Velvet flinched, more intense this time. She tried to not think about the things this random, unimportant slave was throwing at her, but at the same time couldn't deny that it all sounded so painfully true.
"Hey, now that just ain't right!" Calamity stepped in, stomping his hoof in anger.
"Yes it is." a fourth voice chimed in. Contrary to the heated argument going on between the three inmates, this voice was completely calm, and disturbingly sober.
Almost simultaneously, the three ponies' heads turned around to look at the new dialog partner: standing at the other side of the bars, still dressed in her black raider armor, was the leader of the slavers - Littlepip.
"You betrayed me." she said calmly, casting an icecold glare at Velvet Remedy, "I turn my back to you for one second," she lifted a single hoof as if to underline her statement, "And you shoot me in the fucking back!" she hissed.
"Littlepip..." Velvet forced out; she was shivering, tears in her eyes as her look rested on her former friend, and she started blaming herself again, "I ... We ... we wanted to help you! You were-"
"Help me!?" the short unicorn exclaimed, her eyes wide in legitimate indignation, "What, by shooting me in the back!?"
"Your addiction was getting the better of you!" Velvet defended herself, stomping her hoof. "I stunned you with the needle gun so that we could bring you to Doctor Helpinghoof - to get you cured."
Littlepip's eyes narrowed as she stared at Velvet for a second, seeming to contemplate the story. Then she shook her head, and clenched her teeth. "No!" she shouted, her head shooting forward to rest mere inches from the bars that were separating the two, ponies, "You're not talking yourself out of this! You betrayed me! All of you!" her look shot over to Calamity. Realizing that he had Littlepip's attention, he opened his mouth to protest, but was cut short. "Don't try to play it down!" she growled, pointing a threatening hoof at the pegasus, "I know you were involved in this! All of you! All of you conspired against me!"
She took in a quick breath, her eyes widening. Her body tensed up, seeming unable to express the emotions boiling up inside her. "I trusted you! I trusted you blindly!" she shouted, her voice constantly increasing in volume and pitch, "For fuck's sake, you were the closest thing to a family I've ever had, and then you all just ... turned your back on me! I believed in you, and you just..." Her voice broke, and she hastily turned away, as if to hide the tears in her eyes.
A few moments of silence passed, the muffled sounds of Littlepip catching her breath being the only thing audible over the nightly ambience.
"Pip..." Calamity carefully spoke up, stepping next to Velvet and putting a comforting wing on her shivering body, "Ah think we should-"
"No." Littlepip replied curtly. Her voice was calm again now; hoarse, and so faint it was barely audible, but calm. "Enough of that."
She sighed deeply, then shook her head and turned around again. "Look..." she started over, looking the two over with a sober glance, "I don't know why you came here, but I don't want you - neither here, nor anywhere else. By all means, I'm through with you."
For a moment, Velvet felt tempted to ask if that meant that her and Calamity would be released without further ado, but quickly dropped that thought - one way or another, they wouldn't leave without Littlepip.
"So yer jus' throwin' us out?" Calamity asked, seeming to have thought of the same thing.
A smirk crossed Littlepip's face for a second, but she shook her head, "No." she said, seeming slightly amused about the question, "You'll stay right here - for now, at least." she added with an ominous grin, "As little as I care about you as ponies, you still had the audacity to sneak in here, and the stupidity to get yourself caught in the process, so you're effectively prisoners now - slaves, if you will."
Before Velvet Remedy or Calamity could reply something, her face lightened up and she continued, "But I'll tell you what." she announced with a treacherous smile, "There's a way to gain your freedom - instantly. One little thing, and you'll both be free ponies again."
She paused, leaving her prisoners no other choice but to inquire further.
"What?" Velvet Remedy asked reluctantly after a moment of silence.
The smile on Littlepip's face broadened into a toothy grin. Her horn lit up, her magic pulling something from a pouch on her right flank.
"You and me..." Velvet couldn't contain a sound of discomfort as the combat knife floated over to her, hovering right in front of her face, its cold tip touching the tip of her muzzle ever so gently. "Down in the pit. In direct combat. One on one - no magic, no guns." Littlepip explained with anticipation, letting the knife move in circles in front of Velvet's face, "You win, and you'll both be free to go wherever you want." she paused, a sly grin appearing on her face, "I win and..." the knife floated away from Velvet Remedy and back to Littlepip who gave the jagged blade a passionate, slow lick before lowering it and saying, "Well, you'll see."
"So?" she then asked, lowering the knife and letting its sharpened tip scratch the concrete ground, "What do you say?"
Neither of the two replied. Staring at her former friend with wide eyes, partly in shock, partly in disbelief, Velvet Remedy was dumbfounded for a moment, before she could bring up the power to slowly shake her head. "You ... you can't be serious!" she whispered unbelievingly.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Littlepip asked dryly, and suddenly the expression on her face turned dead-serious, "You want to get out of here? Come and fight for it, bitch."
Another moment of silence followed.
"No." Velvet Remedy finally declared. Her voice was determined - neither angry, nor desperate, but filled with a resolute clarity. "I don't know what has gotten into you that made you believe we would have betrayed you, but you still are my friend." she said emphatically, stomping a hoof to drive home her point, "And I do not fight against my friends."
Velvet didn't know what sort of reply she was expecting from Littlepip. Disappointment, maybe. Anger, because Velvet refused to play along in whatever game Littlepip appeared to be playing with them. She couldn't deny that she was a little disappointed, not to say disillusioned, when all that came from their captor in return was a light shrug and a light-hearted, "Okay."
She turned away, giving the two a grin over her shoulder, "Your choice, right?"
And with that, she started walking away from their cell, but then stopped as her look fell into the neighboring cell, and her face darkened. "What are you looking at, huh?" she snarled at Velvet and Calamity's cell neighbor who apparently had watched the whole scene.
The stallion stood up to his mistresses look and said nothing, just grinning back at her like if he knew something Littlepip didn't.
"Don't try to fuck with me, Cinderblock." she hissed menacingly, "The pit isn't far away."
The stallion -apparently named Cinderblock- seemed completely unaffected by her threats. Smirking, he returned Littlepip's stare and said, "You think I wouldn't survive a third time?" he grinned, baring his yellowed teeth, "I thought after all those years you'd know me well enough to know that - Pipsqueak."
Even in the dim light of the hall's emergency lightning, Velvet could see Littlepip's face assume a light shade of red at the mention of her full name, and she could hear the short unicorn grind her teeth as she stared at Cinderblock with narrowed eyes. Her horn lit up, and with the speed of a startled radroach, her combat knife was torn from her flank and launched into the direction of the stallion. Though, as if he had seen the attack coming, Cinderblock swung his head to the side in the nick of time, causing the knife to fly past his temple, missing it by a mere inch, and fall to the floor of his cell with a clatter. "Old trick." he said with a grin, took a step towards the knife lying on the floor and kicked it back to Littlepip who picked it up with her magic and stored it back in the sheath on her back with a grunt.
She remained in front of the cell for another moment, looking at Cinderblock. Then, with a quick look back at Velvet and Calamity's cell, she said, "Get your ass into bed; you're gonna be on early shift tomorrow. And Celestia help me if you don't meet the quota because you're tired."
And with that, she turned around again, and walked away, disappearing in the hall's nightly twilight moments later.
Cinderblock, calm as ever despite the assault on his life mere moments ago, looked after her for a moment, before turning around and walking back to his cot.
However, he stopped halfway as he noticed two sets of eyes looking at him and giving him questioning looks from the cell nextdoor.
"What in tarnation was that?" Calamity asked the question both he and Velvet were wondering about, "Ya know Pip?" after a second of contemplation, he added, "Like this, anyway."
Cinderblock looked at the Pegasus with a glare that made it clear just how little he wanted to answer questions like this in the middle of the night, but then made a face and curtly replied, "I've known her for a while now. Probably even longer than you, pegasus."
Calamity opened his mouth to argue, but was cut short by Cinderblock who, having expected this reaction, gave him a dismissive look and said, "Don't waste your breath; I'm not your nanny. You want explanations, go and bother someone else."
With that he stopped next to his bed, slumped into it, and closed his eyes with a satisfied grunt.
"One more thing, if you please..." Velvet Remedy asked softly, making an effort to make her voice sound as meek and dear as possible so as not to upset their new neighbor.
Cinderblock let out an annoyed growl, but to Velvet's surprise opened one of his eyes, focussing the charcoal unicorn with an angry glare, but allowed her to continue.
"What is that ... pit Littlepip mentioned earlier?" Velvet asked carefully, "Is it ... some sort of..."
The gray buck sighed deeply, rolling his eyes, but then said, "That hole in the middle of the hall - with the barbwire around it." he didn't lift his head while speaking, making his voice sound muffled and hard to understand, "That's the pit. Ponies are put in there to fight - to the death. Breakaways, rebels, the underachievers - all that scum is sent in there once a week to beat the shit out of each other til only one of 'em remains."
"Underachievers?" Velvet inquired hesitantly, feeling a sensation of sickness in the back of her throat.
Finally, albeit reluctantly, Cinderblock sat up on his bed, allowing him to speak a lot easier. "Everypony in here is a slave." he soberly explained the obvious, "We're forced to work, either tilling the fields or scavenging the area around for food. Every slave is working for themselves, and the yield they're bringing home at the end of the day decides about what they're worth." Velvet swore she saw a ting of pain in his look as he added, "And at the end of every week those two with the least revenue are thrown into the pit..." he paused, swallowing, "And have to fight until only one of them is left."
"That's just horrible!" Velvet exclaimed, placing a hoof in front of her mouth.
"It's a horrible world we're living in." Cinderblock countered dryly, "Does a great job at keeping the morale up, though." he added, but then, as if he regretted saying that last part, closed his eyes, shook his head, and laid back down on his bed with a sigh, turning around so that his face was pointing away from his neighbors.
"Sleep now." he grumbled deeply, "You'll need it tomorrow."
Chapter 3
“How did this happen? What have I done?
I was only trying to help, but I caused so much pain.
I wish I could hide. Wish I could run.
I wish I could find a way to do it all over again...”
The song played in her head, over and over again. It occured to her only now just how terribly, awfully fitting the song lyrics seemed to describe her current situation. It had all begun with her trying to help one of her closest friends cure her addiction. She had acted with a pure heart and with only the best intentions, but now...
She cringed, suppressing the urge to scratch a spot on her neck where her bomb collar had chafed her fur and skin.
Now she was a slave. A prisoner, held captive by her own friend.
While she must have heard it at least a dozen times on occasion, she felt like she was only now starting to fully feel with the singer.
But more importantly, aside from the surprisingly fitting lyrics, hearing the song play in her mind gave her a chance to mentally escape this misery she was in. It reminded her of past times; of travelling through the wasteland, along with Calamity, SteelHooves and...
The thought caused her to cringe again and stop for a moment, her hooves sinking into the soft, muddy soil underneath them. Slowly, wary of what she expected to see, she raised her head, looking up.
It was raining. Temperatures were low, and the icy rain didn't make her feel any warmer. The water pouring into her face blurred her vision, but despite that she could see her all too clearly.
The small, second building she had spotted the day before had a small balcony on one side, overlooking the backyard with the fields she had seen the slaves working on - and where she, now, was working as well. Standing on that balcony was Littlepip.
She had come out the building about ten minutes ago, and since then hadn't moved by an inch. Seeming unaffected by the chilly temperatures and the drizzling rain, she stood there, looking down at the mass of slaves. Unlike the night before, she seemed completely calm. Her face was almost expressionless; Velvet couldn't tell exactly from the distance, but it almsot seemed like she was ... Velvet leaned forward, narrowing her eyes ... was that a frown on her face? She took a step forward, blinking from the rain flooding her eyes. That look on her face ... was she sad? Downcast? Maybe even regretful?
Velvet could feel her heart beat just a little faster as a thought crossed her mind: could it be that -despite the overwhelming odds- her old friend was having regrets? Had she maybe thought about what Velvet had told her the night before and now was beginning to feel like she had made a horrible mistake?
Lost in her thoughts, Velvet Remedy hadn't noticed how Littlepip's eyes, having rested on the crowd of slaves before, had wandered and were now resting on the charcoal unicorn herself. It took Velvet a few seconds to notice the eye-contact, but when she did, she flinched noticeably. Upon spotting her in the crowd, Littlepip's eyes had narrowed, and the expression on her face had turned from regret to disdain in less than a second.
"Hey, you!" the rough voice of a mare hit Velvet and made her look around. A dark yellow mare in black slaver barding standing beside the field she was on pointed a threatening hoof at Velvet, "I didn't tell you to stop! Get on with it!"
Velvet stayed where she was. All her life she had never been in the position to receive commands or orders, so listening to these, let alone obeying them, was something she was far from used to. Her look went back up to the balcony, and she couldn't deny that she felt a pang of disappointment as she saw Littlepip slowly shake her head and turn away, walking back into the building.
"Do I look like I'm joking!?" The slaver mare shouted again, reaching for a pouch tied to her foreleg and pulling out a long, black whip. The sight of the 'motivation'-tool made her heart sink, reminding her of the times she had spent alongside the group of slavers, way before she had met Littlepip, and she swore she could hear the screams of those poor souls being whipped into an almost unconscious state every now and then.
More out of instinct than anything else, Velvet hastily nodded, turned her head back, and got back to work. She herself had been lucky to never get in contact with a whip, and she would like to avoid it in the future as well.
Her task was -as the same misgruntled slaver mare who had just threatened her had explained this morning- to pick the carrots that were grown on the field she was on. The big plastic box strapped onto her back was where she was supposed to store the carrots, and -as she had been told- at the end of the day, the box would be weighed and she would be told how she had performed compared to her fellow slaves, which would ultimately decide about whether or not she would have an appointment in the pit by the end of the week.
Coming to think of it, Velvet was surprised she could still remember her instructions this clearly.
Truth be told, ever since she and Calamity had entered the correctional facility yesterday, her feelings and emotions had been on a constant roller coaster ride - happines, because she finally knew where Littlepip was; that she was alive and safe. Shock, horror and disbelief because of everything Littlepip had told her. And above all, self-loathing because, even without her friend reminding her of it, Velvet knew that, ultimately, it all came down to being her fault.
If she had been a little more patient with her friend, she might have convinced her to get her addiction treated herself; if she had been a little more assertive with the Tenpony Tower guards, she might have talked them into letting her go, allowing her to bring Littlepip to Doctor Helpinghoof in time; and if she had been a little more persistent with searching for Littlepip shortly after she had disappeared, she might have found her sooner, and stopped her from turning into ... this.
At least since their encounter last night, she had realized that she had to face the truth; that the mare holding her and Calamity captive was indeed Littlepip and not some evil twin; that Littlepip was indeed fully conscious, and had not fallen victim to some sort of brainwash. And of course, that her fully conscious and sane friend seemed to hate her more than anything else in this world.
However, that look she had seen on her friend's face earlier gave her something; a last bit of hope to cling on to. As unlikely as it sounded, she still hadn't given up on the thought that, maybe, this might have all been a misunderstanding; that maybe Littlepip would realize that all this time Velvet and Calamity had wanted nothing but the best for her, and maybe, just maybe come to her senses and end all this.
It were these thoughts running through her mind that helped her keep her head up high ... and it were these thoughts that distracted her enough to not look ahead of herself and bump right into somepony else.
"Oh!" she gasped, taking a step back, then losing her balance as her hooves sunk into the soaked ground, and falling back onto her haunches with a soft shriek; the plastic box and the carrots in it joined her on the ground shortly after.
"S-sorry." The apology was on her lips - again, it were the manners she had taken to back in Stable Two giving her this unconditional politeness. However, her apology died on her tongue as she saw who she had bumped into. Sitting on the field opposite to her was a light brown mare. No, not a mare, more an adolescent filly; a young mare at best. She already had her cutie mark -a dead tree; whatever that meant for her destiny- and looked about half Velvet's age. Just like Velvet, she was wearing a slave collar, and looking at her malnourished body and white mane that was falling out in several spots, it became clear that she had been a slave for a long time - all her life, possibly.
Velvet started another attempt to apologize, but was cut short as the filly looked up to her, then snarled, "Hey! Why don't you watch where you're going?"
"I ... I'm sorry." Velvet stuttered an excuse, the realization that her friend wouldn't even back off from using foals as slaves hitting her hard.
The filly looked at her for a moment, before her look shot over to the slaver overseeing the field. Noticing that she wasn't looking, the slave then jumped to her hooves, rushed to pick up the box she had been carrying before bumping into Velvet. Moving swiftly, she then proceeded to pick up its spilled content -a few bushels of meager raddishes- as well, then ran over to Velvet, picking up the half dozen carrots she had harvested so far and throwing them into her own box as well.
It wasn't until the filly was almost done that Velvet realized just what she was doing: she was stealing her carrots!
"Hey!" she shouted in dismay, quickly reaching out a hoof which the filly dodged with practiced ease. Instinctively, the charcoal unicorn wanted to reach out with her magic to hold the filly in place, but quickly received a harsh reminder that casting spells was now no longer within her range of possibilities.
Feeling a sharp sting of pain shoot through her horn, she quickly led a hoof up to it, caressing the aching spot, and feeling the dooming touch of the small black ring around it. It was something she hadn't noticed until earlier this day, but apparently, like most slaver-gangs, those at Misty Hills also had access to those wicked horn-clamps that would cause any sort of attempt at casting a spell to end in a painful backfire, essentially turning unicorns into less-powerful earth ponies.
She had heard about these before; had even seen them in use during her time with the slavers before she had met Littlepip, but thankfully never had the displeasure of wearing one herself.
Now, however, being robbed of her magic, she felt all the more enslaved and helpless - a realization that was now all too clearly on her mind, as she watched the filly steal the products of her labor.
Done with her wicked deed, she turned around and took flight - a flight that -fortunately for Velvet- didn't last long.
Even before the charcoal unicorn had gotten up to give chase and confront the thief -she had no intentions of harming the filly or getting her in trouble to begin with, but justice had to be done in some way- the culprit slipped on the wet, muddy ground, losing her balance and landing face-first in the same pile of mud that had ended her escape so mercilessly seconds ago.
"What was that?" Velvet asked reproachfully as she approached the filly who was picking herself up from the mud, muttering colorful curses.
"Hey..." Velvet added as she stopped next to her, "Why did you do that?"
Muttering another curse, the filly shook her head, rubbing the mud from her face with a hoof and spitting out a mouthful of dirt.
"Hey, I am talking to you." Velvet said admonishingly, leaning forward to look her in the eyes, "Stop ignoring me."
"Fuck off." The reply that came from the filly was as short as it was surprising for Velvet, "Just leave me alone."
"Excuse me?" she said, raising an eyebrow at the filly who was already in the process of picking up her box again.
"What?" finally, the filly looked up, giving Velvet an annoyed glare, "What do you want!?"
"Look." Velvet said, doing her best to put on a conciliatory smile, "I'm sorry for bumping into you, but that's no reason to steal from me! You see-"
"I need it, alright?" the filly snapped back, "More than you! More than anyone!" she explained with a grim look, "I'm in big fucking trouble right now, and-" she cut herself off, shaking her head, "Forget it. Just ... just leave me alone."
And with that, she turned around and walked past Velvet Remedy, heading for a different spot on the acre where the carrots had't been picked yet.
"Wait!" Velvet said, holding her back with a hoof and gaining an annoyed sigh from the filly, "What trouble are you in? I can help you!"
"None of your business." the filly replied coldly, shaking Velvet's hoof off her back, "Now fuck off." she hissed and walked away.
Velvet wanted to walk after her, but was stopped dead in her tracks as she heard the still all too familiar crack of a whip cutting through the air, followed by a stinging pain burning on her flank.
"Are you fucking deaf!?" the slaver mare shouted again, the whip still in her mouth, "I said get going!"
It took Velvet's mind a few seconds to process what had just happened. This mare had whipped her. The pain in her flank sent tears into her eyes, but it was replaced by a more severe realization shortly after: this mare had whipped her. Her! While the encounter with the filly was still fresh on her mind and seemed to beg for her attention, her shock was quickly drowned out by another, more energetic emotion: anger.
"Oh. Heck. No." She whispered as she locked eyes with the mare who had whipped her, and started walking into her direction with big, threatening steps. "You did not..." she said, slowly, threateningly, "just hit me with that whip."
She stopped in front of the mare who gave her an unimpressed glance, drawing herself up to her full height. "Who do you think you are, huh?" she snarled at the slaver, "You do not, I repat, not have the right to-"
Her outburst was cut short as she felt a hoof collide with the side of her head - the strike was so powerful it blew her clean off her hooves, causing her to stumble to the side before falling to the muddy floor with a thud.
"Shut it, slave." the slaver's voice sounded distant to Velvet as she lay on the ground with a look of utter disbelief on her face. The attack had caught her so off-guard it took her mind a few moments to catch up with everything.
"Pick yourself up, cunt, then get back to work." the slaver mare commanded her coldly, "Looks like you haven't collected anything yet. Better get going if you don't wanna land in the pit."
Slowly, absentmindedly, Velvet arose from the mud, and her look went back to her box which was still laying where she had dropped it earlier.
It occurred to her only now that the brown filly had never given her her carrots back.
"Fillies and Gentlecolts! Slavers, slaves, and all you other scum. I welcome you all to this week's pit-fight!" the rough voice of a stallion tore through the hall, amplified by the prison's former PA system.
Velvet Remedy was laying on the cot in her and Calamity's prison cell where she had spent the past half our trying to get the dried chunks of mud out of her fur. She had contemplated washing herself with the water provided in their bucket-toilet, but had changed her mind after walking over to and -inevitably- smelling it.
After her confrontation with the slaver-mare the rest of the day had passed unexpectedly quickly. Despite her initial -and still ongoing- protest and discomfort with the realization of being forced to work, she had performed surprisingly well - at least, that was what she had concluded from the curt "Really outdone yourself today, cunt." she had received from her slaver-nemesis after being told to hand in her box and being accompanied back to her cell along with a horde of fellow slaves.
Upon her arrival, she had noticed with relief that Calamity was back again as well -the slavers had come to pick him up before Velvet this morning and she hadn't seen him on the field all day- and didn't seem nearly as exhausted as her. After asking why he looked like he had just come back from a walk in the park while she was covered in mud from head to toe and walking on her last legs, he had explained her that the slavers had assigned him to 'housekeeping' today, which essentially wasn't more than a few simple chores and preparing food for the dozens of ponies accomodated at Misty Hills.
While she couldn't deny that she had felt a pang of jealousy when thinking about how easy her friend's day was -at least compared to hers- she had to admit that the food they received a few minutes later -some pre-war food cans and, ironically for her, freshly picked carrots - was surprisingly generous and unexpectedly tasty.
The voice of the stallion tore her from her thoughts and caused her to look up. She shot Calamity -who was sitting on the floor next to her- a look, then arose from the makeshift bed and walked over to the bars of her cell, looking outside to see what was going on in the main hall.
The main lights were turned off, and the three spotlights were directed at the hollow Velvet had learned was 'the pit'. A big cluster of ponies in slaver armor had formed around it, looking inside, shouting, and cheering. A buff, white stallion with a microphone in his hoof was standing in the middle of the round pit, making the announcements with an exaggerated smile on his face.
"Let's have a look at this weeks underachievers!" he proclaimed cheerfully, gaining applause and shouts of cheer from the slavers. "In this corner," he said, pointing a hoof to his left, "we have Sunbeam!"
Slowly, reluctantly, a pony stepped out of the shadows on the side of the arena. Velvet Remedy's eyes widened as she recognized her as the pony they had almost mistaken for Littlepip the night before. The young unicorn mare with light yellow fur and a mane of light orange -really, in broad light she looked nothing like Littlepip- came walking into the pit on shaky legs. Her eyes were wide, fearful, as she looked up, first at the slavers, then past them and up to the holding cells where most of the slaves were watching with anticipation.
Just like all other slaves she, too, was wearing a bomb collar around her neck. In addition to that, however, she still had her PipBuck on her right foreleg - a not too common sight among slaves, and presumably the reason why ponies had mistaken her for Littlepip and sent Velvet Remedy and Calamity here in the first place.
"She was born in a stable all the way over in Hoofington, and left it only about half a year ago. Says she's never fought anypony in her life." The announcer explained, then, with a knowing grin directed at the crowd, shouted, "So who's excited to see her fight for the very first time tonight!?"
The crowd erupted in cheers and thunderous applause - much to the mare's dismay, it seemed. With slow, shaky steps she walked through the small arena, then stopped next to the announcer who casually flung a hoof around her neck, chuckled and cooed, "Welcome to the pit, filly. Tell me, how excited are you?" he asked with a grin.
Trembling, shivering, the young mare looked at the stallion, then shook her head, but didn't bring out a word.
"Hehe, don't worry," the announcer chuckled, patting her back, "The best is yet to come, as you know."
His look went up to the cheering crowd, and with wide eyes he announced, "Let's have a look at your challenger for tonight!"
One of the spotlights' light cones went over to the opposite end of the circular arena, hulling the second fighter in broad light. Velvet Remedy's jaw dropped.
"She was born as the daughter of a caravan guard, and grew up travelling the wastes before she came here. Ponies, let's hear it for Fallen Leaf!"
"No..." Velvet whsipered as she watched the filly she had encountered earlier walk into the arena - unwilling, obviously, but with her head held up high. "No, this can't be."
"Alright you two." the announcer continued as Fallen Leaf stopped next to him, throwing hateful looks at him and the slavers outside the pit, "Before you go at each other's throats, any last courtesies you'd like to exchange?"
Both ponies remained silent. Fallen Leaf because she looked like she wanted to tear the announcer's head clean off, Sunbeam because she looked like she wanted to wet herself right there.
"Well now." the announcer said with a chuckle, "if there's nothing you want to say, let's get-"
"No! Please!" he was cut off by Sunbeam who, in a sudden fit of tears , had clung to the stallion's foreleg and shouted, "I-I don't want to die! P-please, I'm sorry for not meeting the quota! Please!"
Slowy, with an indulgent grin, the announcer reached under himself, pulling the distressed mare back to her hooves and tapping her shoulder. "Don't you worry," he said with an almost ironic sweetness, locking eyes with her. "Of course you don't have to die." he explained calmly, a wicked grin forming on his face, "You'll just have to kill your opponent before she kills you. ... Let's go!" and with that he pulled himself free from Sunbeam's grip and stepped back from the two, walking toward one of the arena's two exists, passing through the chainlink barrier and closing the door behind himself as the crowd broke out in thunderous cheers.
The fight was on.
For just a moment, nothing happened. The two ponies stood still, staring at each other in silence. The slavers outside the pit cheered them on, telling them to get going, shouting for a bloodbath.
With trembling legs, Sunbeam looked around - her look wandered over the cheering slavers, up to the slaves in the holding cells, until it rested on her opponent for the night.
She shook her head. "No." she gasped, shaking her head in horror as her mind seemed to catch up with what was happening. "No, we can't." she spun around, smashing her hooves against the wire mesh that held the two trapped, "You can't do this! You can't-"
She silenced abruptly as she looked over her shoulder and her eyes caught sight of Fallen Leaf. Slowly, but with cold determination, she had started moving, coming for her opponent. She was reluctant - no doubt about that. Her face was uncomfortable, but straight, and cold. It seemed the filly really was intent on doing what had to be done to save her own life.
Sunbeam, who couldn't have missed the change in her opponent's behavior, let out a scream of dismay. "No!" she yelled, "No, please! You don't have to do this! We don't have to fight!"
Fallen Leaf replied nothing. From the look on her face, she clearly didn't want to fight either, but was determined to save her own hide - by all means possible.
She stopped a few yards away from the terrified mare who was pressing her back against the fence, knowing that there was nowhere she could go, and lowered herself into a battle stance, ready to pounce at her terrified opponent.
Suddenly, something fell to the floor next to Fallen Leaf with a loud clank, causing her to wince and look to the side for just a second.
However, the filly quickly re-gained her composure as she took a closer look at the object that had hit the floor next to her: it was a pipe; a steel pipe, with a set of rusty nails driven through one end of it. A 'donation', thrown into the pit to make the fight more brutal and 'interesting', presumably. Another wave of cheers came from the audience as they watched the filly pick up the makeshift-weapon with a sigh - much to her opponent's dismay.
"No! No, please! Please, I'm begging you!" Sunbeam squealed on top of her voice as she saw her opponent raise the weapon with a deadly calmness, getting ready to strike.
"Look," She started another attempt and raised both her front hooves as if to calm Fallen Leaf, "Listen to me, please - just for one second."
Fallen Leaf didn't look like she was too keen on talking in that moment, but she didn't move any further towards Sunbeam, thus allowing her to speak up.
"Everypony!" she shouted, turning around to face her audience. Surprisingly enough, most of the roaring shouts and cheers faded, though probably more out of morbid curiosity than out of respect. "Please, listen to me!" her voice was trembling, about to break from terror, but she pressed on, despite the clearly disapproving slavers throwing insults -among other, less pleasant things- at her.
"We don't have to do this! None of this!" she said with a determination that seemed to surprise even the slavers, "Ponies aren't meant to fight! Ponies aren't meant to kill each other! We have existed together in harmony for centuries before the great war, and it can be like this again!" She stomped her hoof to strengthen her point, "I've seen it in my stable! If we just work together, we can achieve something like the old times again! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow..." her eyes began to shine as she started to lose herself in her speech.
While the slavers seemed rather displeased with this sudden motivational speech, Fallen Leaf had stopped walking towards her, and had even lowered the pipe in her muzzle. "But someday!" she concluded with determination, "All we need to do is work together. You may see each other as slaves and slavers, but we're all ponies! We all just want to live our lives, so why not do it side by side?" she lifted a hoof, holding it up as if to reach out to her audience, "Trust me, if we all work together, we can make this prison a better place! We can make this whole wasteland a better place if only we-"
Her head exploded.
Something or somepony had triggered her bomb collar.
Velvet had to cover her mouth with a hoof to keep herself from vomiting, both out of sickness and pure horror. The crowd of slavers broke into shouts of cheer, exchanging bits, praises and curses as the dead body hit the floor.
Fallen Leaf, whose fur was covered in bits and sprinkles of what used to be in and on Sunbeam's head, looked at the decapitated body with disbelief and shock, before letting out a long, relieved sigh, and letting the steel pipe drop to the floor.
"I hate it when they do that." another, awfully familiar voice came from somewhere in the hall's upper ranks, making the crowd of slavers silence in an instant. Velvet Remedy's head shot up, searching for its origin, and spotted it just a few seconds later. There, up on the mezzanine, hovering something that looked distinctly like a remote-controlled trigger in her magic, she stood: Littlepip.
"Fight is over." she declared coldly, lowering the remote, then turned around and walked out of the room up the set of stairs without another word.
"Well..." the announcer spoke up again after a long moment of uncomfortable silence. It took Velvet Remedy a second to spot him as he walked back towards the pit, unlocked the door, stepped inside and walked over to where Fallen Leaf was sitting on the ground. She had sunken back to her haunches after Sunbeam's death and now was sitting there like a statue, her look directed at the ground in front of her hooves. "Looks like we have a winner!" The stallion announced with delight, grabbing one of the filly's legs and holding it up into the air, gaining a roaring cheer from the slaver-audience.
"Tell me, little one," he said, putting a hoof around Fallen Leaf's neck, "How do you feel about this short, but spectacular fight? Seems like luck was on your side, right?"
The brown filly turned her head to look at him; she looked disgusted, uncomfortable, but not neccessarily distressed. It was clear that she didn't want to think, let alone talk about what had happened and what she would have done if it hadn't been for the unexpected turn of events, but the announcer didn't give up on her. "Come on, not so shy!" he said encouragingly, nudging her with a hoof, "Go ahead and share your thoughts with us!"
Fallen Leaf locked eyes with the stallion for a second, but seeming to realize that he wouldn't let her go without a statement, she let out a long sigh and lowered her head. Then, her voice weak and barely audible, she said, "I'm glad I didn't have to kill her."
That gained a wave of roaring laughter from both the announcer and the audience - the filly bore it without any major reactions.
"Isn't that cute?" the announcer asked as the laughter began to fade, "No need to deny it, girl..." he said with a grin, "We all saw that look in your eyes when you picked up that pipe. Deep down you're a killer, and you know it." he declared with a knowing grin. Fallen Leaf, whose eyes were wide with disbelief that quickly turned into anger, wanted to protest, but was cut off as the announcer added, "But don't you worry, filly..." he said calmingly, putting a comforting hoof on her shoulder, "There'll be other opportunities for you to play out your murderous phantasies. ... The pit's always open for volunters."
Again, the filly wanted to protest, but the stallion didn't leave her a chance to do so as he once again looked up to the audience and shouted, "But I'm afraid that's all for tonight, folks! Get ready for more action next week!"
And with that, the big spotlights, as well as the hall's main lightning was turned off, leaving the hall back in its nightly twilight. Fallen Leaf, accompanied by the announcer, was led out of the pit and back to a cell in the hall's lower ranks, and two ponies, armed with an old shopping cart, a snow shovel and two mops, came walking into the arena from the other side and stopped next to the dead body of Sunbeam to clean up the mess.
The crowd of slavers gathered around the arena began to dissolve, most of them heading up the stairs where Littlepip had disappeared to earlier. Most of the other prisoners who had watched the bloody spectacle now also started to step back into their cells and into their beds.
The battle was fought; the show was over.
The day was at its end.
"Velvet! Hey, Velvet! ... Velvet Remedy!" with a weak groan, Velvet awoke from a dark, dreamless sleep; her eyes shot open and she lifted her head, looking around her sparsely lightened cell. Instinctively, her gaze went over to Calamity who was stil snoring lightly on the floor next to her - she had offered him to share the small bed earlier, but he had insisted that she would take it all for herself, while he would settle with the floor.
"Over here!" the voice that had awoken Velvet whispered agian, directing her gaze to the front of their cell where somepony was standing in the twilight and clearly trying to get her attention. Velvet sat up, leaning her head forward to see who it was that had woken her up. She took a closer look at the mare, then rubbed her eyes.
"What?" she asked, still half-asleep, sat up and arose from her bed, walking over to the front of the cell. "Am I ... dreaming?"
The unicorn mare at the other side of the iron bars lifted a hoof to her mouth and gave a muffled, "Sssshhh." before her horn lit up, enlightening her steel gray coat, her dark blue mane, and her light brown eyes. "Keep calm." she said with a straight face, "We'll have you out of here in no time."
"Ho- Homage?" Velvet asked as she stopped in front of the bars, "What ... what are you doing ... how did you...?"
The gray unicorn focussed on the lock sealing up their cell, levitating a screwdriver and bobby pin in her magic, but then looked up at Velvet for a moment. With a sly grin on her face, she explained, "We were getting worried since we didn't hear back from you. Couldn't spot you on the MASEBS either. So we came to look after you." She cracked a smile, looking back down where her magic was working the screwdriver in the rusty padlock, "Seems like we came just in time."
Velvet stared at her perplexed for a second, a million questions running through her mind, her thoughts torn between praising Homage to Celestia for coming to rescue them, or cursing her to tartarus for endangering herself like this.
However, unsure which of these emotions to give priority, she decided to bring up the first question that came to her mind. Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "We?"
"I told her to let me go ahead, alone, but she wouldn't listen." The deep, mechanic voice made Velvet Remedy wince for a second as a second figure stepped from the twilight; a stallion, clad in heavy, metal armor from head to tail. "She's more stubborn than I thought."
"SteelHooves?" Velvet asked, but was cut short as Homage let out a muffled curse, dropping a broken bobby pin to the floor and pulling a new one from a small pouch on her side.
"How ... how did you get in here?" Velvet inquired, "This place is well-guarded, even at night."
Not looking up from the lock she was working on, Homage let out a short chuckle and smirked, "Yeah, well-guarded my flank." she cackled, "Can you believe it, these idiots even forgot to lock their front door!" she explained, doing her best to not laugh, "How did you manage to get yourselves caught by those knuckleheads, anyway?"
"We ... we were ... Littlepip, she's..." Velvet stuttered, trying hard to bring some order into the chaotic state her mind was in, as another of Homage's bobby pins broke, "Wait!" she snapped, pinching her eyes shut to clear her mind, "They left the front door open?" she stood still for a moment as her mind put one and one together, then she could feel herself going rigid, "But that means-"
"What's goin' on here?" she could hear Calamity's still somewhat sleepy voice coming from behind her as he walked up to her with fast steps. "Homage, is that you?"
The gray unicorn looked up from the lock, but before she could reply, Velvet Remedy chimed in again. "Wait!" she exclaimed loudly, now not caring about stealth any longer, "You said the front door was unlocked!"
"Yeah." Homage confirmed with a chuckle, "Can you believe that? I mean, who in their right mind would do that?"
"No!" Velvet said, nearing tears as she shook her head, "That means they've just been waiting for you! You need to get out of here as fast as-"
The charcoal unicorn could feel a terrible sense of deja-vu as, suddenly, the spotlights in the ceiling came to life again and were pointed at her - or, to be exact, at the pony opposite to her.
Instinctively, without hesitation, Homage spun around on the spot, her body dropping into a battle stance, even though -as Vevlet could see only now in the bright light- she didn't seem to have a single weapon with her.
However, the steel ranger accompanying her made up for her lack of arms in an instant as he too span around and readied his grenade rifle with a threatening click. Back to back, the two ponies stood, ready to face the entire staff of Misty Hills.
Only that facing them was but one pony.
Dead silence hung over the hall in the following moments. Even though she could only see their backsides, Velvet could easily imagine the looks on her friends' faces as they stared at the pony who had interrupted them. She was standing in the middle of the hall, just a few yards away from Homage and SteelHooves, eyeing the two with a cold, calculating glance.
In the end, it was Homage who broke the silence. "L-Littlepip?" she gasped, with disbelief at first, but then again with disbelief quickly turning into a cold clarity.
Littlepip gave the two a cold glare, then furrowed her eyebrow. "What. Are you doing here?" she asked slowly, menacingly, "Why did you come here? Can't you just leave me the fuck alone?"
"Li ... Littlepip?" Homage repeated herself; her voice began to tremble and tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "This ... isn't you, is it?" she asked cautiously, shaking her head, "Please," she had to cut herself off as her voice broke, and she swallowed, "tell me it's not you." Hesitantly, she started walking into her direction, but was stopped by SteelHooves.
"Stay back." he commanded her soberly, pointing his weapons at the mare in raider armor, "We don't know if she's dangerous."
Homage stopped, looking over her shoulder, back at SteelHooves. Her eyes betrayed how much she disliked this thought, but she seemed to realize that her companion did have a point.
"Right..." Littlepip sighed, fixing the two ponies with a cold grin. "I might ... stab you in the back." she spat, baring her teeth, "Or shoot you with a needle gun." she took a few threatening steps towards Homage, "Or ally with your so-called friends and have them stab you in the back." she stopped, only a few feet away from her unicorn-friend, and brought her face close to that of Homage, unrestrained anger in her eyes, "How would you like that?"
"Step back from her." SteelHooves commanded her threatenigly, the tips of his weapons never leaving Littlepip.
That made the slaver mistress hesiate for a moment, then let up on Homage and turn towards the steel ranger with wide eyes. "Make me." she said, her voice calm, but tense. She looked up for a second, her horn lit up and Velvet Remedy half-expected her to attack her former friend right there, but nothing seemed to happen.
"Make me, fucker." the unicorn hissed, taking a step towards the ranger and giving him a treatening glare - a glare that SteelHooves stood up to without any difficulties. "Do you think I'm afraid of you?" she turned around, her look wandering over Velvet Remedy, Calamity and Homage, "Of any of you? You're all just scum! You can consider yourselves lucky I didn't have you killed yet!" she paused, drawing in a long, deep breath. Her look fell onto SteelHooves who still had his rifle pointed at her, and she glowered at him again. "Now put your guns away." she told him coldly, "They won't use you anything, trust me."
The steel ranger didn't react in the slightest, seeming not impressed at all by her warning.
"Oh well..." Littlepip said with an indulgent shrug and a smile crossed her face for just a second. "We can do it that way."
The aura around her horn glowed a little brighter for just a second, then a zapping sound, similiar to that of a magical energy weapon filled the room. The armor-clad steel ranger seemed to go rigid for a second, then collapsed with a weak groan, his heavy armor hitting the floor with a loud thud.
"Earth ponies..." the mare in raider armor said, smirking as her magic levitated something that looked like a small magical pistol from where it had floated a good ten feet above the steel ranger's head back to a holster on her raider barding, "they never see that levitating-something-up-behind-you trick coming."
Noticing the three pairs of eyes giving her horrified looks, she grinned and pulled the weapon out again, holding it up for the others to admire. "Amazing, isn't it?" she said with a grin, "It's called Electromagnetic Pulse; one of the gimmicks that were being tested out on the prisoners here before the war. Perfect for knocking out steel rangers, robobrains, and all those other pesky piles of junk."
She paused for effect, then, seeing how the horrified looks she was given didn't change, added, "Don't worry, he's fine. Just unable to move. But he can be revived with a PipBuck and a bit of skill at any time."
"Now..." She continuted, focusing her attention back on Homage, "How should we handle-"
"Littlepip, No!" Homage gasped at the verge of tears, her voice nearing its breaking point again, "No. No! This isn't you! This can't be you!" she let out a sob, rubbing a hoof over her face.
"Oh boo-fuckin-hoo." Littlepip replied in a mocking tone, "Don't act like you care about me. You sided with them," she spat, tilting her head into the direction of Velvet Remedy and Calamity, "when I needed you most. You're a traitor, just like them."
"No!" Homage once again shouted. Tears were running down her face freely now. "Pip, please!" she shouted, begging, "I ... I believed in you! I knew all heroes fall eventually, but..." she had to pause, gasping for air, "but I thought you were different!"
To Velvet's very surprise, the hateful look on her friend's face had started to vanish, and now she was looking at Homage with a mereley deadpan expression - yes, she looked almost hurt in that moment.
"You were my hero, Pip!" Homage continued, seeming unaffected by the change on her friend's face, "You were my light in the darkness! Every day it was getting harder to find good ponies out there in the wasteland, but you were the living proof that there still is good in this world. You were the light in my life!"
Silence filled the room as Homage's words faded away, broken only by her occasional sobs. For the first time ever since Velvet Remedy and Calamity had been captured, she saw regret in Littlepip's face. Yes, the fallen heroine looked sick at heart in this moment.
"So please..." Homage started another attempt, her voice weak from crying, "Please, I'm begging you, tell me that this isn't what you've become! Tell me that there's still something left of the heroic stable dweller I fell in love with!" Again, she sobbed, "And that it can all be like it used to be."
That pushed the former heroine over the edge. Her face turning red, her eyes tearing up, she looked at the unicorn, then gave a muffled groan. "Homage..." she sobbed as well, turning her head away, "Homage, I ... I can't..."
"Shh, it's okay." Homage said, stepping forward and giving her friend a soft, comforting hug, "It's over now. We can go home, and forget about all this. We'll act like it never happened, okay?"
"B-but I..." Littlepip said over her sobs, tears running down her face and onto Homage's shoulders as she seemed to melt into her friend's arms, "I ... I can't believe..."
"It's okay..." Homage said again, patting Littlepip's shoulder.
"I can't believe..." Littlepip whispered softly, shutting her eyes and letting her tears run freely, giving in to her friend's loving touch for all she was worth. "I can't believe you..."
"Don't worry." Homage cooed softly, caressing her friend's back. "It'll all be good."
"B-but I can't believe..." Littlepip stuttered whiningly, slowly breaking the hug, pulling back and looking her friend in the eyes.
Her horn lit up.
"I can't believe you fell for this shit."
Her needle gun came flying from its holster on her flank, lining up with Homage's neck.
"What!?" Homage's eyes shot open and her body tensed up, but it was too late.
Thwap!
"No!" Velvet Remedy screamed in horror, but could only stand by and watch helplessly as the poison did its job. Homage, and with her their only realistic chance to escape this living nightmare, went limp, slipped from Littlepip's grasp, and landed on the concrete ground with a thud.
"Too easy." Littlepip said with a grin, then raised a hoof to wipe the tears from her face. Her look went over to Velvet and Calamity looking at her with eyes wide in horror, and she gave a short chuckle.
"Really?" she asked, sounding legitimately amused, "You did not see that coming?"
She snorted. Her horn lit up, her levitation magic picking up the limp bodies of Homage and SteelHooves with ease.
"You really don't know the first thing about me, do you?" she said bitterly, but then shook her head, shrugged, and brought a smile back to her face. "Oh well, none of my concern, now is it?"
And with that, she turned around to walk away, taking the bodies of her former friends with her.
"You two better hit the pillow now." she said over her shoulder as she disappeared from their sight, "Wouldn't want to end up in the pit, right?"
She gave a short laugh, then disappeared.
Moments later, the ceiling lights in the hall were switched off, and it was back to the ever-present darkness of the night.
Chapter 4
It must have been early morning when Homage finally came around. Bright light coming from the ceiling blinded her slowly opening eyes and she let out a groan as she forced them shut again, turning her head to the side.
It took her a few moments to remember what had happened the evening before, and just where she must be laying right now.
In an instant, she was feeling wide awake. Her eyes shot open and her head upwards. She was laying on a futon-like cod in a small, but surprisingly well-preserved room. The dim light of dawn was shining through a small window above her head, and dead silence hung over the room.
Leaning forward, slowly catching her breath, Homage opened and closed her eyes a few times.
Was this really happening? Had she really lost the pony she admired more than anyone else in the wasteland? Had she really gone looking for her in an old pre-war prison? And had she really ... found her?
She could feel a shudder run through her body at the memory. The pony that had knocked her out ... had that really been Littlepip? Had her heroine; her own, personal bringer of light really fallen like so many other heroes of the wasteland before her?
The mere thought of something like this happening sent tears into her eyes, and she shook her head, forcing herself to end that train of thought right there.
Carefully, she looked up again to look around the room she was in. She turned her head to the side, looking around, and froze.
Next to her makeshift bed was standing a big, old pre-war desk, and before that an equally old, big and impressive-looking brown leather chair, and sitting in it was...
"Took your sweet time waking up, huh?"
Homage gasped as she looked at the pony in the leather armor. She looked even worse in broad light.
Sitting upright, her legs crossed and front legs resting on the armrest, Littlepip looked at her.
She looked perfectly calm, and her face was almost smug as she looked her newest catch over, then un-crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. "I need to work on that poison-dosis."
"Pip..." Homage gasped, feeling her heart sink and her eyes tearing up. There were a million words she wanted to tell her heroine in that second, but her mind was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened, she couldn't bring out much more than the lightbringer's name. "Littlepip. ... Please-
"Nope." Littlepip cut her off with a decided shake of her head, raising a hoof to silence her. "Don't waste your breath with this 'fallen hero' and 'light in the darkness'-shit." she leaned forward in her chair, her body tensing up as she fixed Homage with a freezing glance. "I did not 'fall'. I did not 'fail'! It was you who failed me!" she snarled, pointing an accusing hoof at Homage, "You and that other pack of traitors! You stabbed me in the back when I needed you most! You took my trust and just threw it away!"
Homage flinched noticeably at that, sinking back onto her cod. "Littlepip, we..." she whispered weakly, her mind struggling to digest everything the heroine was throwing at her. "We wanted to help you! You were suffering from your addiction, and we wanted to help you get over it!"
"By shooting me with a fucking dart gun!?" Littlepip countered fiercely.
"You wouldn't do it voluntarily!" Homage replied, almost begging with the angry mare. "Trust me, it wasn't an easy decision, but there simply was no other way you would-"
"I would have done the fucking therapy!" Littlepip jumped up from her chair, now legitimately raging. "I would have done it after saving that poor bastard Monterey Jack!" she shook her head, her body tensing up with trouble to put her rage into words, "I had it all under control!" She yelled with wide eyes, turning towards the captured unicorn, "All you had to do was trust me! But no!" she growled, taking a threatening step towards Homage's cot, "You had to betray me and fuck it all up!"
Homage could feel her lips tremble. It hurt. It hurt her more than anything else hearing these accusations - not least because she couldn't deny that she understood at least a bit of Littlepip's reasoning.
Still, the pain in her heart was intense, and the normally so casual and charismatic mare truly had a hard time finding the right words.
"B-but we..." she muttered weakly, "We just wanted to-"
"Shush." Once again, Littlepip cut her off dryly. "I don't know what you were thinking, and I don't care either." she closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a short sigh.
"I'm over these ponies now."
"But why-"
"Shut up." Littlepip interrupted her again, disdain in her voice as she threw her an angry glare, baring her teeth. "Remember, you're not a guest." she clarified unmistakably, "You're a slave. And you don't get to speak unless I tell you to."
Homage stiffened at those words. Her mind needed a moment to process just what her friend her just said, but as the meaning of her words became clear to Homage, she could feel an all new emotion well up in her mind: anger. She didn't know what had gotten into Pip to act like this, but she sure wasn't going to sit by and watch as she was losing her mind!
"What in the world are you talking about?" Homage asked, cocking an eyebrow. "I'm not your damn slave, and I sure as hell won't-"
She was cut short as she saw Littlepip's hoof come forth, and split-seconds later a stinging pain exploded over the side of her face. The slap wasn't hard by any means, but it sufficed to upset the mare's balance and make her fall over on her bed, a hoof instinctively coming up and carressing the aching spot on her face.
Like thunderstruck, Homage lay motionlessly on her cod for a moment, breathing heavily. Tears were running down her face, partly caused by the pain in her neck region, but mostly by the pure, blank horror the realization that Littlepip wouldn't hesitate to harm her hitting her mind like a sledgehammer.
Her tormentress let out a long sigh and looked to the side, away from the gasping mare. "I'm sorry." she muttered after a moment. "I lost control for a moment."
"What the fuck!?" Homage snarled as she had caught enough breath to sit back up again, the pain in her cheek quickly fading. "What the fuck, Pip?" she asked, turning at the unicorn mare with eyes wide in horror, "What the fuck has gotten into you!?"
Littlepip remained silent at that, staring at the wall behind her. Then she looked back at Homage. "I told you, didn't I?" she said bitterly, shaking her head. "My friends betrayed me. You betrayed me! The whole fucking wasteland betrayed me!"
"I... I know, but..." Homage replied hesitantly, "Why? Why didn't you come back? Why..." her look darted around the room, "All this?"
Again, Littlepip replied nothing, just looking at her newest prisoner with a cold, calculating glance. Then, after a long period of silence, she turned around and, with a curt, "Follow me." walked away from her chair and towards a glass door set in the wall next to her desk.
Still hesitant, but determined to get some clarity on just what was going on, Homage slowly got up from the cot and followed Littlepip through the glass door leading onto a small balcony outside. What she saw made an all new wave of sickness crawl up her throat.
Slaves. Dozens of them.
The balcony the two were standing on overlooked a few acres of fields, all filled with working ponies who were harvesting what looked like small, sicklish carrots, sowing seeds, or watering the fields with sick brown water. They all could have been taken for industrious farmponies, if it weren't for the bomb collars around their necks or the dozen or so armed guards standing at the edges of the field and watching over the working hordes like predators.
Homage took a moment to let her gaze wander over the enslaved ponies, then lowered her head with a sigh. "You've got to be kidding me." she muttered drably, keeping her look directed at the ground.
She clenched her teeth, letting out a drawn-out sigh. Boiling inside her was a dangerous mixture of anger and sadness, and she was sure it wouldn't take long until one of these would prevail and she would do something she might regret later on. After all, contrary to all the other captives around her, she wasn't wearing a slave collar, and if she were to use the element of surprise, she was sure she could overhwelm Littlepip if the need would arise.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Littlepip said, making Homage look up at her. "It took me years to build this up, but finally..." she paused, taking in a deep breath; a wide smile formed on her face, "Finally we're here."
Homage shook her head in resignation, then turned her head towards the mare she used to love. "Why!?" she spat out, "Pip, why? Why the fuck are you doing this!? You used to do everything to stop ponies like this, but now you've become one of them!"
The slaver-turned heroine just shrugged carelessly. "Times change, ponies change. You can either go with the flow, or drown." she offered a half-assed response.
Homage wanted to respond, but then bit her lip, letting out a pained sigh. Seeing her love like this brought her pain beyond imagination, and no matter what she would say, nothing would be able to express the agony burning in her heart.
Littlepip said nothing for a few moments, seeming to enjoy the silence that was only occasionally interrupted by noises coming from the fields.
Slowly, she took in a breath, then, keeping her look focused on the fields below them, said, "You might be wondering why you're here, and not with the other scum down in the holding cells."
Instinctively, Homage wanted to protest against calling the slaves 'scum', but controlled herself, as that was a question she really hadn't thought about yet. If Littlepip wouldn't hesitate to attack and imprison Calamity, Velvet Remedy or SteelHooves, what was keeping her from doing the same to Homage?
"See..." she began, her look remaining on the fields down below, "I won't lie to you. I've been tempted to put you down there with them. After all, you stabbed me in the back when I needed you most - just like them." she paused for a second, her eyes narrowing, bitterness in her voice.
"However..." she turned to face the gray unicorn mare, "Contrary to them, I believe there's still some hope for you left." she explained, her face lighting up ever so slightly.
"Wha- what do you mean?" Homage asked warily, even though she already had a suspicion of what the answer might be.
"I mean you might still have enough brains in you to change your mind ... and join me." Pip said soberly. The bitter look on her face vanished more and more as she elaborated. "I've been living here for years now, and I couldn't be happier." she said, her voice lighting up with every word, "Who needs the wasteland? Who needs all that misery out there? We've got everything we need here, and we don't need waste a single thought on all the shit going on out there."
Homage remained silent, looking at her lover with a bewildered look.
"Come on..." Littlepip invited, and Homage felt reminded to the old times for just a second as she stretched out an inviting hoof, "Fuck the wasteland; fuck all the pain and the misery out there! Join me, and we'll never need to look back again!"
Homage looked at her friend's outstretched hoof, letting her words sink in for a moment or two. Then, however, her look went past it and towards the fence that encircled the whole correctional facility. The balcony was at about the same height as the fence's top; if she would climb onto the railing and jump, she could-
Her thoughts were cut short by a long, disappointed sigh coming from the mare of the house.
"You're thinking about breaking out, aren't you?" she asked bitterly, rubbing her nose with a hoof.
Again, Homage looked back to, her and she realized that the mare still had made no moves to stop her. More importantly, she realized that this was probably one of the best chances she would ever get! Feeling her pulse speed up, she took a step towards the railing, already tensing the muscles in her legs for the jump that would take her to freedom, but was stopped by a brief, calm "Don't." coming from Littlepip.
As much as her mind struggled against it, Homage stopped dead in her tracks, casting a confused look at the pony. She wasn't confused by Pip telling her to stop, as much as she was confused by her making no moves to actually get Homage to stop.
"You wouldn't make it far, trust me." Littlepip explained drably. Before Homage could inquire further, Littlepip's horn lit up, her telekinesis picking up an empty cup from a small side table on the balcony and launching it past Homage and over the fence.
It flew for about a second, maybe two, before two magical energy turrets hung from the two watchtowers on either side sprung to life. A beam of vicious purple energy came shooting from the turrets, and hulled it into a deadly cocoon, reducing it to a small cloud of dust within less than a second.
Homage swallowed as she watched the incineration, feeling the heat on her fur, even from this distance. This ... this could have just as well been her!
"They're programmed to shoot anything that leaves the perimeter." Littlepip explained matter-of-factly, "Cup, pony, slave, slaver, you name it. Nothing gets out of here without my permission."
Total silence hung between the two ponies again as the commotion died down.
Then, slowly, bitterly, Littlepip asked, "So you won't join me, huh?"
Homage took in a deep breath. Truly, she could think of a hundred ways to explain her former love that and why she won't join her for this madness. This was ... this was so wrong on so many levels! But really, all she could bring out was a slow shake of her head. This had been way too much to handle for now.
Again, Littlepip gave a long sigh, letting her head sink. "Fine." she said conclusively. "Then go."
"What?" Homage questioned, raising an eyebrow, genuinely confused for a moment.
"You heard me, slave." Littlepip hissed, sharper this time, and stretched out a hoof into the direction of her room, "Back into my room. Now. And don't make me encourage you."
It was a few days later when Homage was awoken from a light afternoon snooze by a knock on the door. The past days had been ... devastating, to say the least.
While she was undoubtedly happy that her personal heroine wasn't dead after all, the realization that she had turned into ... this made her heart hurt almost more than her death.
Every minute; every second she had spent thinking about how she could escape this hell - without using violence. As much as she hated everything that was happening here, she knew that, when things would get rough, she couldn't get herself to hurt Littlepip. She just ... couldn't. No matter what she had done, Homage still admired her; loved her even, and the mere thought of harming her brought her physical discomfort.
So at least for now, she had come to the conclusion that laying low was the... safest course of action. She deeply regretted not being able to help the slaves and her captured friends, but history had proven to her that acting overhasty would cause failure more often than it would lead to success. And she couldn't risk any lives - neither her own, nor those of her friends.
So she had decided to play along for now; play the innocent, brainwashed slave, and wait for her chance. From snippets of dialogue she had gathered up throughout the past days, she knew that the facility's defense mechanisms could be disabled from a central terminal, and she knew for certain that, given time, Littlepip would let the location of that terminal slip. And when that time had come, she would be out of here.
And then she would come back. Oh how she would come back!
She would gather up all the ponies she knew. Heck, she would mobilize the whole wasteland if she needed to... and come back here. Free all the slaves, take care of the slavers willing to surrender, then burn this whole damned place to the ground. And with the proper caution and tactics, she knew that she could get her fallen heroine out of this safely; take her back to Tenpony Tower and knock all this nonsense about giving up in ponies out of her, once and for all.
At least, this was her plan. She knew that the time to act would come, but... but it hadn't come yet. And every second she spent laying around doing nothing felt like torture to her; knowing that there was nothing she could do right away made her feel so helpless, so ... useless.
Shaking her head, trying her best to not let her thoughts becoome too dark, she let her look glide over the room she was in, her eyes ultimately coming to rest on the ... table that had now filled out the middle of the room since a few days ago.
An all new wave of sickness hit her as she saw it ... as she saw ... him. SteelHooves.
Really, as if incapacitating his armor, rendering him completely unable to move hadn't been humiliating enough, now it seemed Pip had decided that the immobilized Steel Ranger would make for a great piece of furniture - and had promptly had him brought up to her private quarters and fixated a tabletop on his motionless back, turning him into probaly the most heavily-armored table in the whole wasteland.
"I'm so sorry SteelHooves." she whispered weakly, her voice full of hurt, as she reached out a hoof and gently touched his armor. "I should've just listened to you. The goddesses know you'd probably have all of us out of here safely in no time."
She had to admit, despite the fact that he was still alive, and could sense what was going on around him, it did feel a little odd talking to what basically looked and felt like an inanimate object.
But she quickly shook her head at that thought. SteelHooves was still in there, and she'd be damned if she was going to leave without him!
That is ... as soon as she would get a chance to leave. If she would ever get a chance to leave.
She could feel her head sink in incoming despair, but perked up as a second knock came from the door, which was promptly met with a curse and the sound of hooves coming from the back room as Littlepip walked past what had become Homage's private cot and towards the door leading into the staircase.
"What!?" she growled as she tugged the door open. A blue unicorn slaver in black leather armor stood at the other side.
"There's a bunch'a slaves wanting to talk with you." he grunted back, unaffected by the harsh greeting, "Said they won't work till they've seen you."
That caused the slave mistress to blink with a blank expression, before she gave an angry huff. "Are you fucking serious!?" she snarled at him, "How many times do I have to tell you? If there's slaves that refuse to work, just grab their legs and start pul-" she cut herself off as her look went past the slaver and she saw who the ponies that wanted to see her were.
"Oh." she noted dryly, and Homage could see a sinister grin forming on her face, "Why, isn't that a surprise!" she gave a curt nod towards the slaver who grunted again and then turned around, walking away.
"Come on inside!" Littlepip invited her 'guests' with a mock friendliness in her voice, "To what do I owe the honor?"
The two ponies came walking from the twilight of the staircase into the room... and Homage could feel her heart sink.
Velvet Remedy and Calamity. And they did not look good.
To be fair, the wasteland hadn't been to good to them to begin with, leaving them in not the best shape. But now... now their already skinny bodies were now even more emaciated; their coats were matted, sticky and dirty. Their looks were directed at the ground, their rueful eyes looking up at Littlepip like sheep to slaughter, the two ponies looking a picture of misery.
Calamity took in a short breath, then hesitantly began, "P-Pip, we ... we wanted to talk with you ... 'bout ... gettin' outta here."
That gained a truly amused snort from the mare, who broke out in a short giggle, "What!?" she asked, chuckling, "Are you serious? Are you fucking serious!? You just ... walk up to me and ask me to set you free!?"
"No." Velvet Remedy chimed in softly, her voice hoarse, "We ... wanted to..." she bit her lip, swallowing, "Fight for it. In the pit."
Finally Littlepip's laughter faded and she replied with a dry "Oh." The smile slipped from her face, and she reflected for a moment, but then shook her head, "Nah, I know you two, and you might actually end up killing one of the other slaves." she shrugged, "Why take a risk?"
"No, Ah meant..." Calamity spoke up again, pain in his voice, "We wanted to fight..." again, he paused, looking at his partner who gave him a short, sorrowful nod, "Against each other."
Again, the slaver mare gave a short laugh. "You're kidding, right? I know you two like each other. Way too much to fight."
"We ... we don't want to fight." Velvet Remedy explained, giving a short sob, "But ... if one of us can get out of here, even if the other one has to-" she cut herself off, breaking into another fit of sobbing.
Calamity, putting a comforting hoof on his friend's back, continued, "We'd rather have one of us be free than the two of us rotting in here forever. That's all there is to it." he explained bitterly. "So whaddaya say?"
The slaver mare remained silent for a long moment. Then, after some contemplation, her face lit up noticeably, a wide smile spreading over her face.
"Yes." She finally said, nodding, "Yes, this is perfect!" the grin on her face widened, her look darting between the two, "You two, fighting each other till death. One has to kill their lover to be set free." That sentence caused Velvet to give another soft sob as tears finally started running down her face.
Littlepip ignored her friend's tears completely, and nodded, looking like she had to contain herself to not let out an excited squeal. "What a great idea!"
The charcoal unicorn collapsed to the floor, sobbing, wailing like a little filly. Calamity, doing his best to console his lover, gave Littlepip a hateful glare as he put a wing around Velvet, but remained silent.
"Alright then, we got no time to waste!" the slaver mare continued swiftly, sounding truly excited, "We'll do it tonight, at seven!" her look shot back to her downcast friends. Pointing a hoof at them, she gushed, "Just the two of you! Fight till death!" the wicked grin on her face widened as she added, "No rules, no restrictions! Anything goes! I wanna see some blood!" she declared, biting her lip in ecstasy as she talked herself into a stupor.
"W-why?" Velvet Remedy whimpered softly. She had gotten back to her hooves, but her voice was still weak and her legs were trembling, "Why do you have to do this? Why do you have to make us-" but she cut herself off mid-sentence as another fit of tears broke loose and she embraced her pegasus lover, crying into his shoulder.
"Shhshh..." Calamity did his best to calm her, his dull eyes directed at the ground, "Don't let her have the pleasure."
Littlepip, seeming to enjoy every last tear her former idol shed, watched her sob for a few moments, but then stepped in, saying, "Alright, enough with the wailing. Come on you!" her horn lit up and the door to the staircase slid open where the unicorn slaver from earlier was standing ready, "You got a fight to prepare for. Knucks!" she said, addressing the slaver, who looked up, "Bring these two to their cells." she said, tilting her head into the direction of the couple, "Give them whatever they want - food, water, candy... make them have a proper last meal."
"Aye." the slaver grunted soberly, and turned around. Calamity, still holding Velvet in his arms, turned around to follow him, but was cut short as an aura of magic, similiar to that around Knucks' horn formed around his and Velvet's collar and the slaver tugged the two behind himself. The pegasus opened his mouth to protest, but fell silent as the mare in his arms let out another sob, mourning this terrible world.
"No!" finally Homage had managed to break out of her stupor and had dashed forward, facing Calamity and Velvet Remedy who looked up with red, tearstained eyes. "Y-you can't...!" she sought for words, being so overwhelmed with the fact that her two friends were ready to willingly sacrifice their life to grant the other freedom. "This is stupid!" she finally brought out, "You don't ... you don't have to fight each other like animals! We'll find another way out!" she proclaimed, her eyes begging with those of Calamity, who still seemed a bit more composed than his marefriend.
"There's no other way, Homage." Velvet whimpered weakly, "There's no other way out. ... No escape." she closed her eyes, and another tear ran down her face, "No hope."
"What the fuck has gotten into you!?" Finally, it seemed, Homage had found her temper again, "Seriously! You've been up shit's creek before, you got out safely every time, and now you're gonna give up after not even a week!?" she snapped, taking an angry step forward, "What the hell is wrong with you!?"
"B-but this is ... this is different." Velvet countered slowly, "It ... we just ..." she closed her eyes, sobbing, "We can't. There's no other way."
"But-"
"There ain't no other way, Homage." Calamity cut her off weakly. He locked eyes with her, and she could see the despair, the exhaustion, and the hopelesness in them. It broke her heart.
"There is another way!" the unicorn affirmed desperately. Knucks, seeming to get impatient, yanked the two ponies' collars warningly. "There ... there will be another way! Just give me time and I'll ... I'll figure something out!" she offered the pegasus with increasing despair, but he just shook his head.
"Nope." He replied briefly, once again locking eyes with her. "Ah appreciate it, but... if that's what it takes to get us outta here..." Homage wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she saw the corners of his mouth twitch upwards for just a second as he said, "Then' that's what we gotta do."
He turned his head to the side, resting it on Velvet Remedy's shoulders and closing his eyes. She, in turn, broke into another fit of muffled sobbing and blaming herself for all this.
Homage looked at the two, confused at that last bit Calamity had said, but before she could inquire any further, Knucks ran out of patience and gave the two ponies' bomb collars another hard yank, throwing them off their hooves and to the ground where he then proceeded to drag them out of the room.
"Bye bye~" Littlepip chanted happily, prancing around and after the two, "Get ready you two, I wanna see a show to remember!" she waved a hoof at the bundle, then closed the door behind them, gave a heavy sigh and turned to Homage with one of the happiest smiles Homage had ever seen on her. "What a lovely twist of fate, huh?"
"P-Pip..." Homage mumbled like thunderstruck. "How ... how can you ...?" she pointed a hoof at the now closed door, "These ponies ... they're your friends! You would have died for them if you-"
"Not now." Littlepip put her off with a quick flick of her hoof, trotting over to the door leading to her balcony and gushing to herself, "I can't believe they really wanna fight each other! This is better than all I could have ever imagined! They will fight! And I will watch!"
"Pip..." Homage tried to protest weakly, "Please..."
"Oh what a day." Littlepip chanted, placing her two hooves on the door handles and pushing it open, "What a lovely day!"
The short mare stepped out onto the balcony, her joyful look going down to the ponies working on the fields. Not too many looked up at their master's sudden outburst, and those who did were promptly rewarded with a whiplash to the back from nearby slavers.
"Listen up, slaves!" Littlepip shouted, the smile on her face going from ear to ear. Now all the slaves' heads were raised in an instant, along with these of the slavers.
"You're all off for the rest of the day!" she proclaimed happily. At the confused, unbelieving stares she received, she added, "Yes, all of you! There will be a big match in the pit for tonight, and I want all of you to be there to watch!"
A few seconds of silence followed, until an avalanche of excited, happy cheers broke loose. Homage, having joined her former friend on the balcony, looked down at the cheering masses... and felt a bitter sense of disgust in the back of her throat as she realized that, based on their shouts for another battle, most slaves down on the fields seemed more excited about the upcoming fight than about the free afternoon - a fight in which her two best friends would...
She had to swallow as she felt tears forming in her eyes again. She had to stop this! She had to do something!
But ... what could she do? Velvet Remedy and Calamity were both wearing their slaves collars, meaning that one wrong movement could cause them to...
She shook her head to clear away the gruesome images popping up in her mind.
And even if they could somehow get rid of their collars, there still was the belt of turrets about the premises - without these disabled, her friends would be turned to pinkish dust the second they set hoof outside the fence!
But she could do this! She would find a way! She'd be damned if she would just stand by and watch her friends kill themselves.
Okay, first she had to disable the turrets. Piece of cake, right? She just had to find the ... secret terminal or something -easy, right?- hack into it -like a walk in the park!- then she could disable them. Then all she had to do is sneak out of Littlepip's private quarters, into the holding cells, find a way to unlock her friends' bomb collars without triggering them -easiest thing in the world!- and somehow get past the guards, all before 7 o'clock.
Homage gave a long sigh, looking at the pony next to her whose look was still focused on the fields below them. Giving her a calculating glance, Homage wondered if she should try to attack her instead of going the sneaky path. She ... hated the thought of hurting her former lover, but her two friends' lives were at stake! And if she could save two ponies by assaulting one -no matter how much she still felt for that one- she... she wouldn't hesitate to do the right thing!
She bit her lip, fighting with herself, but then lowered her head, once again remembering that time was of the essence - and that she couldn't afford to just stand around. She had to act. And she had to act now!
With that thought in mind, Homage took a step back from Littlepip, getting ready to pounce on her the second the slaver would turn her head just a little further to the side. Keeping her look focused solely on the unicorn mare, she tensed the muscles in her legs to do what had to be done and- wait, why was her horn lighting up?
Click.
Even before Homage had seen the green aura around her friend's horn, she had already felt the cold touch of metal on her fur, and the dooming sensation of a collar being closed around her neck, tightening around her throat, and feeling like it was about to strangle her.
She opened her mouth, wanting to scream more out of instinct than anything else, but all that came out was a breathless gasp as one of her hooves shot upward, touching the bomb collar that now sat wrapped around her throat as well.
Homage stiffened as the harsh reality came crashing down on her:
She, too, was now just a push of a button away from a certain, gruesome death.
And now she really was choking; head dropping forward, dry heaving, and feeling like she was about to vomit from pure disgust and hopelessness.
"You don't think I'm this stupid, are you?" Littlepip said bluntly, shooting Homage a somber expression.
"Come on." she said, turning back around and tugging Homage's collar, "We've got a fight to look forward to."
The now all the more enslaved pony, dragged by her mistresses magic and not daring to resist so as to not set her collar off, followed her inside, being led to her cot like a brahmin.
"Lay down." Littlepip commanded her dryly, and Homage obeyed without backtalk, letting her head hang low, feeling... utterly powerless.
She had failed.
She should have come up with a plan; should have found a way to bring this all to a good ending.
But she had failed.
And now all that was left was the small, tiny bit of hope that Velvet Remedy and Calamity could help themselves.
Because she, quite obviously, was the most incapable savior Equestria had ever seen.
She closed her eyes, letting her head sink onto her hooves, tears wetting her eyes.
Velvet Remedy was right.
There was no hope left.
Chapter 5
The day had come and gone, and soon enough it was evening again. The main hall of the Misty Hills Correctional facility was filled to the last spot with slavers. Ponies were standing gathered around the pit - chatting, laughing, and exchanging bets for the upcoming battle.
Most, if not all of them had heard about the story behind the two ponies that were about to face each other - both former friends of the big boss, way back in the days. Rumor had it they had turned their back on her one day; shot her in the back while she wasn't looking, and left her out to die in the wasteland. Only through their betrayal, so ponies said, had the boss become the pony she was today.
Apparently she used to be some form of social justice fighter before - walking the wastes, fighting raiders, slavers, and just about anything else that didn't fit into her image of a perfect world. Though saying goes being shot in the back by her friends shook her to her very foundations, and eventually led her to taking over the prison and starting her own thing here.
And now, it seemed, her friends had returned, possibly in an attempt to make amends, and the boss was about to get a first-row view of the two ponies going at each others throats.
Others might wonder what was going through the bosses head in these moments, knowing that her two former best friends were about to kill each other at her command, but most of the crowd, including both the slavers gathered around the small arena, as well as the slaves eagerly watching from their cells, were too preoccupied with the prospect of another pit-fight to waste any thoughts on that matter.
Calamity swallowed as his hooves touched the still bloody spot where Sunbeam had been decapitated a few days earlier. He took in a short breath of the hot, sticky air, and held back a flinch as he heard the door behind him being shut. The ambient noise in the hall was enormous, filled with cheers and shouts for blood as the door behind his opponent was closed as well, but it all seemed muffled and distant to him.
He tried to drown it all out; to not think about why he had come here, or what the crowd looking down at him expected him to do.
Feeling his throat getting tighter, Calamity slowly, reluctantly raised his head, his eyes meeting those of the pony he was supposed to kill today.
Velvet Remedy didn't look any better than him. Her mane was ruffled; matted, and getting increasingly thinner, the stress and terror of the weeks that lay behind her presumably leading to hair loss. Her fur looked ... just as awful, really, And her eyes... oh goddesses, her eyes. Once shining with hope and empathy as one of the last genuinely kind ponies in this wasteland, they now looked nothing short of empty... and hopeless. She, just like Calamity, knew what was about to happen, and from the look on her face, it brought her just as much pain as him.
"Gooood evening, everypony!" the cheerful voice of the announcer tore through the hall as the white stallion once again standing in the middle of the arena started heating up the mood, "Welcome to a spontaneous and very special pit-fight!"
The crowd outside stomped in approval, causing Calamity's ears to fold back from the noise. Bitterness was crawling up his throat as the integrity of things caught up with him - what a great feeling it was, hearing other ponies shout for his death.
"Now, what makes this fight so special, some of you may ask!" the announcer continued undeterred, "Well friends, why don't we have a look at our fighters for tonight?" he turned towards Calamity, pointing a hoof at the pegasus, "In this corner we have one of the rarest creatures you'll ever find in the wasteland! His name is Calamity and-"
"Get on with it already!" an annoyed shout came from the upper ranks, causing the announcer to cut himself off mid-sentence. His equally irritated look went upwards to search for the pony that had so impudently interrupted him.
However, as his eyes met those of Littlepip and he realized that the big boss herself was getting impatient, his head sank back, and he muttered a weak, "Alright, let's go!" into his microphone before spinning around on the spot and trotting past Calamity and towards the exit door behind him.
The pegasus' eyes rested on him as he walked over to the gate; a slaver from the other side unlocked it, the announcer stepped out, and the door was swiftly closed and locked again.
With a sigh, Calamity turned his head back again, knowing that there was no way back now, and positioned himself with his back facing the closed door.
Slowly, with shaky steps, the two opponents walked into the middle of the arena where the announcer had stood moments ago, and where their weapons were now laying ready.
Calamity didn't quite understand why the slavers had allowed them to choose from a wide variety of melee weapons before the fight. His best guess was that they expected to make the fight more challenging... or something. Maybe just make it more bloody and brutal.
Slowly, the pegasus leaned forward, picking up the tool he had chosen to be his murder weapon: a crowbar - simple, handy, and good for a quick and -at least somewhat- painless death.
Velvet Remedy, now standing only a few feet away from him, bowed down to pick her weapon as well. Pacifistic as she was, she had opted for a metal riot shield. While it didn't seem like much, Calamity was sure it would get the job done - one way or another. An intense shudder ran through his whole body.
He took another deep breath, wiggling the crowbar around in his mouth, then led a hoof up to bis bomb collar, making sure it was sitting properly. The last thing he wanted was for it to go off sometime during the fight, as it might end up killing both of them at once.
The shouts coming from the crowd became more intense, shouting for the two to begin already, and Calamity could feel his legs begin to shake.
His look went back to his opponent, and through a small acryic glass-window in the shield he could see the eyes of his lover - she was crying, knowing all too well what the slavers expected her to do; knowing that they wouldn't be content until one of them was dead.
He kept his eyes locked with her for a few moments, trying to figure out how to end this as quickly and painlessly as possible, but was horrified to see that his lover had apparently begun establishing her own plans: with a loud, hoarse, and utterly desperate scream, Velvet Remedy had begun running - and was now charging right at Calamity, riot shield held up high.
He spread his wings, wanting to get himself out of the line of fire, but it was too late. He never expected a pony like Velvet to develop such amounts of sheer strength, but...
The shield's impact was like that of a brick wall. His ears still filled with his friend's battle cry, he could feel his body being dragged along by the shield like a dead fly on a windscreen.
Only seconds later, Calamity let out a pained groan as he collided with the wire mesh of the door, and he was sandwiched between it and Velvet's shield. The crowbar, his only real means of defense, was knocked out of his mouth, almost knocking out a tooth in the process, as it got stuck somewhere in the wire mesh.
"V-Velvet!" he barely managed to gasp as the air was forced out of his lungs, "Velvet please!"
He was pressed gainst the wire mesh fence, metal digging into his face, but was relieved to see that his pleading seemed to have some form of effect on his friend at least. Moments later, the unicorn mare pulled back, making the limp pegasus drop to the ground like a wet sack.
It seemed the normally so pacifistic unicorn was only slowly realizing how much power had been behind this first charge as she watched her friend lie on the ground; the attack clearly had taken its toll on the weakened pegasus. Dropping her shield like thunderstruck and leaning over her friend with eyes wide in horror Velvet gasped, "I ... I'm sorry, Calamity! I just-"
She was cut off as the pegasus used this short moment of distraction to deliver a blow into her lower belly, causing her to flinch and retreat with a pained yelp.
Not missing a beat, Calamity jumped back to his hooves, placing a hoof on her shoulder and shoving her away before taking flight to the other end of the arena.
Velvet, still seeming affected by the punch to the guts, looked at him, and in an instant the pain and regret on her face seemed to turn into a boiling rage. Giving a furious growl, she got back to her hooves and started chasing after him, only stopping for a moment to pick her shield up again.
The hunt went on for a few moments. Calamity used his speed and agility as a pegasus, running along the side of the round arena, trying to come up with... something. However, Velvet was hot on his heels, shield once again raised up high.
Calamity felt his heart in his mouth; his veins were filled with adrenaline; eyes wide. He bit his lip as his hunt with Velvet brought him back to the spot where it had begun earlier, and where his crowbar was still firmly lodged between the wire mesh door and its makeshift-doorframe.
His eyes narrowed, heart kicking into a higher gear.
Here goes...
Biting his lip and knowing that it was now or never, he raised a hoof towards his collar, fumbling around the lock, and feeling relief wash over him as the mechanism came loose with a soft click, and the now disabled collar slipped off his neck with ease.
He kept his eyes locked onto the spot where the crowbar was still stuck at around mouth-level, hoping that Velvet had managed to free herself from her collar as well, then leaned his head forward, bowing down as he ran, and slipped through under the crowbar with ease.
Only split seconds later, there was a loud clank as Velvet Remedy's riot shield collided with his crowbar, followed by a metallic whine as the force of her impact pryed on the door, until finally the lock holding it in place sprang open with a metallic whine, and dropped to the concrete ground, and the door sprung open.
"Just ... just a little further to the left..." Calamity softly whispered, fumbling with the screwdriver in his mouth. Lockpicking had never been his best discipline, and the fact that what he did basically compared to an open-heart surgery conducted with barely enough light to see his hoof in front of his face didn't make things any easier.
He could feel Velvet Remedy draw in a breath to say something, but then cut herself off, too tense to bring out a word. Hell, he was sure he couldn't speak either if his life was completely in the hooves of somepony else, no matter how much she trusted that somepony.
A few more moments of tense silence, only occasionally broken by the nightly ambience that poured into their small cell, then...
"That should do it." he said, to himself this time, as he held the bobby pin in place with a wingtip, and started to gently spin the screwdriver with his mouth. Velvet's body tensed up, and he could tell she was fighting to stop herself from trembling; struggling to remain motionless at all cost.
He could feel sweat run across his forehead, having to put a literal blindfold on his mind to stop himself from thinking what would happen if he would screw this up. He had seen bomb collars go off more than just once in his life, and the results were hardly ever what one could call pleasant.
No! No, he couldn't think about that! He just had to focus! Just... just turn the screwdriver a little further to the left, slow and steady... make sure it doesn't block and...
His body tensed up, the world around him seeming to come to a standstill as his gaze locked onto the lock in front of him, completely drowning out everything else.
Just a little further... a little further and...
Ae had to contain himself to not let out a shout of victory as the bomb collar around Velvet Remedy's neck gave in with a soft click and fell to the ground with a muffled thud.
Velvet Remedy, giving a long, drawn-out but utterly relieved sigh, softly sank to the ground where she caught her breath, hear head dropping forward - thankfully still connected to her body.
Calamity, now giving a relieved sigh as well, lowered the screwdriver in his mouth and brought himself down to his lover. "Told ya I still have it in me." he said, smiling more out of relief than anyhting else.
To be completely honest, him managing to remove his friend's bomb collar was probably more attributable to pure luck than anything else - beginning with the fact that he had found both, the screwdriver and two bobby pins within the course of the past day.
The screwdriver he had stumbled over on the way back from his shift earlier and had. Surprisingly enough, it was lying on the ground in front of their cell - unseeming, unnoticed. Calamity hadn't missed a beat - whoever had left this here, and whyever it was lying there... really, it didn't matter. The second he had seen it, he had known what to do and, thanks to the slaver leading him there being focused on his gun instead of his slaves, had managed to pick it up and hide it in his mouth before anyone had noticed. The bobby pins had been laying under their shared cot earlier - Calamity suspected they had been leftover from the previous cell-dweller and simply fell out with time, going unnoticed by the two dwellers up until now.
Well, and now here he was. He never thought he could pull it off, but finally, Velvet Remedy was free from the mortal threat around her neck - a fact he promptly appreciated by gently caressing the stressed fur on her neck with a hoof.
Despite everything that had happened during the past days, Calamity could feel a smile form on his face. This ... this was a first step, right? A first step on the long road to freedom from this hell.
Of course, there still was quite a couple of things to get done, but the thought that, technically, Velvet Remedy could simply walk out of here now did manage to lighten his mood. Of course, this was utterly impossible - if not due to the slavers guarding the place, then simply due to the fact that the two were sitting in a locked prison cell, secured by centuries-old but still perfectly functional locks. However, having the collar removed did raise his hopes quite dramatically - it was a shimmer of hope; something to hold on to, and build on.
"So ... you thought about our plan again?" he asked his friend softly, his hoof continuing to gently massage the sore skin around her neck.
The charcoal unicorn nodded gently. "Yes." she said softly, "I ... don't really like it, but I suppose it is the best alternative we have at this point."
"Ayep." he replied briefly, "'s what Ah was thinkin'. Trust me, Ah wouldn't suggest somethin' like that if I knew that there's an easier way."
"Of course." Again, Velvet nodded, giving a soft sigh from her friend's attentions to her sore neck. "It's just ... we have to make this look real. Littlepip is smart. She'll notice if we're just pretending."
"Ayep." Calamity agreed briefly.
"That's why I'm so nervous. If we can't completely convince her, she'll outsmart us." she bristled, "Like she did with Homage."
Calamity nodded. "Yeah. Don't wanna end up with a dart gun in our side." Casting a quick look to his friend, he added, "Not again, anyway."
Velvet Remedy frowned, visibly struggling with the memories. She shook her head, bringing the subject back to the matter at hand. "Should we try again?"
"Sure," Calamity affirmed, "Let's hear it."
On cue, the mare next to him slowly got to her hooves -the stress from the bomb collar-removal was still evident in her body- and began began to tremble. Calamity could see her face tear up in the dim light.
"W-why!? Why are you doing this!?" Velvet whimpered, "We ... we don't want to fight! We just want to be free!" her face contorted in staged pain - a sight that, despite the fact that it wasn't real, made Calamity want to put his arms around her and comfort her. "Why are you making us do this!?" she asked the pegasus with tear-stained eyes, "We ... we used to be friends!"
That caused Calamity to flinch softly. Heck, he knew Velvet was a good singer - who knew she was a decent actor as well?
"Okay..." he nodded affirmingly, swallowing. "Guess that'll do it."
"You think so?" Velvet asked, her voice back to normal, albeit slightly hoarse now, as she wiped the tears from her face.
"Yeah." he agreed, then cracked a thin smile, "Heck, you almost convinced me back there!"
The unicorn wiped her face again, but couldn't hide the ghost of a smile on her face. "Okay then." she said softly, sitting down again, "Should we go see her tomorrow?"
Again, Calamity nodded, "We should. ... But first..." he picked up the unlocked bomb collar with his mouth, and gently, reluctantly lifted it back over Velvet Remedy's neck, "Better keep that close to you. Wouldn't want anyone catching you walking around without it."
"You're right." she replied, giving a soft nod, although the discomfort about feeling the life-threatening device around her neck again was obvious. Her eyes travelled to the screwdriver laying on the ground in front of them, then to Calamity's still active bomb collar, nervousness forming in her gaze. "S-should I ...?"
"Think ya can do it?"
"I ... hope so." Velvet replied hesitantly, "I mean, I've picked a couple of locks, but that was with my horn." she said, looking up at her still immobilized horn. Contrary to the 'traditional' closing mechanism on the bomb collar, the ring could only be removed with magic, meaning that she had to remain a de facto earth pony until the two were out of here - not a pleasant circumstance by any means, but nothing that could be changed at the moment.
"Ah'm sure you can do it." Calamity said, working on an encouraging smile. "Just ... relax."
"Okay." his friend said with a short nod, then bowed down to pick up the screwdriver with her mouth. Calamity used his wing to fumble one of the two remaining bobby pins into the lock on his collar, then could feel his muscles tense as Velvet carefully inserted the screwdriver.
"Ah believe in you." He whispered softly as he could feel her fumbling with the bobby pin, before slowly, carefully, turning the lock.
Now it was now or never!
Feeling his heart in his mouth Calamity spread his wings, stopping almost on the spot. Time seemed to pass in slow motion as he spun around and flew back to where Velvet was sitting on the ground, knocked back to her haunches by the sheer force of the impact.
Without hesitating, the pegasus grabbed her foreleg and pulled her back to her hooves, a little rougher than he would have under normal circumstances. Hearing the slavers above him gasp as the reality of what was happening seemed to dawn on them, he reached under her arms and pulled her up with him.
All was going to plan.
Velvet Remedy, despite still being a bit dizzy from being knocked back by her shield, reacted just in time. Hastily leaning forward just as she felt her lover's hooves around her, she reached out and bit down hard on the handle of the riot shield - a motion that still felt all to bewildering to the unicorn.
But she did her best to keep herself composed. They only had this one shot at escaping; she could not afford to mess this up!
Groaning from the effort, she could already feel her jaws begin to ache from the effort, just as her partner flapped his wings and the two lifted off the ground.
She felt her body tense up, her eyes widening, ears twitching as screams of outrage filled the hall, the slavers finally seeming to realize what the two ponies were up to.
It wasn't long before the first shots rang out; yells of dismay mixing with rifles and shotguns going off. Velvet pulled her head in, the thought of ponies shooting at her sending an unpleasant shudder down her spine. Mere split seconds later, her head jerked back as the first bullets collided with her shield; bottles, rocks, and goddesses knows what else followed almost instantly.
The mare suppressed a squeal, forcing her teeth a little tighter together, and wrapping her rear hooves -her front hooves were still held tight by Calamity, who seemed to be struggling himself- around the sides of the shield for additional support.
She groaned, pain shooting through her mouth as bullet after bullet collided with her shield... goodness, she could see the metal bulge out from the impact!
Velvet forced her eyes shut in an attempt to stop panic from taking over her mind. She just... had to hold on! The shield was large enough to cover both of them, and if only she could hold on a few seconds, longer, they would be free! Free!
She grimaced from the exertion, tears running down her cheeks. The pain in her mouth was overwhelming, and it was only by sheer willpower that she managed to keep up the shield as Calamity flew them over the slavers' heads and up the single set of stairs.
Just... just a little longer! Two seconds, one second...
Calamity let out a colossal gasp as the pair arrived at the top end of the stairs and he, not as gently as he'd want, dropped Velvet and the shield, before coming to a not-so-gentle landing in front of her.
Two seconds. The two ponies needed two seconds to collect themselves, briefly catch their breath, and force themselves back to their hooves, freedom within reach!
Not missing a beat, Velvet Remedy and Calamity got under way again, running up the second set of stairs that would take them up to the prison's visitor center and eventually to freedom.
Thankfully, in her surge of excitement about the upcoming battle, Littlepip had made sure that everypony in the whole facility was gathered around the pit to watch the fight, giving the escapees an unexpected head start. Unbeknownst to them, there was only one mare close enough to them to actually catch up; a mare that had started running as soon as the escape attempt had begun, and was quickly closing in on the escapees with an unrelenting determination.
Regardless, both of them knew that there was no time to waste as they dashed up the stairs, arriving in the mostly darkened visitor center, before taking a sharp turn to the side and running towards the hallway that would take them to the main entrance.
Velvet Remedy's ears twitched as they picked up the all too familiar sounds of gunfire on the stairs behind them, accompanied by voices. Voices that announced not necessarily pleasant things should they get their hooves on the breakaways.
But she didn't care. She knew that at the end of this corridor she would find freedom; a way out of this hell! A way back into the Equestrian Wasteland; and a way to put an end to this madness. All she had to do was-
Her breath caught in her throat as her look shot to the side for just a second, and she gasped: Calamity wasn't with her anymore!
Within split seconds her head shot around, and she spotted the pegasus standing in the hallway a few yards behind her. She stopped abruptly, sliding to a halt on the bare tiles, a shout on her lips. However, before she could say anyhting, the pegasus pointed an outstretched arm at the exit looming at the end of the corridor and shouted, "Go! Ah'll distract 'em!"
"What!?" she shouted back, her eyes wide. This... this wasn't part of the plan! "No!" she affirmed, furiously shaking her head, "No way! I'm not leaving without-"
"Go already!" Calamity screamed at her, clenching his teeth, "Get outta here and get help! Ah'll manage!"
Velvet remained silent, looking at her lover with eyes wide in shock. She didn't know what came over her, but before she knew it, she found herself under way again, running towards the desired door leading into freedom.
She... she couldn't bear the thought of leaving her lover behind. But... but if her getting out meant she could come back and free Calamity from this hell... it was a chance she had to take.
Pressing her lips together, she heard the slavers running up the stairs, and Calamity dashing out through the rear door leading into the inner yard.
She just... had to trust him.
It was only a few seconds later when she arrived in front of the exit door. Sliding to a halt, she reared up and placed her front hoof on the double doors to kick them open as fast as possible. She could already smell the evening air from outside, freedom just seconds away! She just had to-
"Velvet stop!"
The unicorn froze on the spot.
This voice wasn't that of Calamity. Neither was it that of Littlepip or one of the slavers.
Her head spun around, and her eyes widened as she spotted a gray unicorn coming running down the hall towards her with eyes wide in panic.
"Homage?" Velvet asked, her hoof still resting on the already opened door. "What are you-"
"Stop!" Homage shouted again as she closed in on Velvet... and leapt. "For the love of Celestia, don't go through that door!"
"W..." Velvet gasped as the shorter unicorn straight-up tackled her, throwing her off her hooves and holding her pinned to the ground, "Why!?" she squealed, terror in her voice. She was... she was this close! This close to getting out of here and escape this nightmare once and for all!
"You..." Homage gasped breathlessly, only slowly catching her breath as she lay atop Velvet Remedy, "You're gonna die!"
"What!?" it burst out of Velvet; adrenaline and pure outrage at the fact that she was being kept this close from freedom making her forget about her normally so good manners, and giving her voice a sharp edge. "Get off me!"
"Please!" Homage begged again through heavy gasps, seeming to have trouble getting her thoughts sorted out as Velvet squirmed, trying to throw the lighter unicorn off, and she struggled to hold her down, "I-I've seen it myself! If... if you go through that door you're gonna-"
"Well, would you look at that?"
There it was again. That voice. That voice that reminded Velvet Remedy just how much she had fucked up. Sounding worryingly calm and filled with a natural superiority, it seemed to taunt her with every word its owner spoke.
Velvet's head spun around. The unicorn trotting down the hallway and slowly approaching her wasn't the first thing she noticed; neither was it the needle gun coming flying into her direction. No, the first thing she noticed was a short, stinging pain in her flank, almost similar to the sting of a mosquito.
She didn't scream. She didn't have time to scream. It all happened within split seconds, and before her mind could even process what had happened, or what that meant, she could already feel her body weakening, her mind becoming foggy as she began to slip from reality. Briefly, she felt the weight of the mare lifting off her back.
Then, blurred and distorted, she heard a voice. Homage's voice.
"I'm sorry, Velvet." she heard through her hazy mind, her friend's voice sounding as if she spoke through water. Sluggishly, the poison doing its work, Velvet's head drifted to the side, her eyes catching sight of Homage who looked back with her with tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry." the shorter unicorn breathed softly, before closing her eyes and lowering her head.
"You really are starting to learn, huh?" her eyes already drifting shut, Velvet could hear Littlepip's commanding voice, sounding distant and blurred to her as she struggled to keep her head up.
Fighting a losing battle against the poison, she struggled to turn her head towards the exit door. The exit door that would grant her release from this nightmare; release Homage had... had denied her. Had Velvet been sober, the realization would have hit her like a sledgehammer. Now, however, it was just another remark popping up in the blurring mess her mind was descending into.
Groaning, the charcoal mare struggled to raise a hoof, yelling at her muscles as they refused to work. Almost in vain, she stretched out her arm towards the saving exit - red light of the sunset was shining in through the open door. She could... she could feel the breeze against her fur. Just... just a little... further...
"Prevented a breakout without anyone having to tell you. Guess I really did underestimate you." Littlepip's voice became more and more distant as Velvet lost touch with reality, and from the corner of her half-lidded eyes she saw her looking down at Velvet's pitiful form. "Would have loved to see the fireworks, though. Oh well. Guess we'll just have to..."
Her words faded away, her voice turning into white noise in Velvet's head as her body lost the fight, and her eyes drifted shut. A last, weak groan, and she found herself falling back into an all too familiar emptiness.
It must have been hours until she finally came around again.
She... didn't know. She couldn't be bothered to care. Her head was pounding, mouth dry, and her body felt like it had been thoroughly treated with a sledgehammer.
A short breath escaped her throat as she slowly drifted back into reality. Slowly, laborously, she opened her eyes, struggling to lift her head.
She was sitting in a darkened room. The walls and floor were covered in filthy white tiles, and only a small, shattered window to her right allowed a bit of sunlight into the room.
A groan escaped her throat as she lowered her head again. Her vision was swimming, head pounding heavily. The anesthetic was still heavy and her bones, and she could feel it all too well. Velvet Remedy groaned again as she slowly sat up, and a jangling sound-
She froze.
That sound... that sound!
She felt her anesthetic-ridden heart skip a beat as the sound occurred again, almost simultaneous with every little movement she made. Gasping, her look darted to her side... and her eyes widened. With horror she noticed that her forelegs were tied up and connected to the wall with thick iron shackles. She was... she was chained to the wall!
Her eyes widened in horror, her still drowsy mind picking up the pace as the events of the past hours rushed past her mind's eye. Of how she and Calamity had faced each other in the pit, in arguably one of the best ruses they had ever come up with. Of how their plan had worked out at first; how she had dashed up the stairs into the visitor center, of how Calamity had...
Her mind tripped as she thought of her lover. He had stayed behind! But where was he? Was he alright!?
But even before her thoughts could drift off to her partner in chains, her mind was back to recalling what had happened before. How she had stood in front of the open door, freedom from this hell just a step away; how Homage had approached her from behind, and how she had ... had...
Velvet Remedy could feel her throat getting tighter, heart pounding. Had Homage really stopped her from escaping? Had she ... had she already given up hope so soon? Or could it be that ... had she gone down the same path as Littlepip? Had the fallen heroine already corrupted Homage's mind enough to make her follow her path? To make her... make her hate Velvet and her friends?
Oh goddesses ... Velvet felt tears forming in her eyes, her face contorting in pain.
Why? For the love of Luna, why? She had already lost Littlepip, she couldn't lose Homage too!
Why was this all happening? Celestia! Luna! Which higher deity had she infuriated to deserve this?
She clenched her teeth, sadness and pain quickly turning into anger; into a furious, boiling rage. She could feel the muscles in her forelegs tense, putting stress on the chains connecting her hooves to the wall. Giving a noise that was half-scream, half-growl she shouted out her frustration into the darkness of the abandoned room.
She didn't know what would happen next, but fuck if she cared! She just wanted it to stop! For it all to be over! To be back in Tenpony Tower, watching Littlepip work on that wretched needle gun - the goddesses-damned thing that had started it all.
She took in a deep breath, preparing to unleash another shout of frustration, but it caught in her throat as the sound of a light switch resounded through the room, and seconds later she found herself exposed in the glaring light of bright, pale neon tubes mounted to the ceiling.
Groaning in pain, she forced her eyes shut and directed her look at the ground. She could already see her mind drawing up images of what was going to happen next. She, a slave in the eyes of her tormentors, had tried to escape, and had been captured - it didn't take an arcane scientist to know that... that punishment would await her now. She had seen it plenty of times in the past.
An intense shiver ran through her spine as her mind was flooded with images of gruesome, brutal imagery of what she had seen in the wastes, and she forced herself to direct her thoughts elsewhere.
Slowly, she struggled to lift her head.
Her shoulders sank.
Down a flight of stairs and into what she now recognized as an empty room with plain, gray concrete walls, was coming a pony. A pony she had... had once held dearly.
She had to look away. Seeing her formerly heroic friend wearing raider armor was a sight she would never get used to.
"Wakey wakey, sleepyhead." Littlepip said with a mock friendliness as she came walking over to the captured mare, seemingly without a care in the world, her steps echoing through the empty hall.
She stopped in front of Velvet, but said nothing for a while. Maybs she was just enjoying the sight of the unicorn mare being tied up and helpless.
Velvet kept her head hanging low, knowing that any second she spent looking at her 'friend' could just cause her to get overwhelmed with emotions again; she really didn't want to go through another breakdown.
"You know..." Littlepip began after a few moments, strutting to and fro in front of Velvet Remedy. "I didn't think you could actually pull this off. Tricking me into believing you'd actually turn against each other to be free." she stopped suddenly, fixing Velvet with a half-serious grin, "Well played, really."
The thought of Calamity caused another surge of tears to well up inside Velvet, and only with a solid effort could she keep herself from sobbing loudly.
"Where is he!?" she wanted to ask; to shout out, right into Pip's face. But she contained herself, knowing that if she would get a reply at all, it'd probably just unsettle her further. She didn't know where he was; and who knows, maybe Pip would end up making things up just to mess with Velvet.
But Calamity could take care of himself - that she knew. Or rather, that she had to force herself to believe in order to not freak out entirely at the prospect of a pegasus being at the mercy of savage, brutal wasteland-dwellers.
"Now..." her tormentress spoke up again, continuing her walk in front of her prisoner. "I've been thinking a lot about what to do with you now. After all..." she stopped a second time, shooting Velvet a glare, "You tried to fuck with me. And I hate that." she declared, her voice dropping drastically.
She remained still like this for another second, then shook her head and continued her walk, her horn lighting up. "Of course, I could just have you executed..." she stopped. "BLAM!"
Despite her best efforts, Velvet couldn't help but to flinch as the revolver came flying from Pip's flank seemingly at the speed of light, was lined up with her face with the barrel resting right between her eyes, and the trigger was pulled with a soft 'click', revealing once again an empty cylinder.
But she tried to keep her poise up, not wanting to give Littlepip the pleasure of looking like a helpless little lamb, no matter how close she might be to being just that.
"But that'd be boring, wouldn't it?" the mare in question asked, cracking a smile and pulling the empty gun away from Velvet's face. "Instead I, no..." she cut herself off, doing a double take, "Actually it was Homage who came up with this idea. Genius, that pony. Really."
Velvet could feel her heart sink as yet another part of her hopes went down in flames. So her worries had been right.
Homage was now one of them.
She took in a deep breath, letting her head sink, and shivered softly. This ... this couldn't get any worse, could it?
"Now..." Pip spoke up again after a moment as several hoofsteps came walking down the stairs she had come from a few minutes ago. "I know you've been through a lot during the past days, so I thought I'd spare you from the punishment breakaways normally get. See it as a token of our... friendship." she said, unable to hide the disgust in her voice at that last word.
Worried, but nevertheless confused, Velvet Remedy slowly raised her head again. Her eyes widened as she watched a group of three ponies coming walking down the stares - two slavers and a slave, based on their appearances. The slave -the shorter pony, walking between the two taller ones- was connected to the two slavers with a thick metal chain around their neck, and had a black bag over their head, concealing their face.
"Instead..." Littlepip continued swiftly, turning towards the two slavers, "I elected someone else to take that bullet for you." she explained, cocking her head into the direction of the slave. "And I mean that quite literally, really." she added, grinning slyly as she once again raised her revolver. With a practiced ease, the cylinder was flipped to the side and loaded with bullets from a satchel around her waist.
"Who ... what are you ...?" Velvet Remedy stuttered, her mouth running dry from the quick turn of events. Of course, the most obvious candidate for this kind of treatment would have been Calamity, but that pony under the hood was an earth pony and, on second look, way too small for a fully grown pegasus.
So Pip had just elected a random slave to be ... to be executed? She could feel sickness crawling up her throat at the mere thought of ... of ... this!
But ... but that pony seemed familiar. Velvet couldn't put her hoof on it; the memory of where she had seen this brown coat before was drowning somewhere in the chaos that was her memory of the past 24 hours.
"So," Littlepip spoke up a few moments later, as the slavers had left the captured slave to their mistress and had left. Her revolver had already found its way over to the poor chained-up pony, "Where should the bullet go?" shooting Velvet a smug grin, she explained, "I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let you decide~"
Breathless, her eyes wide in shock, Velvet Remedy forced her mouth open, but all that came out was a disbelieving gasp. She ... she knew that her friend had changed; had become ... different, but this ... this ...
This was just too much for her to handle. She wanted to protest; to fight, to beg; anything to stop that poor slave from being killed, just because of her stupidity.
But she couldn't. No matter how much she struggled, no matter how much she fought with herself, the integrity of things had simply left her speechless.
"Clueless, huh?" the slaver mare said, keeping her revolver pointed at the slave's head. "Here, let me help your memory out." her horn glowed a bit brighter, and in one swift motion the black hood was removed from the slave's head, revealing a light brown mare underneath.
No, not a mare, more an adolescent filly; a young mare at best. That very same young mare that had stood in the pit not too long ago; that very same young mare Velvet had bumped into on her first day here - Fallen Leaf.
Her mouth was covered in duct tape, rendering her mute, though her eyes, staring daggers at the slaver mare, spoke volumes about the things she would like to do if she weren't tied up.
"So," Pip said with a smirk, "now that you can see that cute little face, where would you like to-"
"NO!"
Finally, Velvet Remedy had found her voice again. And it burst out of her with the power of a thousand thunderstorms. No. Not ... not this pony. Fallen ... Fallen Leaf, right? No, this ... this just couldn't be!
"No!" she yelled again at the top of her lungs. Her voice was at the verge of breaking from exhaustion, but she kept pushing on nonetheless. "No!"
But it seemed Littlepip had expected this sort of outburst, and simply gave a soft chuckle. "What's gotten you so worked up? You could almost think you know this mare." she asked tauntingly.
"You ... you ...!" Velvet growled, her despair veering into a boiling rage, "You worthless abomination of a pony! How can you do this!?"
But Pip just grinned at her lightheartedly, ignoring the insults. "Struck a nerve, huh?" she said, wiggling her eyebrows. "Knew it."
"You can't just- ... no!" Velvet shouted again, struggling to find words.
"What, should I kill you instead?" Littlepip asked dryly, shrugging.
"Yes!" it burst out of Velvet, long before she could even begin to think about just what she was saying. "Yes! Just ... just don't kill her!"
The slaver mare hesitated at that, then raised a hoof to her chin in a reflective stance, directing her look at the ceiling.
"Nah." she finally concluded curtly, "That'd be too easy."
And with that she turned towards the filly again, who was still eyeing her with a hateful look, her mouth moving underneath the tape. "Alright, I got places to be, so let's make this quick." she announced nonchalantly.
In an aura of green magic, the revolver floated up to Fallen Leaf's head, pressing against her temple, ready to fire a deadly shot at a moment's notice.
"NO!" It burst out of Velvet again. The charcoal unicorn shot forward, but was restrained by the chains binding her to the wall, their unrelenting clatter reminding Velvet all too clearly that there was no breaking away. "No, please! I'll do anything!"
Littlepip just grinned dryly at that. "Please." she said, cocking an eyebrow, "If there was anything you could still give me, I would've already taken it." she grinned a sick grin at her former friend, "So just lean back and enjoy the show!"
Velvet Remedy could see it. She could see it right in front of her eyes. The wall behind the filly, splattered with blood and gore; her lifeless body falling to the ground; another innocent soul, doomed because of her actions.
She couldn't let this happen!
Bursting forward again, fighting against her shackles for all she was worth, Velvet watched the trigger slowly being pulled, and in the heat of the moment shouted out the only reasonable sentence that seemed to come across her mind.
"I'll fight you!" she screamed out with all of her remaining power, then fell back onto her back as the shackles yanked her legs, "Just... just the two of us! One on one! Like you said!"
Thanks to whatever divine intervention, that made Littlepip hesitate, and turn her head towards Velvet. However, she was not lowering the revolver that was still firmly resting against Fallen Leaf's head.
"Really?" the slaver asked, cocking an eyebrow in what seemed like genuine interest.
"Yes, really!" Velvet shouted with wide eyes, "I'll do it! Just ... just don't kill her!"
"Hmmm..." Littlepip mused, seeming to contemplate for a second.
Finally, the revolver sank, and simultaneously a very, very broad grin grew on the slaver mare's face.
"Alllright then." she cooed, and her gun was stored back in its holster as she came walking towards the charcoal unicorn. "I'm glad you've made up your mind at last. Knucks!" she shouted, turning her head towards the stairs, where promptly the blue unicorn slaver came walking, accompanied by a light red earth pony mare.
"Get them back to their cells." Littlepip commanded, cocking her head into the direction of Fallen Leaf, then Velvet Remedy, "And prepare the pit for another fight tonight." she grinned, revealing her teeth, "And tell them it's going to get messy."
Chapter 6
A few minutes later, Velvet Remedy was walked through the pale hallway and back to her cell by the blue unicorn slaver. She kept her head hanging low as they stopped in front of the cell door, and the slaver raised a keyring to unlock the door.
She ... she didn't want to think. She couldn't think. All this ... everything that had happened over the course of the past 24 hours, it was just too much for her to handle.
The hope; the certainty that it would all be good again soon enough; the only thing that had kept her going ever since she and Calamity had been captured, it was gone now. She wouldn't escape. She wouldn't get her friends out of here. And she wouldn't reform her corrupted friend, and make it all like it used to be.
No, it was all over now. A few hours, half a day at best, then she would have to face her former friend in the pit, and fight until... until...
She swallowed.
She ... she wouldn't survive. Even if she could get herself to actually try and attack Littlepip, Velvet was sure that she wouldn't stand a chance against the fallen heroine, especially without her magic. Velvet had never been one for fights; her skills in combat, safe for supporting roles, were practically nonexistent.
Besides, based on what she had seen during the past days, Pip was not only well-trained in close combat, but also highly determined to put an end to her friend's life in whatever crazed frenzy of revenge she was in.
Velvet gave a deep sigh as her door slid open, and she stepped inside without protest. What point was there in resisting now, if her life would be over in a few hours anyway?
She shook her head, feeling her mind reel and grasp for straws now that the end seemed inevitable.
Who knew, maybe Calamity could teach her the one or other thing about fighting, so that she could survive for at least a few minutes instead of mere seconds?
...
Calamity!
And just like that, she could feel her face lighten up at the thought of seeing her lover again. Even ... even if she wouldn't survive tonight, at least she could spend her final hours with the one she liked most in this world!
Biting her lip to fight back tears, she slowly looked up - and could feel her heart shrink even further.
"...where is he?" she muttered under her breath as her look glid over the empty cell room.
"Where is he!?" she asked again, more direct this time, as her head shot around, focusing the slaver who was busy locking the door behind her.
The blue stallion ignored her, pretending to not have heard her at all.
"Where is he!?" Velvet barked, running towards the door and slamming her hooves against the metal bars, all sadness forgotten as a sudden anger overwhelmed her, "Tell me! Tell me where he is!"
"Don't know. Don't care." The unicorn slaver replied bluntly, turning the key and locking the door with his magic.
"Listen here you son of a whore." Velvet hissed, her voice becoming threateningly low as she leaned forward, glaring at the lightly armored stallion. "You better tell me right now where you brought my friend, or so help me Celestia, I will-"
She fell silent abruptly as a blue hoof collided with her face, throwing her back and making her see stars for a few moments.
"Shut it, cunt." The curt growl was quick to reveal her assaulter, as Knucks shook his hoof, then turned away.
Stumbling, stunned from the punch to the face, Velvet shook her head, trying to hold on to a clear thought. "You..." she growled, tears flooding her eyes, "You worthless, miserable..." she was cut off by a sob escaping her throat, "I swear I'll ... I'll..."
But she couldn't finish her sentence. That punch had just ... just been too much. Words couldn't express what she wanted to do to this stallion in that second, yet her body and mind were worn out from what lay behind her, rendering her incapable of putting her threats into practice.
She was at the end of her tether. All alone - without Calamity by her side, without SteelHooves or Homage to rely on, and with the end of her life ticking closer with every passing second -an end that would be caused by the pony that had put her life at stake to save hers too many times to count- it all seemed so hopeless now.
So she, or rather her body, did the only thing it was still capable of. Watching the slaver look at her for another second, then turn and walk away, she clenched her teeth, her mouth wording all the things she would do to him in due time, before everything finally overcame her, and she collapsed into a sobbing heap, her body hitting the floor.
This ... this was it.
No hope left.
"Feeling like a hero yet, Knucks?"
To her very surprise, it was the rough voice of Cinderblock, the stallion in the cell next to her, that caused her to stop sobbing for just a second -out of surprise if nothing else- and perk up her ears.
"Shut it, slave." the slaver growled back, stopping and fixing the gray stallion with a glare. "The boss told me not to talk to you anymore."
"Is that what you call 'making a difference'? 'Fighting for change'?" Cinderblock asked, "Where's all that change, huh? Have you saved the wasteland yet?"
"Shut up!" The slaver snarled back, now legitimately angry. "I've changed my mind, okay? You can't change the wasteland. This world is fucked, now all we can do is try and deal with it."
A moment of tense silence, then Cinderblock gave a sigh.
"Look, forget about the wasteland for a second. What they're doing here is wrong." Cinderblock said emphatically. "I know it, and you know it too." he declared, his eyes never leaving the slaver, "Ponies aren't meant to enslave each other. They never were."
"Just ... shut up. Don't give me another one of your moralizer-speeches."
"Think about it." Cinderblock replied curtly, "We all have this voice in the back of our minds. That voice that tells us to change; that what we're doing is wrong. You can either listen to it, or die after a life full of regrets. And trust me..." he paused for effect, fixing the slaver with a serious glare, "The longer you ignore it, the harder it gets to make that change. Believe me, it was hard enough for me. But I made it." he explained, his voice carrying a distinct weight to it, "And it's not too late for you yet."
Another short period of silence, then the gray stallion added, "Just think about it, will you?"
That prompted a long moment of hesitation from the slaver, until he finally gave a sigh and shook his head. "You've made your decision, Cinder. I've made mine. It's too late to go back now." he declared, and Velvet could have sworn she heard a touch of sadness swinging in his voice, "Now go to sleep or some shit. Don't bother me again."
And with that, he turned and walked away out of Velvet's line of sight. Cinderblock, after looking after the slaver for a few moments, turned his head back, and Velvet quickly lowered her head to the ground, pretending to sleep. Luna knows what those two were talking about, but better to pretend she hadn't heard any of it.
However, despite putting on her most convincing sleep-breathing, she could feel the stallion's look resting on her, watching her.
She had to fight with herself not to shiver. Hell, she felt so exposed without Calamity; so ... helpless.
The thought of her pegasus friend caused another rush of tears to well up in her eyes, as her body began to shiver.
"He's fine."
Velvet Remedy almost flinched as the voice came from the neighboring cell. Instinctively, she wanted to raise her head to look at her neighbor, but decided that it would be better to continue pretending to sleep, so as to avoid trouble.
"Your friend ... Calamity. They brought him into a different cell downstairs a few hours ago. Looked a little battered, but fine nonetheless."
Now her ears were perked up. Sure, for all she knew this stallion was just playing some sort of sick joke on her, but ... what if he wasn't?
Slowly, carefully, she lifted her head, opening her tear-stained eyes and looking at her cell neighbor.
Cinderblock was sitting on his plank bed in a relaxed position, looking right back at her with his light brown eyes.
"Are you ... are you serious?" she asked cautiously, wiping a hoof over her face to free it from any remaining tears.
"Aye." He replied briefly, tilting his head into the direction of a cell on the lower level.
In an instant, Velvet was back on her hooves, dashing over to the front of her cell and searching the general area Cinderblock had pointed her into.
"He's not there right now, though." The stallion's sobering explanation came just as she stopped at the barred door, causing her to go rigid for a second before slowly turning her head towards him, giving him an angry look - was he only playing with her after all?
"They picked him up for work about half an hour ago." her cell neighbor explained, standing up to her look, "Like I said, he's fine, but he won't be back for a few hours."
Velvet Remedy sighed deeply, stepping back from the bars and letting her head sink.
Finally, she looked up again and focused the gray stallion, who was still looking at her. "Why should I trust you?" she asked bitterly, "How do I know you're not just playing with me?"
That caused the stallion to give a bemused-sounding huff, and crack a thin, bitter smile. "You can't." he declared soberly, "Hell, for all you know I'm just another one of those heartless fuckers playing their games with you. You'd probably be better off not trusting me."
That caused Velvet to cock an eyebrow, not sure what to make of this announcement. Sure, he probably was just playing with her, but ... if he was, why would he tell her?
She reflected for a few moments, then shook her head.
No. She wasn't going to get her hopes up again. Even if the stallion did sound somewha trustworthy, she knew she couldn't stand being let down again.
Lowering her head, she turned away from the door, and walked back to her cot, sinking onto it with a heavy sigh.
Silence filled the room for the following moments, only occasionally broken by single noises coming from somewhere in the enormous hall or outside.
Then her ears perked up again as she could hear hooves hitting the concrete ground behind her, and coming walking into her direction.
"So..." the deep voice of Cinderblock came to her ears again as the hoofsteps stopped, "I've heard you're gonna fight against Pip later on?"
Velvet Remedy pressed her lips together, an intense shiver running through her body as the images flashed past her mind's eye again, depicting her bloody corpse lying in a heap in front of Littlepip.
While she tried not to engage in any conversation with the stallion out of fear of hearing something that might unsettle her further, her body shivering as if it were struck with an electric shock was all the stallion needed to hear.
Velvet closed her eyes, folding her ears in. Remembering what had happened in the pit the day before; dozens of slaves shouting for her and Calamity's death, she knew all too well what would happen now.
However, instead of taunting her, or depicting all the cruel ways she could get killed tonight, all that came from the stallion was a long, sad sigh.
"I'm sorry." He finally said, his voice indeed full of hurt. "I..." she could hear him lick his lips, seeming to fight with himself, "It's my fault you're here."
That made Velvet open her eyes again, and turn around on her cot, giving the stallion a confused look.
He was sitting on his haunches, right in front of the bars that separated their two cells, his brown eyes resting on Velvet, filled with something that looked like genuine gloom.
"Remember what I said a few days back? About me having known Pip for a while already? Well, that wasn't a lie." he admitted drably, "I have known her for a while now. Bit more than three years, actually."
"Wait ... what?" Now Velvet's interest had been sparked. Sitting up on the bed, straightening herself up, "You ... you've known her since..."
"I was a caravan guard when I first met her." Cinderblock explained, "That is, I used to be one. Our caravan was attacked by raiders a few miles from Manehatten. We fought 'em off, but one of them managed to get a shot at me." he paused, lifting his left foreleg and pointing at a nasty-looking scar. "Went straight through my leg. Couldn't move it by an inch. I was by no means helpless, I just couldn't walk properly. But that was reason enough for the head of the caravan to declare me useless."
Velvet could see his legs tense up, a deep growl escaping his throat. "He shot me in my other leg, and left me to rot out in the wasteland. Leaving me behind like a piece of trash."
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, "I managed to find some shelter in an abandoned house, and treat my wounds with what little supplies I had on me. The caravan had long since moved on, so I was on my own, but..." he shrugged silently, "I tried to make the best of it."
"Just a few days later, though..." his eyes glazed over, "Stumbling into my shelter came this crazed, malnourished unicorn mare in the stable suit. She was talking jumbles and could barely stand on her own legs, but..." he shrugged, "Well, she seemed harmless. So I let her stay, and rest."
Velvet nodded like stunned, listening in awestruck silence.
"She recovered a few days later. Ran away as soon as she woke up and saw me, but then came back when she realized that my life was just as fucked up as hers... and I suggested we'd stick together." Despite everything, a thin smile found its way onto his face. "Those were the times back then. Just the two of us, against the rest of the world. We had a lot in common, really. Two loners, betrayed and abandoned by those we used to believe in." he paused for a moment, then gave a brief, wry laugh, "Really, it was our hatred against you ponies," he said, tilting his head into Velvet's direction, "That made us bond so much. We swore to ourselves that we would never; never, ever, let somepony betray us like this again. Screw the wasteland and all of its inhabitants, it was just the two of us."
"Wow..." Velvet Remedy couldn't help but to gasp in awe. So this was what Littlepip had done all these years? Bonding with this ... pony? She didn't quite know how to feel about that, really.
"And well... one day, after a long night and a bit too much whisky, we came up with an idea." Cinderblock continued, his head drifting off to the side for a moment, his gaze wandering over the prison cells around them, "We would build our own little fortress. Our own sanctuary, so to speak. A place where we could rule, and not waste a single damn thought on this godforsaken wasteland out there ever again."
His look went back to Velvet. "So we started wandering around. And not too much later, we found this place here. We settled in, started growing our own food, getting our own supplies ... everything was good for the first couple of months. Hell, every now and then ponies actually came to join us - Knucks was an old friend of mine, and one of the first new members of our..." he hesitated, seeming to search for the right words, "Group."
"Hell, we were like a family for the longest part; a small, familiar group of outcasts who all wanted nothing to do with this wasteland out there.
"Then however..." the earth pony bit his lip, letting his head sink, "Things got ugly."
"What do you-" Velvet wanted to ask, but fell silent as she once again felt the cold touch of the bomb collar around her neck. Leading a hoof up to it and gently touching the lethal weapon, she softly said, "Oh."
"Yeah..." Cinderblock said heavy-heartedly, "It was just a makeshift-solution at first, really. We both hated slavery. But as more and more ponies came to join us, we had to start forming work groups. And when the workload kept growing and nopony wanted to volunteer ... well..."
Velvet gave a pained sigh, turning her head away. She knew that story all too well - settlements starting off with only the best of intentions, but gradually falling for the Equestrian Wasteland's cruelty. It was an awfully common sight in the wasteland.
But the ... the cruelty with which things were handled here; this whole throwing underperformers into the pit-thing, and of course, the fact that the pony she had considered one of her closest friends was playing a major role in it, made it all so much harder for her to handle.
"Yeah. I know." Cinderblock said softly as if to agree, "I really didn't think about it at first. Saw it as a necessary sacrifice - same old story every slaver's going to tell you, really."
He paused for a moment, seeming to wager if he should continue or not, but then added, "Thing is, I got more and more into it with time. Really enjoyed it at some point." he hesitated, but then reluctantly added, "Hell, it was me who came up with the idea of having the weakest performers fight each other." With a weak shrug, he added, "As cruel as it is, and as much as I hate myself for it now, it did a great job keeping the performance up. Hell, it still does."
"B-but ... I don't understand." Velvet Remedy chimed in, her thoughts inevitably going back to her slaver-friend, "Pip, she..." she cut herself off, "What in Equestria made her change like this?"
The gray stallion said nothing for a moment, seeming to contemplate his answer. Then, slowly, he raised his head, locking eyes with Velvet, and said, "The wasteland changes ponies - never for the better. I don't know how long she was stumbling through the wastes before running into me, but based on how fucked-up she looked, I'm guessing it was about a week." His face darkened as he continued, "Now imagine yourself waking up on a cart in some dark hallway. You're feeling dizzy, your mind is fucking with you on all sorts of levels due to PTM-withdrawal, and the last memory on your mind is your friend shooting you with a poisoned dart out of fucking nowhere."
Velvet bit her lip, but remained silent. She ... really didn't want to picture what Littlepip must have gone through back then.
"Add to that a week of straying through the wasteland with neither orientation, nor allies, nor supplies, nor plans, all the while going through an abrupt PTM-withdrawal with all the fucked-up side effects, haunted by the image of your friend shooting you."
"But I didn't-" Velvet wanted to protest, but was silenced by Cinderblock raising a hoof.
"I know." he said bluntly, "I've been listening to the two of you talking. I've heard her side of the story plenty of times now, and damn me if I didn't believe it, but I gotta say..." he shrugged, "Yours does sound more believable. Hell, after that show your friend delivered the other night, I have a hard time believing what she told me about you ponies being devious, backstabbing traitors."
"And well..." Cinderblock wrapped his explanation up after a moment of silence, "I guess being in charge of a pack of slavers got to us. To both of us." His face darkened, "Pip ... she started getting into all that. Bossing others around; being the one in charge; having ponies at your disposal like livestock ... she liked it. She fucking loved it. ... And I did, too." he admitted guiltily, "It felt great being the one in charge after a lifetime as some trader-asshole's guard."
Velvet cocked an eyebrow, a bitter part of her mind trailing off and searching for occasions where she had bossed Littlepip around, causing this form of change in her friend, but coming up empty - at least for now.
"The only difference is that I came to my senses a few months ago." Cinderblock explained soberly, "I don't know, it just ... came over me. One second I'm calculating how many..." he hesitated, seeming to struggle with that part, "how many slaves we'll be needing for the next week, next thing I know I'm lying on the ground, wheezing, almost puking out of pure disgust at what I was doing; what I had done for those past years." His eyes narrowed, "I hated myself so much in that second. If I had had my gun with me, I would've probably just..." but he cut himself off, shaking his head. "I talked to Pip that same day; told her how I realized that we had changed; that what we were doing was wrong, and that we needed to stop it!"
"...What happened?" Velvet couldn't help but ask, as the stallion didn't continue from there.
"Well..." he said with a shrug and a bitter grin, "She actually was kind enough to offer me a choice. Said she could shoot me on the spot, chop me up and feed me to the slaves, or I could join the workforce as a slave myself and continue to contribute to whatever it is we've built up here." and as you can see..." He pointed a hoof at the bomb collar of his own, "Well..."
A moment of stunned silence.
"But..." Velvet Remedy wanted to protest, "If you helped build this place up, how come you haven't escaped yet? If you were in from the start, I'm sure you must know the weak spots of this place. Finding a way out can't be this hard!"
"It's not." Cinderblock replied briefly, shaking his head. "Hell, you of all ponies should know that. All you need to do is get rid of your bomb collar, make a run for the exit, and somehow escape without getting vaporized."
"...Vaporized?" Velvet asked, her eyes widening ever so slightly, "By the guards? I didn't know they had magical energy weapons."
"They don't." The stallion affirmed, "But the array of turrets we installed around the building won't let anyone or anything out without a fight." At the mare's horrified expression, he gave a short, dry laugh and said, "Don't tell me you didn't know that. Oh mother of Celestia..."
He paused, eyeing the unicorn mare from head to toe, "But if you really didn't know about the turrets, you really are lucky you haven't been turned to ash yet." Again, his face darkened, "But I guess it doesn't really matter now, does it? Hate to say it, but I don't think you can hold up against Pip in the pit. That mare's dead-set on seeing your dead body at her hooves."
At Velvet Remedy's bitter expression, he did a double take. "Sorry. Way to kill the mood, eh?"
Velvet didn't react.
"Look," he started another attempt after a few moments of awkward silence, "I don't know what else to tell you. I tried getting you two outta here, but with the way thing went after that..." he sighed, shrugging lightly, "Really, I wish I could help you more, but I've got no more aces up my sleeve."
That made Velvet look up again, cocking an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'getting us out of here'?"
Despite his obvious gloomy mood, Cinderblock cracked the thinnest of smiles at her as he led a hoof up to his neck, tapping the bomb collar around it. "Where do you think that screwdriver and those bobby pins came from? I had those hidden as a backup to escape for a few months now, but eventually figured that you could put 'em to better use than me."
The charcoal unicorn looked at him with her mouth hanging open. Was he ... was he serious? But why? Why would he want to help her and Calamity escape? And more importantly, if he had the means to free himself, why hadn't he made use of them already and escaped from here!?
Seeming to sense the question preying on his cell neighbor's mind, Cinderblock gave a dry chuckle. "Don't overthink it, filly." he said bitterly, "Believe me or not, but I think you're good folks, and after everything that's happened, with Pip and all, I felt like you two deserve to be free. And I knew that if I'd just give the tools to you, you'd probably think it was a trap or something, so I hid 'em where I knew you'd find em." he sighed lightly, "Damn shame it didn't work out. Shoulda told you about the turrets."
"But ... why didn't you escape when you could?" Velvet asked the second question that had been preying on her mind. Even with the turrets activated, she was sure that, being involved in its construction, Cinderblock knew quite a bit about the prison, and probably knew how to disable them and sneak out without anyone noticing.
The former slaver replied nothing at first, his drab look resting on the unicorn for a few moments, before he softly asked, "Have you ever heard of karma, kid? You do good and life's gonna reward you. You fuck shit up and ... well..." he looked around his cell, shrugging, "You end up in a place like this."
Velvet Remedy just silently cocked her head to the side, unable to follow him.
"What I'm saying is..." Cinderblock elaborated, sitting up, "Call me crazy, but I think I belong here. The goddesses up above have made me realize how much I've fucked up in life, and after ruining so many ponies' lives by forcing them into slavery, I don't think I deserve to be free anymore either. And honestly..." he gave a dry, sad-sounding chuckle, "The fact that I'm now sitting in the very same prison I helped construct just makes it all so much more ironic." But he shook his head, clearing his thoughts, "But I deserve to rot in here. Me being free after all I've done just wouldn't be fair to those whose lives I've ruined."
"Hmm..." Velvet Remedy muttered, letting the stallion's words sink in.
"Anyway, the reason why I'm telling you all this is..." Cinderblock spoke up again, but hesitated, making Velvet look back at him.
"I'm sorry." The buff stallion apologized, his eyes locked with those of Velvet. "It's my fault Pip has changed the way she has; it's my fault we're here right now, and it's my fault you'll have to..." he cut himself off, knowing better than to rub additional salt into that wound, "My point is..." he started over, "I fucked up. Big time."
Slightly taken aback, the charcoal unicorn watched as he knelt down in front of her, lowering his head, "I'm not asking you to forgive me, because you probably shouldn't, but I just want you to know that..." he repeated himself, "I'm sorry."
Velvet just looked at him in awestruck silence, her mouth opening and closing a few times. She truly was at a loss of words in this moment.
Then, however, she shook her head, and turned away. She didn't have the nerves to let all this get to her right now. Regardless of ... well, of everything Cinderblock had told her, the fact still remained that these were probably the final hours of her life, and for what it was worth, she wanted to make the best of it.
With that in mind, she let her look linger on Cinderblock for another moment before walking over to her cot and laying down, letting out a deep sigh and closing her eyes.
So ... this was it. She would be dead in a few hours. Now what to do to numb the pain the mere thought of that caused?
She let her head sink to the side, her thoughts trailing off.
She knew what would make this easier to endure. A hug. An embrace with feathers she knew only one pony in this wasteland had.
A shiver ran through her body, her eyes opening and releasing a new rivulet of tears that now ran down the side of her face.
"Where are you, Calamity?" she whispered softly, feeling more and more tears form in her eyes and run down her face. "I ... I need you."
A few hours later, in a different room of the Misty Hills Correctional Facility, a gray unicorn was lying on her makeshift bed, her eyes resting on a small, yellow metal box held in her magic, floating in front of her.
Time was running short! She had to do something! And she had to do it now!
Ever since Littlepip had returned a bit more than an hour ago, giddy as a filly on Hearth's Warming Eve, Homage had known that things were starting to escalate. And when her former friend and mistress had explained to her that she was going to fight the very pony she despised so much in the pit, she had realized that she had to do something.
Homage had already failed her friends once - twice, if one counted what happened yesterday. True, she had saved Velvet Remedy's life, but looking at the integrity of things, Homage couldn't deny that she had stopped Velvet from escaping. She had saved her from a horrible gruesome death as well, but nevertheless, she was sure the upcoming fight wouldn't be happening if she hadn't interfered.
Fortunately for her -and to some extent her friends- Homage had a plan. Not a great plan or a failsafe plan, or even a foolproof plan, but the best she could come up with, seeing how she was still held hostage by the leader of the slavers, and was only allowed to leave Littlepip's private quarters when she was with the mistress herself.
A few days ago, she had overheard two guards patrolling the building talk about 'the terminal' again. This was, as she had realized fairly early, referring to the facility's central terminal that controlled ... well, almost everything in this place. Based on dialogue snippets she had overheard, it was used to control the turret systems, the bomb collars, the PA system, and Luna knows what else.
However, none of them had ever revealed its actual location when she was around -probably an order given by her over-cautious mistress- though a few nights ago, finally, one of the guards passing by the door had spilled the beans, announcing that he had to head to the armory, as Littlepip had ordered him to access the central terminal earlier this day.
This had been promptly rewarded with a slap across the face from his comrade, warning him that this was a topic to be strictly avoided around 'prisoner #1' - the term commonly used to refer to Homage among the guards.
The slaver had defended himself, arguing that Homage probably couldn't hear them anyway through the closed door, and his comrade had left him alone with an offhanded insult.
Fortunately, he had overestimated the insulating properties of a pre-war wall that was barely thicker than a piece of cardboard - Homage had indeed heard them, and now, finally, knew where she could find the terminal that would set off her and her friends' escape.
The only problem was that, being situated in the armory, the terminal was behind a thick, heavy steel door, secured with a second terminal only a handful of ponies in the entire facility could access - a sobering realization Homage had made as she had tried to hack into it earlier today.
Walking around the smaller, secondary building that hosted Littlepip's quarters was no real issue for Homage. While she was still wearing her bomb collar, the spell matrix setting it off was only able to detect two-dimensional movements, so that, as long as she wouldn't set hoof outside the actual building, she could move within it without any problems.
That is, as long as Littlepip wasn't around, of course. Something that only happened occasionally.
Nevertheless, Homage had known what to do. And it had been earlier this day while Pip had been out what she had called 'disciplining the escapees' that Homage had finally found the key to her escape - the key to end this nightmare once and for all.
Again, her hazel eyes darted back to the metal box floating in front of her.
So why was she hesitating?
Well, first and foremost, those pills she had here wouldn't guarantee her escape. They would give her a realistic chance to break out, but in no way could they guarantee that she would not only get out alive, but also manage to come back, free her friends and reform the pony she still loved.
But more importantly, it were those hellish pills that had started it all. In her magic she was holding the very reason why things had gone so brutally downhill three years ago.
Party Time Mint-als she read the inscription on the tin, sending a shiver through her body.
She had found those while going through the crate holding 'confiscated goods' situated in the secondary building's first floor today. The building had three floors overall. Littlepip's quarters -the place where she was right now- took up the integrity of the third floor, underneath that were the slavers' bunk beds, underneath that a general storage area, while the basement held what the slavers called the 'straightening room' -not much more than a small dungeon, really- and the armory behind steel doors one floor further down.
Of course, she had known that being caught going through these things could get her in big trouble. Stored in the crate was everything new slaves coming into the facility had on them, safe for weapons of any kind - chems, healing potions, toys, anything the boss didn't see use for right away.
And of course, Homage also knew all too well what would happen if Littlepip were to catch her with a tin of Party Time Mint-als in her quarters. The slaver mare didn't talk about what had happened during the past years with Homage, but the unicorn mare knew her hero well enough to sense the revulsion in her voice when somepony mentioned the zebra-drugs. Homage's best guess was that she had kicked her addiction by herself, and now avoided Mint-Als like the pest, probably out of fear of relapsing.
In any case, her plan was clear: throw in a Mint-AL, talk her way into the armory and get a bit of firepower, then raise hell! Her original plan had been to just disable the turrets and make a run for it, but with the recent developments, and the prospect of Velvet Remedy having to fight against Littlepip, she knew that she couldn't just run away. She had to save her, and everybody else!
Still, she hesitated, her look never leaving the tin of Mint-Als. What if something would go wrong and she would end up doing more damage instead? Or what if ... what if she would get addicted? Even if she should manage to get herself and her friends out of this alive, Luna knows what could happen if she would fall to the addiction as well!
She lowered her head, giving a sigh. There was no point in worrying about the consequences - her friends needed her help, and if she had to risk getting addicted to the drug that had caused this nightmare in the first place, then that was a risk she had to take - not only for her own sake, but for the sake of her friends.
With that resolution, Homage nodded to herself, her magic opening the box, only to flinch and almost spill it as the front door to Littlepip's quarters got opened and walking in came the slaver mistress herself.
Panicking, Homage quickly hid the tin of Mint-Als in one of her cot's many crevices, thankfully before Littlepip saw any of it.
"H-hello ... mistress." Homage greeted her in a faux-friendliness, forcing a fake-smile onto her face.
The slaver-mare had announced that she would be in the basement, training for the big fight, earlier. The sweat on her forehead and her wet mane indicated that the training had indeed been a success.
"Is everything well?" Homage asked cautiously, trying to distract from her own nervousness. If Pip would find the Mint-Als ... it'd all be over.
"Couldn't be better." Littlepip replied with a toothy grin, walking past Homage, her magic picking up a towel that was lying ready on a table next to her. "Are you excited? 'Cause I'm excited. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this day."
"O-of course ... mistress." Homage replied, still working on that grin on her face, barely resisting the urge to throw up as she thought of what she was talking about, "I-I'm sure it'll be a great fight."
"You bet. That bitch won't last two minutes." Littlepip replied excitedly, rubbing her sweaty mane dry with the towel, then throwing it in a corner. "I'll wash up, then we can head to the main hall." she announced, walking towards a door that Homage knew led to a small, makeshift bathroom.
"Sure! I can't wait!" Homage mentally patted her back for that - that had sounded way more excited than she had expected.
Seeming content with her slave's excitement, Littlepip gave a short nod, then disappeared in the bathroom, closing the door behind herself.
"Alright, it's now or never." Homage breathed softly, her horn lighting up and pulling the Mint-Als from behind herself, popping the lid.
There was no time to second-guess herself now. Pip would be back in less than a minute, and if she would miss this chance, it'd all be over!
Closing her eyes, and trying to ban those negative thoughts from her mind, Homage picked up one of the light pink tablets and led it to her mouth, swallowing it in one swift motion.
The effects came instantly. Suddenly, she could see the world so much better. Colors were brighter, her vision was clearer, her hearing was better ... she felt like a far better version of herself!
Now to dispose of any evidence...
Shaking her head and suppressing a relieved sigh, she arose from her cot, taking the tin of pills with her. She walked over to the balcony, softly opened the door, stepped outside, and used her magic to toss the small box towards the fence. Her Mint-Al-fueled mind had already calculated the best throwing angle, sending the box flying just over the edge of the fence to minimize its time in the air and the chance of someone seeing it.
Even before she had turned around to walk back inside, the laser turrets had already sprung to life, their beams engulfing the packet in their sickly rose-tinted glow, and vaporizing it in less than a second.
Relieved that, apparently, nopony had witnessed the incineration -most slavers and slaves were in the main hall already, anticipating the fight- Homage turned around to walk back inside and gently closed the door behind herself, lowering herself back onto her bed as if nothing had happened.
Mere moments later, walking from the bathroom came a mare that truly made the hairs on Homage's back stand on edge.
Granted, she had never been too fond of her friend's new style, what with the raider-armor, the sidecut, and all, but what Homage saw now went another step further beyond that.
She was wearing different armor. Black instead of the dark brown, adorned with what looked like small metal spikes on her shoulders. The holster carrying her revolver was gone, now replaced with two smaller combat knives on each side. Hanging on her waist on the other side, next to her trusty needle gun, was what Homage hoped was merely a large kitchen knife and not a ... not a machete.
"Looking good, huh?" Littlepip asked with a grin, focusing Homage. "It's been a while since I've last been in the pit. Gotta make it count, right?"
Not leaving the unicorn mare time to reply, she started walking to the door, motioning Homage to follow her. "Come on now," she said, excitement in her voice, "Don't wanna be late, do we?"
"A-actually, I ... uh..." Homage spoke up, biting her lip as she focused, "I was gonna stay here ... and join up with you later."
"...What!?" Littlepip snapped, her eyes widening in outrage. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I ..." Homage hesitated, praying that the PTMs did their job. "I'm ... a little exhausted." she forced out, feeling her tension vanish as the lies rolled off her lips, "I was gonna stay here for another minute or two, so I can be at my best when the actual fight starts!" she made an effort to keep eye contact with Pip, her lips curling into a wide smile, "After all, I wanna cheer you on when you give that cunt what she deserves. And I don't want my voice to fail halfway through."
Pip remained silent at that, just eyeing her former friend with a skeptical glance for a few moments, and Homage could feel her body tense up again. If this wasn't going to work out ... all her plans would have been for nothing.
However, to her very relief, Littlepip rolled her eyes, and turned towards the door. "Alright, fine." she said briefly, "Stay for another five minutes. But I want you to be there for the finale!" she declared with anticipation, "Trust me, it's gonna be a doozy!"
"Of course!" Homage agreed, forcing out a laugh, "Don't worry, I'll be there before things get serious."
"Alrighty!" Littlepip replied with a pleased nod, "I'll leave two guards here to accompany you downstairs." She announced, opening the door. Indeed, there were two ponies -a stallion and a mare- standing ready at the other side of it.
"Don't be la-ate!" she happily chanted over her shoulder as she stepped out of the room, and closed the door behind herself.
Homage remained sitting on her cot for another few moments, waiting for the slaver mare to leave the building. This was going ... surprisingly well so far.
Hell, she never thought it'd be this easy sweet-talking Littlepip, even under the influence of PTMs.
For a very brief moment, she found her thoughts trailing off, thinking about all those situations having a PTM-enhanced mind could have saved her a lot of trouble. Yes, if she had had a tin of those little helpers with her at certain points, things might have been different. Hell, if she had taken one of those before coming here, she definitely wouldn't have fallen for Littlepip's show, and she could have avoided all this before it had even begun!
But she quickly cut that train of thought right there. No! PTMs were bad! Hell, they were the reason all this had begun in the first place!
Shaking her head, glad that she had disposed of the leftover pills earlier, she got up off her bed, making her way over to the door.
However, she stopped on the way, standing next to her table-turned steel ranger-friend for a moment. Looking at the immobilized soldier and feeling her heart become heavy, she gave a soft sigh. "Don't worry, big boy." she said, softly patting the ranger's metal shoulder plate. "We'll get you out of here. Not tomorrow, not in a week, but today."
With that, she made her way over to the exit door. Feeling adrenaline rush through her veins, she put a hoof on the handle.
This was it. Now or never! This was when she was going to put an end to all this; to save her friends, and to make it all good again.
Clearing her thoughts and bringing a surprisingly confident smile onto her face, she opened the door. The two slavers standing on either side turned their heads towards her, but she stood up to their looks.
"Hello my friends!" she greeted them cheerfully, the confident smile never leaving her face as she put a hoof around the stallion's shoulder, "Why don't we talk about how the two of you are going to help me get out of here and save my friends' hides?"
Earlier this day, yet not far away, a rust-colored pegasus was leaning against the bars of his cell with both his front hooves.
His body hurt from what lay behind him. His legs and torso had taken a fair beating from being captured during the failed escape-attempt, but his wings had been the slavers' main target. They were -thank the goddesses- not broken, but they hurt like they had been treated with a sledgehammer, and he was sure flying would be nearly impossible at this stage.
All the same, the pain in his body felt almost numb compared to what he was feeling in his heart.
Velvet Remedy.
She was lying in the cell the two used to share, resting on her cot with her eyes closed, presumably sleeping.
He had heard about the upcoming battle. Hell, it had spread like a wildfire once news got out. And it hurt his heart to imagine that the pony he loved would have to fight the pony he had considered his closest friend for years now.
But what hurt even more was the knowledge that he was down here, and not with her. He didn't need to be up there to know that she needed his shoulder in this moment, and the thought that there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do to help her in any way ... it drove him insane.
Calling for her would be futile. The general noise around the hall had grown noticeably as slavers and slaves were walking about, getting excited about the upcoming fight - declaring their excitement, discussing about how long Velvet Remedy was going to hold up against Littlepip -with bets ranging from two seconds to three minutes- and placing bets. For a moment he had contemplated asking one of the slavers walking about to alert her to his existence, but had quickly discarded that thought - after causing such turmoil the other day, he and Velvet weren't necessarily popular among the slavers, and he concluded it was better to not draw any more attention to himself.
So all he could do is stand there and watch. Count as the seconds ticked by, each and every single one of them bringing the inevitable a little closer.
Just like Velvet herself, Calamity knew that her chances were drawing near zero. She had never been a fighter, and while the years of searching for their friend alongside the pegasus had taught her the one or other thing about surviving in battle, most of the time she had stayed back, leaving the actual combat to Calamity, SteelHooves and Homage, and only helping out with shield spells and healing afterwards. And now, being reduced to a practically magicless earth pony, it was obvious that her future didn't look to rosy.
And he wasn't stupid either. He had seen the way Littlepip had acted around Velvet - she wanted her dead, no matter what the cost. This was, for all he knew, just her big, final triumph - something she had possibly been looking forward to for years now.
And he was going to watch helplessly. After being captured, the slavers had, in addition to putting a new bomb collar around his neck, tied up his already injured wings with thick leather straps, making it impossible for him to fly. And with him locked up securely in his cell, he knew that there was nothing he could do to aid his lover during the fight.
Of course, he had talked up any slaver passing by; told them that he was going to volunteer and face the mistress in the pit. Hell, he would have gladly sacrificed his own life if it meant saving that of Velvet.
But so far, all the slavers had given him the same response: No. Fucking. Way.
Apparently, Littlepip had anticipated Calamity wanting to take that bullet for his friend, and had explicitly told the slavers that there was no way she would talk herself out of this - anyone making such agreements with the two would get shot on the spot.
In the heat of the moment he had even gone so far as to offer himself being publicly executed for the entertainment of the slavers to spare Velvet, but they had made it clear that there was absolutely nothing he could do.
And with that knowledge, he, too, had started to lose hope.
What ... what else could he do? This was it. Velvet was going to ...
He had to end that train of thought.
Really, he didn't know what else to do or say, sinking back to the ground as he realized that he probably wouldn't even get to talk to his lover again before the fight.
He sighed, wiping his face with a hoof.
Calamity wasn't a stallion to easily cry. But this ... this was just too much. He considered himself to be a tough pony, but every pony had their breaking point, and Calamity had just reached his.
"Hey, you're that ... pegasus-guy. Friend of Velvet Remedy, right?"
His ears perked up as he heard the voice from somewhere behind him. Spinning around, his eyes scanned his environment for a moment before they came to rest on the pony in the cell next to him.
A young mare, barely older than a filly, with a dark brown coat and black mane. She seemed ... familiar.
"Wait a minute." The upcoming battle seemed forgotten for the moment as Calamity tilted his head to the side, reflecting. "Ah know you."
She rolled her eyes. "No shit. The whole damn place knows me after what happened last week."
"Right..." Calamity muttered, "You were the one in the pit."
"Yeah."she replied briefly, "Look, I wanted to talk with you."
Calamity raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.
"You're with Velvet Remedy, so..." she bit her lip, looking to the side, "I owe you. I owe her even more, but ... I can only repay you, and not her. At least at the moment."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I'm going to break out of here. And I'll take you with me."
"...what? How?" the pegasus asked skeptically.
"I have a plan." she announced, her voice low. "I'm gonna walk out of here. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but soon enough. And after what your friend has done for me, I'll be damned if I don't take you with me. I owe her my life."
While his mind was tripping over that last part for a second, Calamity decided to skip that question for now and instead asked the more obvious question. "And ... what exactly is your plan?" Giving her a skeptical lookover he added, "You don't seem ready to walk outta here right now."
"I ... don't know yet." Fallen Leaf admitted slightly abashed, "I mean, I know the area around here, but right now I'm still trying to figure out how to get past the turret-system. But I will get out of here, and I guarantee you'll be the first to know when I have a plan."
Calamity rolled his eyes, turning his head away. He normally considered himself a rather friendly pony, and if things had been different he would have probably told that filly that he appreciated her being thoughtful of him and offering him a chance to tag along in her escape.
Now, however, things weren't different.
He was a prisoner; a slave, enslaved by the first pony he had ever called a true friend. Being locked away in a dark prison cell was starting to get to his mind, as his pegasus-instincts yearned to be flying free, their complaints seeming to get louder with every passing day. His body was aching from the hour-long shift on the field he had pulled before coming here; the bruises all over his body, inflicted by the slavers as they had captured him, didn't make things any more pleasant, and the ties around his wings were starting to hurt the sensitive muscles and bones.
But above all that; the one thing that turned his situation from a mere inconvenience to a heart-wrenching ordeal: Velvet Remedy wasn't with him. He hadn't talked to her since their failed escape-attempt, and all he could see now was her motionless, almost lifeless-seeming body lying in her cell - a single spot of charcoal black in an ocean of concrete-gray.
And to top it all off, the certainty that turned the heart-wrenching ordeal into a nightmare come true: the chances that Velvet would survive tonight were vanishingly low, if existent at all. He knew it, she knew it, the whole facility knew it.
And the worst thing about it: there was nothing he could do for her. No chance to put a wing around her and tell her that it'd all be good, no way of showing her how to defend herself against Pip with what little experience she had; not even a chance to look into her eyes, hear her lovely voice, or just enjoy her mere presence for one last time.
Not now, and probably never again.
So yes, things weren't different. Things were the way they were. Fucked-up. Fucked-up on a whole new level.
So he wasn't too surprised about himself as he focused his look back on her, a small part of his immesureable frustration and anger being released as his face turned into an angry grimace.
"Well, great!" he snapped at her, clenching his teeth, "Great shit! You'll let me know when you have a plan! Good for you!" he snarled, more and more talking himself into a stupor, "Until then I'll just sit here with my hoof up my ass and watch my friend get torn to pieces! Great fucking idea!" he yelled at her, stomping his hoof, "In case ya haven't noticed yet, that's mah mare up there!" he angrily pointed a hoof into the direction of Velvet's cell, "And she's gonna be dead in a few hours if I can't stop it from happening! Ah'm the only one she has left, and she's gonna die if Ah let her down! An' Ah can't even get outta this fuckin' cell! But good thing you'll let me know when you have a plan! That's what Ah needed to hear! Now all mah problems are jus' gone! Fuckin' helll!"
He stomped the ground again, kicking up dust, then turned around and stomped back to the wooden plank that served as his bed. The rusty chain creaked, and the plank gave by a few inches as he sat down, letting his head sink, muttering a curse under his breath. He could feel Fallen Leaf's look rest on him, but ignored it. Good on her if she wanted to help, but it just didn't use him one bit!
He had to do something! He had to come up with a plan! To get himself out of his bomb collar, unlock his cell door, make it out of his cell without being shot to bits, then make it over to Velvet's cell, get her out of her cell and collar, and make it out of the facility alive - an endeavor they had already attempted - and failed miserably.
But he had to do something! He had to come up with something! He couldn't just sit here and watch his friend get executed!
He sank back on his cot, his head colliding with the wall.
But how? How would he do that? Hell, he and Velvet had already tried to escape and failed once - and back then they had had time to work things out and a solid plan. Now he had nothing! Nothing!
He gave a sigh, closing his eyes. He was going to come up with a plan! He was going to get Velvet and himself out of here! And if he had to chew his way through the metal bars! He was going to save Velvet!
All he needed ... all he needed was ... was time.
Chapter 7
Calamity awoke with a gasp. Instantly his head shot upward, eyes widening and mind gripped by panic as he realized that he had nodded off.
Feeling adrenaline rush through his veins, he jumped off his cot and to his hooves, then ran over to his cell's front, his eyes darting over to the cell where...
"No..."
She was gone.
Velvet Remedy was gone.
Luna's asscheeks, how long had he slept!?
His gaze shot over to the pit, dreading for the fight to have already begun or -even worse- already be over.
But the pit was empty, and showed no signs of any recent activity.
But where was...
"They picked her up a few minutes ago." the voice of a young mare made his ears perk up and turn his head to the side.
Fallen Leaf was looking at him again, sitting on the ground in her cell, almost next to him. "She's being prepared for the pit. Given a healing potion, being explained how things work, all that. Hell, they might even let her choose a weapon if they're feeling generous." she explained nonchalantly, "At least that's what they did with me last week."
Calamity cocked an eyebrow - how come him and Velvet hadn't received any of those services before entering the pit last time?
But he shook his head. These really weren't the sorts of things he should be worrying about right now!
Instead, he forced his mind back to the matters at hand, starting with the most important realization: Velvet was still alive.
He could feel himself wanting to breathe a sigh of relief at that, which was, however, silenced by the realization that he still wasn't any wiser or better off than before he had dozed off. Time was running out! He had to do something!
Feeling his breathing quicken, he arose to his hind hooves, frantically searching the lock of his cell door for any weak spots. Nothing he hadn't done a dozen times since being put in here yesterday, but ... but there had to be something!
The young mare in the neighboring cell said something to him, but he didn't have ears for her in this second. He needed to do something! He had to save her!
Biting his lip, fumbling around with the lock in a desperate attempt to get it open, he gave a grunt. He could hear steps coming closer -no doubt one of the guards making their rounds- but he ignored it entirely. So what if they saw him wanting to break out? Hell, even if they would shoot him, at least then he could say he had died trying to free his beloved!
The slow, heavy steps came closer, then slowed down before finally stopping in front of Calamity's cell. The pegasus could see a set of blue hooves in black leather armor standing in front of him, but he'll be damned if he cared! He wouldn't stop fighting! He would save her!
"Hey." the slaver said sharply, clearly trying to get Calamity's attention. "Hey, you." he was speaking in a somewhat muffled voice, yet his tone had a certain edge to it.
Calamity didn't react in the slightest, by now having resorted to trying to pry the door open with sheer muscle power.
"Hey, look at me!" the slaver repeated himself, reaching a hoof into Calamity's cell and forcing his head upwards.
Standing in front of him was a blue unicorn slaver. Calamity was pretty sure he had seen him walking around the premises before, maybe even thrown the one or other insult at him at times, but... he really didn't care in this second.
Shoving the stallion's hoof aside, Calamity focused his attention back on the lock. There had to be some sort of weak spot to these things!
"I'm talking to you!" the slaver hissed sharply, and Calamity could feel sickness crawl up his throat as an aura of magic formed around his head and forced it back up, making him look the slaver in the eyes.
"What!?" the pegasus snarled, "What the heck do you want!?"
"Just listen to me for a second, featherbrain." the slaver snapped at him, his face contorting in anger, "And quit looking at me like that, or I'll..." but he cut himself off, biting his lip and taking a deep breath. The magic aura around Calamity's head vanished as his face relaxed.
"You're that ... Calamity-guy, right? The friend of that mare the boss is gonna fight in the pit." the stallion started over, his voice calmer this time.
"Yeah." Calamity replied, visibly annoyed. He had had enough of those talks to know where this was leading. "If ya came to make fun of me, you can fuck right off. Ah've got enough problems without you making my life even harder."
"No you piece of-" the slaver wanted to snarl back at him, but once again cut himself off and took a deep breath. His face remaining grim, he focused back on the pegasus. "Look, I'm done. I've had enough. Fuck this place, fuck the boss, and fuck all the messed-up shit they've been doing here. I don't want anything to do with that anymore."
"...And?" Calamity asked, legitimately annoyed now. Really, he had his own matters to take care of, and had better things to do than listening to this slaver's life story.
"You took the bullet for your mare the other day while you were trying to escape." the stallion explained dryly, "You have a sense of honor. Ain't too common in the wasteland nowadays. ... I respect that."
"...And!?" Calamity repeated, getting increasingly annoyed. This guy was stealing his precious time! Any second he spent here blustering was a second Calamity couldn't use to save his mare! "Look, Ah don't care what yer thinkin', but-"
"When I came here, I wanted to make a difference. Make the world a better place. Be part of something bigger." The blue unicorn continued undeterred, trailing off, "And I never did. All I did was be a piece of shit, and make ponies' lives as hard as possible. ... But not anymore."
His horn lit up, his magic loosening something from his armor's belt that Calamity half-expected was a combat knife.
"I'm leaving tonight." The slaver explained bluntly, holding the object afloat in front of Calamity's face. "And I want the last thing I did in this place to be a good deed. After all the shit I've done, I wanna do something good for once."
Calamity just watched in awestruck silence, his wide eyes resting on the large keyring floating in front of him, filled with at least two dozen keys of all shapes and sizes.
"I don't care what you do with 'em, but at least now ponies can't say Knucks hasn't done a single good thing in his life." his horn glowed a little brighter, his magic launching the keys into Calamity's direction, and making them land on the concrete behind him with an audible tink.
"I'll be outta here in an hour." Knucks announced, his eyes focused on Calamity, "I suggest you do the same. Boss won't be happy when she finds out that her second-in-command has pissed off."
With that, he turned away, muttering something about Celestia having mercy on his soul, and leaving a somewhat confused Calamity behind.
Did that ... did that just happen?
Slowly, he turned his head to look at where the slaver had thrown his keys, only for his eyes to widen drastically.
The keys were indeed real and not just a figment. However, real as they were, they were also being picked up and pulled into the neighboring cell by a pair of small, dark brown hooves.
"Hey!" Clamity gave a scream of outrage, dashing forward and making a dive for the keys. He missed them by a few inches, landing on the hard concrete as his hooves reached out into nothingness. Swiftly, he got back to his hooves, his head shooting aroound and focusing the young mare nextdoor with a blood-freezing glare. "What the hell!? Are you kidding me!?"
"Look, look!" Fallen Leaf said, holding her front hooves up in defense as she slid the key ring behind herself - way out of Calamity's reach. "Hear me out, okay?"
"Consarnit!" Calamity cussed, dashing over to the wall of bars that separated the two and banging his hooves against them, "You shittin'me, kid!? Ah swear you better give me those keys or Ah'll-"
"You want to save her, I know." the young mare clarified soothingly, "So do I, trust me. She sacrificed herself for me, remember? I owe her. Big time."
"Ah don't care!" Calamity snapped, reaching through the bars, trying to get a hold of her, but realizing with increasing frustration that his legs weren't nearly long enough. "Gimme those keys!"
"You wouldn't survive for a minute out there!" Fallen Leaf argued, seeming to get quite worked up as well, "Trust me, I want to get out of here just as badly as you, but the second somepony sees us set hoof out of our cells they'll gun us down!"
Calamity clenched his teeth, growling menacingly, but ended his struggle against the bars. That mare had a point, he couldn't deny it. It hurt all of his stubbornness, but maybe running out there like a headless chicken wasn't the best idea, even if every fiber of his body seemed to scream at him to do just that.
"An' what do you suggest?" he asked, his voice a low grumble, "An' Ah won't stay in here an' watch mah mare get slaughtered down there!"
"I know." his neighbor affirmed quickly, shaking her head, "And neither will I. But if we wait till the fight has started and then sneak out, all the guards will be focused on the pit, and we'll be out of here in no time."
She gave a quick nod as if to confirm it to herself, "We'll need guns though, or else they'll just overrun us." she pointed out without looking at Calamity, "There's an armory in the other building. Even if we can't break in there, there's always a single pony guarding it. If we do it right, we can overwhelm him and force him to open it for us. With the necessary firepower, we might just stand a chance."
She finished, letting her plan sink in and seeming quite lost in thought for a second, then looked back at her cell neighbor, "So what do you say?"
Calamity looked at her in silence for another second or two, then shook his head and looked down at her. "Ya know how ridiculous that sounds, right?"
"And what's your plan, huh?" Fallen Leaf snapped back defensively. "Go ahead, run out there, get yourself shot to bits." she teased, stretching out her hoof and offering him the keys. For a moment he really was tempted to shoot forward and snatch them from her - even though he could see from here that she was still holding them way out of his reach. "Go ahead and ruin the only chance to save your friend before you even had it." she continued bitterly, shaking the keys in her hooves as if to taunt him.
Again, he stood up to her look for a few moments, but then shook his head and looked away.
"God damnit." he muttered under his breath. He hated to admit it, but she did have a point. If he was going to run out there and -inevitably- be shot on the spot, there was absolutely nothing he could do for Velvet - dead ponies couldn't save others.
The pegasus gave a sound of discomfort, grinding his teeth together, but in the end couldn't help but to agree with the young mare. Stupid as it sounded, and as much as he hated the thought with every fiber of his body, perhaps waiting really was the right thing do to. But only until the guards' attention was focused on the pit, not a second longer!
"So ... you're in?" Fallen Leaf asked to confirm his support, as she slowly lowered the keys and placed them in front of herself.
Calamity gave an annoyed sigh, but then slowly nodded his head.
"Yeah." he replied curtly, then added, "Ain't like Ah got much of a choice, anyway."
This was it.
This ... was it.
No turning back now.
No going back to how things used to be.
No wandering the wasteland together, no overcoming hardships, no experiencing adventures anymore.
This was where it all ended.
Velvet Remedy was standing in the pit, waiting for what she had come to accept as her own execution.
A few minutes ago, two slavers had picked her up from her cell. She had followed them down to the pit without resisting.
They had given her a healing potion and, calling it a gift of the boss herself, a shot of Med-X, and had opened the wire mesh gates for her, pushing her inside where she was standing now. Countless layers of dried blood were caking the concrete floor beneath her, making it sticky and gross. Her body was aching in more spots than she could count, and as much as she tried to avoid it, the prospect of what was going to happen in this very spot in just a few minutes loomed over her like dark thunderclouds.
Amidst the cheering of slavers and slaves alike, the door behind her was pushed shut, and the cheers reached a new high as, she suspected, the leader of the pack stepped into the makeshift arena.
Velvet didn't even look up.
This ... was it. This was where her life would end. She had since done her best to accept this as a fact, after spending way too long struggling against it.
In the end, this was just one of many cruelties commited in the Wasteland every day. Death was omnipresent, and cruel and painful to think about as it was, she was probably just one of many hundred ponies that would lose their lives on this day. Perhaps... perhaps this thought made it all a little easier to bear. Perhaps she had just grown numb to the pain.
Either way...
Slowly, warily, she lifted her head, looking at the pony that would end her life - and feeling her throat get tighter as she saw Littlepip. The hall's main lights had been turned off, leaving the cells and the pit's surroundings in twilight with only the big spotlights on the ceilings enlightening the battleground, their glaring light shining right onto...
Velvet Remedy could feel her heart shrink as she took in the sight of the former heroine.
That short, little mare that had always looked up to her; idolized her, crushed on her for so many years. The pony she had come to see as a true wasteland heroine - a paragon of hope in these dark times. The pony she had watched fall to the addiction of Party Time Mint-Als; the pony she had tried to help - and failed, ultimately sealing her own fate.
Looking at the scarred, battle-born slaver standing in front of her; a mare dressed in spiked armor and armed to the teeth with all sorts of weapons that promised to bring a slow, painful death to whoever they were used against, it was almost impossible for Velvet to picture the little mare in the stable suit she had come to know her friend as.
The mare that used to be the legendary Stable Dweller looked around as the door behind her was closed, taking a moment to take in the atmosphere, before her green eyes came to rest on Velvet Remedy, and her eyes narrowed as her mouth broke into a toothy grin, full of blood-thirsty anticipation. The hustle-bustle of voices filling the hall died away abruptly, giving way for almost total silence.
So ... this was it? No announcement? No last words? She would just ... start fighting?
Taking in a deep breath, and keeping her eyes locked on Velvet, Littlepip lowered her head, that grin of hers widening ever so slightly.
"It's been a long time coming." she said emphatically, seeming to savor every word she spoke, "But look how the tables have turned now." Slowly, step by step, she came walking into Velvet's direction, her horn lighting up as her magic pulled a combat knife from a holster on her flank, "And I can promise you, one of us..." she paused, floating the knife over to Velvet who slowly let her head sink, "is going to die tonight."
With that, the tip of the knife turned towards Velvet, threateningly floating in front of her chest. She knew what would come now. She knew it all too well.
But she wouldn't resist. She wouldn't try to fight back. This is exactly what Littlepip; what all the slavers around her wanted. She knew that she was going to die either way; she'd be damned if she'll give them the pleasure of watching her struggle.
So she merely closed her eyes as the knife came flying towards her, clenching her teeth and hoping for it all to be over quickly.
She bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood, as the knife cut through her flesh. Though, not in the way she had expected it to.
Probably on purpose, the knife had missed her chest by a long shot, instead flying past her and merely swiping her left foreleg. While it only caused a small bleeding wound, and certainly wasn't fatal, it still hurt quite badly, and Velvet flinched noticeably, fighting to hold back tears.
"Oh come on." her tormentress complained slightly annoyed, "You didn't even try to dodge! Don't you have any decency?"
Velvet just shook her head. So this was how it was going to be? Pip was going to play her sick games with her? Couldn't she just-
However, before she could finish that thought, she was alerted by a voice coming from somewhere way above her head. A voice that sounded ... awfully familiar.
"Velvet!" she could hear a stallion shout her name, "Velvet, come on! Fight back!" her look darted upwards, her eyes searching the holding cells for the origin of the voice. "You can do it! Ah believe in ya!"
"Calamity!" Velvet shouted, her eyes widening as she spotted the rust-colored pegasus in a cell on the lower ranks, pressed against the bars, his eyes focused on her.
"Ah have a plan!" he yelled at her with wide eyes, "Just ... hang in there for a little longer! Ah'll get us outta here! Ah promise!"
"Calamity..." Velvet repeated herself, her eyes tearing up. He was still here! And he was watching her! Supporting her! If that was actually happening, and not just her imagination, then...
Feeling her poise return, Velvet tensed up, the look of surprise on her face making way for one of determination. She couldn't explain it, but ... if Calamity was here ... she couldn't just get herself killed! She wouldn't!
As her determination returned more and more, Velvet straightened herself up, her grim eyes staring right at Littlepip, fear now replaced by defiance, and determination.
The slaver mare looked up for just a second, acknowledging the pegasus' existence, then cracked a thin smile. "Cute..." she admitted, then her horn lit up again, "Now let's try this again!"
Watching her opponent use her magic, Velvet spun around on the spot, knowing what was going to happen. The black combat knife that had already been picked up off the ground came flying into her direction, but was thankfully slow enough to allow Velvet to dodge it with a dive to the side. Landing right on her injured foreleg and rolling to her side, she gave a pained groan, but scrambled, trying to get back to her hooves as quickly as possible, groaning from the pain in her injured leg as blood ran down its side, and dripped onto the concrete floor.
"There we go!" Littlepip announced with a pleased shout, "That's the Velvet I know! That's what I wanna see!" Her horn lit up again, pulling a second knife from a holster on the other side of her flank, "Let's do it again!"
And just like that, Velvet Remedy found herself in harm's way again. Only that she still hadn't gotten back to her hooves yet! Feeling her body tense up in an instant, she tried to roll to the side to dodge the knife - a split second too late. The knife had hit her on her ear - not much, but she could feel a stinging pain come from the tip, and the telltale trickle of blood running down onto her head.
Holding back a yelp from the second injury, she quickly led a hoof up to her ear, pressing a hoof against it in an attempt to drown out the pain and stop the bleeding, struggling to get back to her hooves.
"Come on Velvet, really?" Littlepip asked teasingly as she came walking towards her, "I've been only using knives, for fuck's sake!" she shook her head as she stopped a few steps away from the charcoal unicorn, "You said you were going to fight me, but so far all you've been doing is dodge!"
Velvet shook her head, slowly pulling her hoof from her ear and inspecting the amount of blood on it. Nothing too major. Not good by all means, but not fatal. However, an all new train of thought popped up in her head as her eyes went a little upward and spotted the combat knife still lying on the ground mere feet from where she was sitting.
Feeling her body tense up, and without thinking further, the charcoal unicorn jumped to her hooves, ignoring the pain flaring up in her left foreleg, and made a run for the blade - much to the excitement of her audience, it seemed, who approved of her attempt with roaring cheers and thunderous laughter.
Stopping in front of it and picking up the knife in her mouth -the slavers had not removed the magic-suppressing ring around her horn, so she was still limited to her mouth and hooves- she span around on the spot, facing the slaver mare who looked back at her like with a sly grin.
"There we go, now you're learning." the short mare said, nodding her head in approval. Velvet Remedy just frowned.
"But it won't use you anything. You know why?" and with that the grin slipped from Pip's face, making way for a dead serious expression, "Because you can't kill me. I could be lying in front of you right now, all vulnerable and defenseless, and you still couldn't get yourself to kill me."
Velvet bit her lip at that. As much as she hated to admit it, that ... might actually be true. Sure, with the prospect of getting out of here, she would do almost anything to survive, but ... she really didn't know if she could get herself to take that ultimate step if push came to shove.
Nevertheless, she knew that saying that out loud would only cause more slavers to shout for her death. She had to show toughness, even if she wasn't feeling the slightest bit tough!
Still, she couldn't just draw in her horns and surrender now. She had to look strong!
So, straightening herself up, making an effort to make her face look as tough as possible, she tried to put on a grin, and forced out a challenging, "Try me ... bitch."
The entire audience; all dozen slavers and three dozen slaves, broke out in thunderous laughter. Velvet found herself wanting to pull her head in, but made an effort to stand tall - these ponies wanted a fighter? She was going to give them a fighter!
The laughter went on for a few moments until Littlepip, who had joined in herself, stopped abruptly, causing the entire hall to fall back into dead silence in an instant. She opened her mouth, and Velvet expected to be met with teasing, bashing, or plain and simple insults. What she had not expected, however, was for the slaver mare to give a light shrug and a brief, "Alright."
"Wait, what?" Velvet wanted to ask, but fell silent abruptly as Littlepip's horn lit up again, pulling yet another weapon from her utility belt. The unicorn could feel her survival instincts kick in, making her want to spin around on the spot and run as she watched the needle gun being floated into her direction yet again.
However, she was surprised as she saw it spin mid-air, and float in front of her face with the trigger and handle right in front of her mouth.
"There you go." Littlepip said complacently, her eyes resting on Velvet, "Come on, take it. It's yours! I made it for you, remember?" she added, her grin widening in a strange way.
Velvet hesitated, watching the weapon float in front of her face. Was this a trap? It certainly seemed like one. Why should Pip give up such an effective weapon this easily?
"It's slightly modified though." the mare in raider armor added, "Instead of shooting lightly poisonous darts that will knock out targets for a period of time, I loaded it with actual poison this time." she explained, her eyes narrowing with delight, "One shot... and it's over."
Her face lit up noticeably as the weapon shook ever so slightly in her magical grip, urging Velvet to take it already. "Come on, you can have it."
Slowly, carefully, Velvet reached out with her mouth, her teeth closing around the weapon's handle, expecting it to be yanked back any second.
However, the weapon stayed in place, and Littlepip's magic aura only vanished after Velvet had securely grabbed the weapon in her mouth. It sure felt strange holding a weapon like this, but it seemed easy enough to operate. Carefully putting her tongue around the trigger, she locked eyes with Littlepip, raising an eyebrow.
"Come on, shoot me!" Littlepip invited her happily, arising to her hind legs and spreading both her front legs out into opposite directions, "You don't have the guts, do you? Come on, just pull the trigger!"
Velvet Remedy's eyes narrowed threateningly, her grip around the weapon tightening. Was this ... was this real? Could she really ... end it all, right here? Just one shot, and ...?
"Velvet, please!" Velvet flinched as a whine suddenly came from her friend, Pip's face tearing up all of a sudden as she dropped back to all fours, "D-don't do it! Please! Please!" she gave a sob, tears running down her face. "Please don't ... don't kill me!"
The charcoal unicorn frowned deeply, feeling her heart pound in her chest, and biting down on the needle gun hard enough to leave tooth marks in its handle. Pip was ... she was playing with her! This was ... this was all just show, right? The same little game she had played with Homage, right? ... Right?
"I never wanted it to be like this!" Littlepip shouted whiningly, her high-pitched voice reaching its breaking point, "I ... I know you wanted to help me! I should've never let it come this far! I should've just ... just ... come back to you guys and..." she cut herself off, falling to her knees and letting her head hang low, tears dripping onto the concrete.
In spite of her common sense wildly protesting, yelling at her to just pull the trigger and end it all right here, Velvet found herself hesitating. Yes, she knew that this was all just acting, but ... mother of Celestia, she couldn't shoot her! Not like this!
"I'm sorry!" the slaver mare shouted again, looking up at Velvet with tearstained eyes, and slowly getting back to her hooves, "You ... you were my idol all my life! I loved you! I ... I should have never treated you like this! Can we..." she paused, wiping her face with a hoof before looking back at Velvet, and sobbing, "Can we maybe ... just go back to Tenpony Tower and act like ... like none of this ... ever happened?"
"Pip, I..." Velvet muttered under her breath, keeping the needle gun at the ready, but nevertheless feeling her resistance crumble.
"Please..." Littlepip begged again, "Please just..." her voice faltered, and she let her head sink. Velvet Remedy watched her with attentive eyes, waiting for her to make some sort of move, but... but there was nothing. Just a little mare, crying, helpless, begging for forgiveness.
Velvet frowned again, giving a deep sigh, then shook her head. Slowly, she lowered her head to put down the needle gun and-
Littlepip's horn lit up.
Thwap!
Before she could register what was happening, Velvet's tongue had already slid over the trigger, pulling it backwards just enough for it to release a shot of its deadly load - right at the pony opposite to her.
Absolute, total, all-encompassing silence filled the following moments. Silence that was so intense that it seemed to take an eternity to be broken, and was only interrupted by a surprised gasp coming from the mare in raider armor.
Standing still like thunderstruck, her wide-open eyes staring right through Velvet Remedy, Littlepip stood there. Slowly, one of her trembling hooves came reaching upward, and touched the poisoned dart stuck in her flesh, right below her throat.
Feeling her heart pound in her chest, faster and faster, Velvet stared right back at her, the dart gun still tucked firmly in her mouth. She felt a very, very strange sense of déjà-vu in that second.
"I... I didn't..." through the dead silence in the hall, Littlepip's weak, raspy voice could be heard as she stared at her idol, "I didn't think you'd actually..."
But she was cut off mid-sentence as she gave a muffled choking-sound, then took a slow step back, before her legs gave out underneath her, and her lifeless body fell to the concrete floor with a thud.
The silence prevailed for another second, then the crowd broke out in thunderous cheers and shouts - and Velvet Remedy could feel herself sink to the floor.
"Alright, they're all focused on the pit now!" Calamity declared impatiently, looking at the hole in the ground where Littlepip had just entered the cage. Quickly, his eyes shifted over to the young mare in the neighboring cell, "Let's do this already!"
Fallen Leaf leaned forward, pushing her head through the iron bars as far as she could and looking towards both sides, then pulling her head back in and giving a confirming nod.
"Give me the keys!" Calamity demanded, stretching out a hoof, but his neighbor just silently shook her head as she turned around and picked the keyring up.
"Sorry." she apologized briefly as she walked over to the door, "But I don't trust you that much yet." She stopped in front of the door, reaching her muzzle holding the keys through the gap between the bars and picking the ring up with her forehooves, fumbling with them as she tried to insert them into the lock. "I don't think you'd leave me behind, but I'd rather get out of this cell before you throw the whole place into turmoil."
"God dangit!" Calamity hissed, impatiently tapping his hooves against the bars. His look went down to the pit every so often. The two competitors were facing each other off, but it didn't seem like any fighting had begun just yet. All the same, he could see the mare he loved, looking all helpless and alone ... it broke his heart.
However, the pain in his heart was quickly transformed into anger: he could have been down there with her half an hour ago! If it hadn't been for this impudent little brat stealing his keys!
"Get a move on, will ya!?" he asked her sternly, watching as she continued to fumble with the keys, holding them pressed between her front hooves and trying to get them into the lock. Which was harder than it sounded, seeing how the bars forced her to keep her head inside the cell and thus gave her no chance to actually see what she was doing.
"I'm trying my best, okay?" Fallen Leaf hissed back, baring her teeth, "This is harder than it looks!"
"Just give me the keys!" Calamit urged her, getting more impatient with every passing second, "I'll have us outta here in no time!"
"Just ... just give me a second, alright?" she retorted, growling as she still failed to insert the key into the hole.
From the corner of his eye, Calamity could see movement in the pit. Turning his head for just a second, he saw Littlepip holding up a knife, pointed right at Velvet Remedy. This could only mean ... !
"Gimme those fucking keys ya brat!" Calamity didn't exactly know what had come over him as he, in an adrenaline-induced rush, stepped towards the bars of his cell, reaching out to snatch the keyring from her and free himself to aid Velvet.
However, his hooves missed the keys by half an inch, instead colliding with those of Fallen Leaf and causing her drop the keyring, causing it to fall to the floor, a good two feet away from the still locked cell door.
The pegasus could feel his heart sink as he watched them fly, then fall, and land way out of his reach, and with it watched his only realistic chance to save Velvet go down in flames.
However, that loss of hope was quickly reflected in a sudden rage, directed at none other than...
"God! Fucking! Damnit! he shouted on top of his lungs, turning towards his cell neighbor who was looking at the now lost keys with a somewhat helpless look on her face. "Are you fucking kidding me!? You gosh darned piece of-"
But he was cut short as a pained yelp tore through the hall - a voice he recognized all too easily.
"Velvet!" he shouted, letting off the filly in an instant and spinning around to look down into the pit. Velvet Remedy was bleeding!
While it was no serious injury, the mere fact that she was suffering, and he was watching, unable to do anything for her was enough to send him over the edge.
"You!" he snapped, looking to the side at Fallen Leaf who was already trying her best to reach through the bars and retrieve the keys. "Get me those keys! Or Celestia help me Ah'll..." but he cut himself off, shaking his head and instead focusing his attention back on the pit to support his friend.
"Velvet!" he shouted, desperate to get the unicorn's attention. "Velvet, come on! Fight back!" Relieved, he watched her look upwards, and spot him. "You can do it! Ah believe in ya!"
He could hear her shout back at him, though the ambient voices drowned out a fair bit of what she was saying. Still, she had seen him, and that's what mattered to him.
"Ah have a plan!" he yelled at her with wide eyes, "Just ... hang in there for a little longer! Ah'll get us outta here! Ah promise!"
With that, he moved back from the bars, looking to the side to check the status of the key-retrieval.
"Way to go, idiot." Fallen Leaf hissed, crouching on the ground and trying to reach the keys with her hooves, lacking about six inches. "We're trying to break out, remember? Getting them all to focus on us won't help."
"She needs me." Calamity replied bluntly, "Ah won't leave her hangin' like that."
"Hrmpf." the young mare grunted back, rolling her eyes, trying again to reach out for the keys that were clearly out of her arm's reach.
"Gosh dangit. That's not gonna work." Calamity muttered, closing his eyes and turning away to think. They just needed something to reach those keys! It was so simple, yet impossible! Their cells were empty, safe for buckets that were too large to fit through the bars, and the plank beds that were attached to the wall with thick iron chains!
He gave a growl, feeling his mind block up as his wings wanted to stretch out, but were hindered by the leather strap still tightly around his midsection.
He hissed another curse. This ... this wasn't how things were supposed to go! He had to come up with something! But ... but he couldn't think straight with this ... this stupid thing restraining him and...
His thoughts came to a screeching halt as his mind finally put one and one together, and he dashed over to the bars connecting their two cells, holding the buckle that sealed the leather strap through the gap. It was right against his belly, thus out of his mouth's reach, but with a second pony...
"Hey!" he hissed, causing Fallen Leaf to look up with an annoyed glance. "I'm doing as fast as I can, so-"
She fell silent as the pegasus tilted his head towards the leather straps around his body.
It took the adolescent earth pony a few moment to understand what he was up to, but when she did, she ran over to him as well, closed her mouth around the belt and started pulling without so much as a comment.
It took a fair bit of struggling, pulling and pushing, as well as several curses coming from the pegasus, but eventually the belt came loose, and Fallen Leaf pulled it into her cell with a quick tug of her head.
Calamity, gave a heavy sigh and stretched out his wings out of sheer relief, then turned around to check back on the situation in the pit as his cell neighbor went to work, pulling the keys towards her with the help of the leather belt.
What he saw was ... well, surprising, to say the least. Velvet Remedy, bleeding from a few minor wounds, was holding a needle gun, pointing it right at Littlepip who was ... crying and ... begging for ... mercy.
What!?
"Hey, featherbrain!" being so captured by what was going on in the pit, Calamity didn't even notice how his cell neighbor shouted for him, and didn't manage to dodge the keyring that was thrown his way.
Flinching and rubbing the spot at the side of his head where the keys had hit him, Calamity looked at Fallen Leaf, then at the keys in front of his hooves, before his mind finally caught up. He leaned forward, picked up the keys in an instant and shot forward.
With his longer legs and his wings which he could use for balance, Calamity had no trouble getting the keys into the lock. It required a few seconds of fumbling, but only shortly after he could head that satisfying click as the door sprung open, and he wasted no time in stepping outside of his concrete confines.
Though it wasn't like he was really focused on that in this moment. All of his mind was focused on what was going on right in front of him. Pip was ... asking to go back to how things were. Was she ... Had Velvet actually managed to reform her after all?
"Hey!" it was the impatient shout of Fallen Leaf that broke Calamity out of his trance and caused him to turn around. Without paying much mind to it, he pulled the keys from his cell door and opened that of his neighbor.
Just as the second door sprung open, a resounding thwap cut through the air, shortly followed by an avalanche of voices breaking into shouts, cheers, curses, and everything inbetween.
"What the ... ?" Calamity asked, and instinctively spread his wings to get a better view of what was going on in the pit, but was interrupted by a brown hoof placed firmly on his back and a sharp, "Hold still." coming from next to him.
Turning his look to the side, he saw Fallen Leaf coming closer, holding the key ring in her muzzle and closing in on him. "What are you-" he wanted to ask, but even before he could finish his question, he could already feel her inserting the key into the bomb collar around his neck, and gave an understanding "Oh."
His now deactivated collar hit the ground with a soft clank -which was easily drowned out by the noise around them- and he picked up the keys to deactivate the collar of his former cell neighbor. The suspense of what was going on in the pit was killing him, but he knew that he had to stick up to his word.
A few seconds later the second bomb collar hit the ground, and the two ponies were free at last.
In an instant, Calamity flapped his wings, arising by a couple of feet to look into the pit. His eyes widened.
Littlepip's lifeless body was lying on the ground, opposite to Velvet Remedy who was still holding the needle gun in her muzzle, trembling ever so slightly.
So ... Velvet had won?
He shook his head, doing a double take.
Velvet had won!
"Hey!" he could head Fallen Leaf silently call for him from the ground. Hesitantly, he landed again, looking at her with wide eyes.
"She's ... she's dead!" Calamity explained, hardly believing it himself, emotions clashing in his head, "Pip is dead!"
"What!?" Fallen Leaf asked, her eyes widening as well, "Are you ... are you serious?"
Eagerly, Calamity nodded.
"Damn..." she muttered, but then shook her head, "But... still, I'm afraid trying to get to your friend now would be suicide."
"What!?" Calamity blurted out, "You're kidding, right?"
Again, the young mare shook her head. "Look, there's still a dozen armed slavers around here. The armory isn't far away. I say we go there and get properly equipped first, then come back and get her."
"No way!" Calamity said decisively, shaking his head.
"Come on." Fallen Leaf said briefly. Calamity wanted to protest again, but before he could open his mouth, she had already turned around and trotted towards the stairs, heading upwards.
Looking at the pit where Velvet was slowly starting to get back up, then at the stairs, he slowly shook his head, then gave a cuss.
He hated to admit it, but she did have a point. Their chances to survive would be better if they had something to defend themselves.
Besides...
Calamity turned his head again, looking at the pit.
It ... didn't really seem like Velvet was in too urgent need of help in that second. The worst danger was banned, and as much as he just wanted to hug her in this second, he probably could help her out better if he had his trusty battle saddle back.
He hesitated for another second, then shook his head, hissed a curse, and headed for the stairs as well, catching up with Fallen Leaf a few moments later, just as the noise from the slavers was starting to die down.
A few minutes, and a hasty dash through the dark and empty halls of the Misty Hills Correctional Facility later, Calamity and Fallen Leaf passed through the door leading to the facility's secondary building. True to the young mare's suspicion, all the slavers were watching the spectacle in the pit, none of them wanting to miss the show, and it had been unexpectedly easy for the two to make their way through the abandoned facility.
Calamity didn't exactly know where they were headed and what they were supposed to look for -and even if he did, his thoughts were too focused on Velvet Remedy to allow any reasonable thinking- but thankfully, his earth pony companion seemed well aware of what their target looked like.
Leading the two, she dashed through the deserted first floor, dodging crates, boxes and random junk lying about, past a set of stairs that Calamity knew would take them to the upper floors - he remembered this much from his last time here.
Decidedly, the young pony stopped as she had passed the stairs and spun around, tilting her head into the direction of what Calamity now recognized as a second flight of stairs leading downstairs. Without waiting for confirmation from him she dashed forward, running down the stairs in no time, Calamity hot on her heels.
Again, the slavers that would normally guard the place were nowhere to be found, and all that greeted the two as they arrived at the lower end of the stairs was a big, but equally empty room. The walls and floor were lined with filthy light brown tiles, and a couple of flickering lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling provided at least basic lighting.
"This way!" the earth pony shouted, pointing to a corner of the room. Based on the remains of a broken-down concrete wall cornering this part of the room, it might have once been a separate room, but had then been integrated into the bigger room - wasteland-style.
What was more interesting than the remains of wall, though, was a thick steel door in that very same corner, accompanied by a lone terminal mounted to the wall right next to it.
This had to be the armory, Calamity thought to himself, relieved that Fallen Leaf had apparently really known the way.
What surprised him, however, was the fact that the door was standing wide open, instead of being locked as he would have expected.
Gradually, the two ponies slowed down as they approached the door, their dash turning into a canter, then a walk, until they finally stopped a good twenty feet away.
"Why's it open?" Calamity asked the question that seemed to be preying on their both minds, only to receive a clueless shrug from his companion in return.
However, their questions were quickly answered as, a mere second later, a rugged-looking stallion in slaver armor peeked through the door, his look turning grim as he spotted the two escaped slaves.
"Hey!" he yelled at the two, reaching for his pistol, "Who are you, and what are you doing here!?"
Calamity could feel his eyes widen, clenching his teeth as he muttered a curse.
Crap. He had jinxed it by wondering about the absence of guards, hadn't he?
Narrowing his eyes and looking the slaver over, he tried to wager his chances. While Fallen Leaf wasn't a full grown pony, she did seem like she could stand her ground more or less, and if nothing else, she could distract the slaver while he would-
"What's going on here?"
Calamity could feel his body tense up as a second voice filled the empty room, and accompanied by an assault rifle being floated from behind the first slaver, a second pony stepped into the room.
And he could feel his heart sink as he saw just who that second pony was.
"...Homage?" he asked weakly, his mind reeling.
Shit.
He had heard from the slavers that apparently the bosses 'little pet' had changed sides, and had prevented Velvet Remedy's escape, but... he had never actually believed it. But now... now...
A voice in his mind hissed a curse. This wasn't going to be easy.
Not only that it was two on two now, he knew that fighting yet another one of his former friends wouldn't be easy. Not to mention that the unicorn mare was a former wastelander as well and probably not entirely unexperienced in combat either.
But he couldn't let thoughts like this distract him! He needed to help Velvet, and if those ponies were standing in his way... he would do what needed to be done!
"Wait ... Calamity!?"
However, his world was once again turned upside down as the look of surprise on Homage's face turned into one of pleasant relief, and she dropped the assault rifle.
"What are you doing here?" she asked with wide eyes as the slaver mare in front of her also let her pistol sink, stepping back through the door with an indifferent expression on her face.
Calamity was about to open his mouth and give her a brief explanation, but it seemed Homage had already changed her mind, as she shook her head and instead pointed a hoof towards the door. "You know what, nevermind. Just get inside. We don't have any time to waste."
Still baffled at that unexpected turn of events, but also knowing that time was indeed scarce, Calamity nodded in approval and got under way as well, making a run for the armored door with Fallen Leaf following closely behind him.
Located right behind the steel door that was easily six inches thick was a set of metal stairs leading into the lower basement. Calamity's eyes widened as he arrived at the lower end, and his gaze wandered over the room's contents.
Wooden crates, some of them stacked as high as the room's ceiling, filled most of the secured chamber. Some of them had been opened, revealing their contents: guns, ammo, grenades, mines, caps, and the one or other chem.
This room was a goldmine.
Three more guards were standing around the room, their eyes fixated on the three ponies that came walking down the stairs, their stances relaxing noticeably as they saw Homage.
"Didn't think you'd still be alive, to be honest." the unicorn mentioned briefly as she trotted past Calamity and towards a terminal situated on one of the crates at the far end of the room. Cables coming from its backside ran through the entire room, all the way back up the stairs and to Celestia-knows-where. "I'm glad you're here, though."
Calamity let his gaze wander throughout the room for a few seconds, his mind flooded with questions: how had Homage gained access to this place? How had she managed to not only get past the guards, but actually get them to help her?
However, all these questions were silenced abruptly as his gaze spotted something lying in a far corner of the room, and he could feel his heart rate speed up abruptly.
Wasting no time, the pegasus ran over to the device, past the guards who still kept a strict eye on him, and came to a halt right in front of it.
Feeling a broad grin form on his face, he crouched down, wiggling himself into the weapon's harness, tightening the holding-mechanism, and making sure the reloading-mechanism was still working properly.
Satisified with the result, he gave a pleased nod.
He was back in his battle-saddle at last.
And that meant ...!
This was it. Nothing holding him back. He was armed, locked, and loaded.
Ready to go.
"This is the central control terminal of this place." Homage explained, having already positioned herself in front of the computer again, her hooves flying over the keyboard. "I managed to hack into it just as you two arrived. The password was Velvet Remedy." She explained, unable to contain a shudder, "I should be able to use it to disable the defense mechanism and the bomb collars. Grab a gun, I'll be with you in a..."
She turned around, but fell silent as the only thing she saw of her friend was an orange tail disappearing at the top end of the stairs, along with the familiar sound of a battle saddle being readied.
"... oh boy."
Homage frowned, looking after the disappearing pegasus for a few moments, before she shook her head and turned away, but stopped as her look came to rest on the young mare going through one of the crates containing guns.
"Hey, you!"
Fallen Leaf raised her head, looking back at Homage with a small caliber pistol in her muzzle.
"Stay with me for now, will you?" she asked, then added in an undertone, "Can't have two of you run berserk."
The young mare looked at her strangely for a second, then her eyes briefly went over to the stairs where Calamity had disappeared, before she looked back at the unicorn, and rolled her eyes. "Fine." she said curtly, "Doesn't seem like he needs any help with the way he stormed out of here."
"Yeah." Homage muttered a bit absentmindedly, already focusing her attention back on the terminal as her hooves resumed entering commands into the device. Moments later she gave a sound of joy, "I found the turret controls!" she proclaimed, more to herself than to the other ponies present. Again, her hooves flew over the keyboard, a pleased grin appearing on her face as the terminal gave a confirming beep. "Alright, they're disabled now." she announced happily, "Now, what else can this baby do?"
She leaned forward, focusing on the text appearing on the screen in front of her, and the grin on her face widened ever so slightly as she hit the enter-button. "Collars are deactivated." she read out the terminal's reports, "Holding cells have been unlocked." she clapped her hooves together, pleased. "Sweet!"
Not wanting to waste any more time, the mare arose from the terminal, her horn lighting up and picking up an assault rifle lying on the ground next to her, then turned back towards Fallen Leaf who had joined the guards standing ready.
"Alright, let's go!" she spoke, and was already on her way to the exit, but hesitated as she saw the PipBuck strapped to the young mare's foreleg, and a new thought popped into her head.
"Actually..." she hesitated, thinking for a second, then turned towards the guards. "You guys go ahead and help Calamity. I'll need you," she turned towards the earth pony, "To come with me for another moment." The mare gave a brief nod, and Homage's smile widened with pleasant anticipation as she felt her plan unfold, "There's another friend of mine upstairs who needs our help."
Author's Notes:
Brace yourselves for the finale, lads!