“It’s getting late.”

“No, we can’t give up yet.”

“Silver, the sun is going down.”

“I’m not giving up on him yet!”

Silver Feather turned back to the cockpit glass, straining his eyes. He knew that Stormslider meant well, and that he shouldn’t have snapped at her, and that she was probably right, and that...

No, not yet.

He felt her place a hoof on his shoulder. “Silver, nopony can see in this darkness. If you keep searching through the night, we might pass right over him.”

He took a deep breath and leaned back, reaching up to feel the reassuring presence of his goggles. She’s right.

“Dawn, then. Tomorrow.”

She gave him a little smile. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

The two pegasi spent a few silent moments together in the little room, amongst the machinery. Silver glanced up, and his eyes met hers.

She pulled him into a comforting hug, looking over his shoulder, out the glass, to the tapestry of foreign stars beyond it.

“We’ll find him tomorrow.”

“Daddy?”

My father looks up from his newspaper, smiling at me. “Yes, son?”

“When I grow up, I want to be an airship captain, just like you and grandpa!” I exclaim proudly.

“Hehe, is that so? Well maybe if you study hard and try your best, you’ll get into the Royal Aerial Academy. Then you’ll be well on your way...”

Consciousness returned to me in much the same way that a piano returns to the ground after being launched from a ten story window.

The first thing I noticed was the pounding ache that had established dominion over my body, followed shortly afterwards by a soft but scratchy surface against my back. What happened?

I opened my eyes slowly. I flash of pain shot through the back of my head, and I moaned loudly.

“Ooooh! He’s awake!” a high-pitched voice announced.

“Someone go get Colonel. The pony’s awake,” another, deeper voice added. I heard the sound of receding hoofsteps.

All at once, I remembered. The Baron. Harmony. The Breaks. The Great Sea. The attack. My fall.

My eyes shot open. In front of me was a hard, rocky surface. I tried to take a step forwards, and was alarmed to find gravity push my hoof back against the wall.

You’re lying down, idiot.

Ah, yes.

Consulting my prior experience with waking up after severe hits to my face, I decided not to try moving my head. The apparent presence of someone waiting for me to wake up was comforting. I relaxed. I was probably safe, for now.

They could be saving me for some kind of sacrificial ritual, after all. I don’t know what these ponies are like.

My pounding migraine was making it difficult to attribute any serious thought to the issue. I decided to cross that bridge when I got there.

The sound of multiple hoofbeats reached my ears. I assumed that one of them was the ‘Colonel’ I’d heard about, whoever that was. Hopefully he wasn’t some raging cannibal shaman.

A dull brown mare with sharp red eyes stood over me. Thank Celestia! Ponies!

On closer inspection though, she didn’t look like any pony I’d ever seen before. Her snout was wider and longer, and her ears had distinctive tufts of fur on the ends. Her mane was long and wild, half green and half black, and on what part of her neck I could see there were spots of darker brown and green fur.

“Greetings,” she said. “My name is Colonel. We saw you fall, and recovered you from the lake.” She glanced down the rest of my body. “Your survival is somewhat... miraculous, Equestrian.”

Lacking the ability to form a coherent response, I moaned my agreement.

“You’re injured and in need of rest, but don’t worry. We will take care of you until you get better. Then you’ll have to pull your own weight, or we’ll let Blood have you. You don’t want that. Her collection lacks a unicorn horn.”

Who are these ponies? I couldn’t decide if I wanted to feel safe or threatened. I let out a neutral croak of acknowledgement.

“Good, so we have an understanding.” She beckoned off to one side, out of my view. The movement revealed a pair of wings on her back.

“This is Pyrestripe. She will care for you until you can do so yourself,” she explained. Feeling strong enough to try movement, I twisted my neck to get a view of my caretaker.

Unfortunately, it was hard for me to get a good view of things. I was on one of a few empty bedrolls spaced over the surface of some cave, with water buckets and tables spread around. I couldn’t see much else though, as most of the room was blocked by the small throng of ponies watching me with varying shades of interest.

None of them looked like any pony I’d seen in Equestria, though. They were winged like pegasi, but they all had thinner, leaner bodies, with skinny bellies and prominent chests. Their legs were taller and more limber, and they had wide cheeks with large snouts, small eyes, and tufts of fur on their ear tips. But what stood out most about them were their coats.

All of them had some kind of markings in their fur. Most of them had stripe patterns running up their legs and necks, but I also saw large, scattered, spots and long stripes that crossed their entire bodies.

Colonel was pointing at a brown-furred one at the fore of the group. She had a deep red mane and a short tail, with bright scarlet eyes that glowed like fire. Inky black stripes ran up the fronts of her legs, neck, and cheeks, tapering off to sharp points at the ends.

Colonel trotted away, followed by most of the other ponies. Only Pyrestripe and one other remained.

Pyrestripe cocked her head. “What are you doing all the way in the Outer World, Equestrian?” she asked.

I don’t even know. She stared at me as I lay there for a few moments, too beat up to speak.

“Hm. I’m sure you can tell me later, if you don’t die. I’ll be taking care of you. I’ll bring you water and whatever you’re capable of eating, and make sure Blood doesn’t get you,” she said.

“My name is Blood!” the other pony exclaimed. She was a tiny thing, with white fur and blood red mane, eyes, and tail. She had patches of red fur on her knees. I couldn’t tell if her cutie mark was just a simple red splash or if she had a stain on her coat.

Blood brought her eyes right up to mine, smiling ear to ear as she focused in on my horn. “You have a very nice... horn! I don’t have any. Horns, y’know. I’ve never met a unicorn before! Can I have it?” she asked hopefully. Her quirky, high-pitched voice threatened to raise my migraine to new levels of pain. Her ecstatic shaking was starting to worry me, too.

Pyrestripe pulled her off like a mother restraining her filly as they passed through the toy section. “Back off, Blood. You can’t have him unless he dies or turns out to be useless. If that’s the case, maybe then I’ll let you have him.”

Blood pouted dramatically, watching me with a wistful eye.

Pyrestripe turned back to me. “Now you may have figured this out already, but Blood wants your horn. Watch your step. She doesn’t take things from living creatures.”

I nodded slowly. These ponies are crazy. I began working on escape plans. I could feign weakness while I got better, and slip out when their guard was down. But I don’t know this place. There could be anything out there. I couldn’t risk getting caught. Even if I escaped, what then?

I decided to let them care for me and try to earn their trust. Once I knew this ‘Outer World’ better I could come up with a better plan.

Pyrestripe raised a brow thoughtfully. “I wonder... what do you have for a lifemark?” She walked around me to get a better look at my flank.

“A scroll? A closed scroll? You’d better not be some kind of diplomat, for your own sake. That doesn’t work too well in the Outer World.” She turned to speak to Blood. “I bet you’ll end up getting your horn after all.”

Blood nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, finally!” She fell onto her back and began rolling around, giggling.

Sweet Celestia... save me.

“Hey, let me fill you in on something.” Pyrestripe leaned closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You’re not in Equestria anymore, pony. You won’t find love nor tolerance here, just war and betrayal. Everyone in the Outer World is for themselves first, and if you can’t help them alive, they’ll find a way for you to help them dead. Unicorn horns sell pretty well, and the folk here aren’t much for Equestrians. You’ve never been popular, with what you did.”

She smiled, and a shiver ran down my spine. I felt my heartbeat speed up. “You’d better hope you can help us out, Equestrian. Or we’ll kill you ourselves and sell your hide to the nearest rich goyle.”

Time passed. It was impossible to really tell how long, but I guessed it to be around a week or two. Pyrestripe kept up a constant presence, mostly because whenever she left Blood would come in and fix me with that creepy stare of hers. I didn’t like Blood.

I became well enough to walk and talk, but tried to hide it. Despite the earlier plan to earn their trust, I wasn’t confident enough to disturb the peace. So I stayed where I was, and pretended to be too weak to do anything.

But they didn’t fall for it.

Colonel came into my room, followed by a stallion I hadn’t seen before. He had dark, smoky fur and harsh yellow eyes. Most of his small, jagged blue stripes ran up the front of his legs, except for one on the side of his face and another across his snout. His wingtips were blue, and his thick, bushy mane alternated between blue and white. His cutie mark depicted a sharp, blue lightning bolt.

“It’s been two weeks, Equestrian,” Colonel began. “You show no sign of improvement, despite what our healer forecasted. She said you would be well by now, but Pyrestripe tells me you behave like a lame stallion. Do you know what we do with lame stallions?”

The new stallion stepped forward. “We kill them. So get the fuck up before I crush your skull.”

I jumped to my hooves, reserving no doubts as to the validity of his threat. I had a feeling my play for time had gotten me off on the wrong hoof.

“We aren’t stupid. I could tell you were stalling,” Pyrestripe said.

“Your name,” the stallion demanded.

“Dissero.”

“Hrm. Dissero.” Colonel eyed me over. “Well, Dissero, we’ve saved your life. Now what can it do for us?”

“Answer wisely,” the stallion sneered.

“Hey, calm down, Blitz. Equestrians panic easy,” Pyrestripe said. She trotted to his side and put a restraining hoof on his shoulder.

“Uhh...” What do I tell them? I had no idea what these ponies did. Would a trader be of any use to them? If what Pyrestripe had told me was any indication, peaceful professions weren’t much good. I opted for something more open-ended. “I’m a quick learner.”

Colonel raised a brow. “Quick learner? Very well, Dissero. We shall see just how quick you learn. Come with me.” She turned and made for the empty doorway carved through the cave wall. I fell in behind her, with Blitz and Pyrestripe behind me.

I took advantage of the opportunity to orient myself. Leaving the small cave that had housed me for the last two weeks, I came out in the corner of a much larger one. I spied several other tunnels carved into the cave walls, and spotted some of the strange ponies flying between them or chatting amongst themselves. Sunlight filtered through a wide hole in the ceiling, capable of fitting three ponies shoulder-to-shoulder.

I was led to a shallow, sandy pit directly beneath the hole. A pair of rocks formed a sort of broken circle around the pit, with shelves and racks leaning against them displaying a varied collection of weaponry.

Colonel stepped confidently to a rack and picked out two spears, holding them with her wingtips. I was grateful to see that the sharp steel points had been replaced with simple wooden balls.

She trotted into the center of the pit and turned to face me.

“Choose your weapon,” she said.

“Wh—what? I don’t know how to fight,” I stuttered.

“You say you’re a fast learner? Here’s your first lesson: you must fight if you’re to be of use in the Outer World. Now pick up a weapon, or I’ll beat you to death.”

Buck. Buck buck buckity buck. I looked over my choices. Practice weapons of all kinds presented themselves to me. Swords, daggers, spears, maces, hammers, and even wooden flails and blunted arrows. I didn’t know a thing about fighting, but I had knew that every Royal Guard was trained in the usage of a sword. It must be a good, balanced, weapon. Committed to the choice, I levitated a wooden sword to my side.

Colonel seemed to be surprised, but she quickly recovered. “I had forgotten that unicorns can levitate things. A sword? Very well, then. Come into the pit.”

I stepped out hesitantly. She spread her hooves and flared her wings. The sword hovered shakily between me and her.

“Defend yourself.”

She flapped her wings hard, raising her hooves off the ground and covering the distance between us with alarming speed. I stumbled backwards, slapping one of the spears away haphazardly and falling beneath the other one.

In an instant, she had both spears at my neck.

“Well, that was a pitiful display,” someone said behind me. I looked back to find Blitz, Pyrestripe, and several others watching. Blitz was shaking his head in disgust, and Pyrestripe was laughing quietly. I felt a push on my neck, and turned to face Colonel.

“Up. You’re trying again.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to come?”

“No, I’ll just... I’ll just watch the ship.”

Stormslider frowned, watching as Silver Feather stared out at the horizon. He was leaning against a wall coated with gauges, goggles down, no doubt remembering some old adventure from his foalhood with Dissero.

“Okay, then,” she said. If he wasn’t up to it, there was no point in forcing him. “We’ll be back before sunset.”

She left him like that, pushing the worry from her mind. It’s understandable. Give him time.

It wasn’t that she didn’t grieve, too. Dissero had been an old friend of hers as much as his, but she was well aware that there wasn’t time for grief right then. Survival came first. Emotion is a flaw in the mind of an engineer.

She passed through the lounge, down the rear stairwell, and joined the rest of the crew before the main hatch. “He isn’t coming,” she reported.

Ember rolled her eyes as she opened the hatch and stepped outside. “He’s starting to get on my nerves,” she said.

“Give him time,” Cleaver consoled. “His loss is not easy.”

The crew minus it’s pilot filed out into the fresh air, and Ember’s magic closed the hatch behind them.

The rest of my day was just more of the same.

Colonel beat me senseless, over and over. Worse, she somehow pinned me in a different way each time. She pinned me up on the wall, pinned me with my own sword, and even hung me from the ceiling. Then she cut me loose and let me fall to the sand.

“You’ve a month to learn. After that, we stop holding Blood back, so you’re fucked if you can’t fight.” She trotted away.

I lay on the sand, coughing and covered in sweat. Colonel hadn’t even been out of breath. Pyrestripe and I were the only ones left at the pit. The others had left one by one, each eventually growing bored of the beatings.

She walked up and poked me with a hoof. “Get up, Equestrian. I’ll show you where to find food, and where you’ll sleep.”

I rolled over and stumbled to my hooves. “Thanks, Pyrestripe,” I mumbled.

“Just call me Pyre.”

I trudged to the nearest rack and put my sword away, too exhausted to do it magically. Pyre led me to a relatively flat, open part of the cavern. A few other ponies were lounging around there, eating and chatting on mats and cushions spread over the rocks. In the middle of the cushions, a flat rock had been decorated with food and plates. My mouth watered at the sight.

“Serve yourself,” Pyre said. “One meat, one drink, and some greens. Don’t be too greedy.” She stepped forward and began to serve herself.

Meat? Ponies didn’t eat meat. It was an atrocity. Sure, we do it in times of great need but... this is different. They eat it voluntarily. I looked around. Three of the strange ponies were laying on a group of pillows, ripping big chunks of meat with their sharp teeth.

Ponies don’t have sharp teeth, either.

I grabbed a plate and stacked some recognizable fruits and vegetables on it. Apples, oranges, carrots, potatoes. I surreptitiously avoided the meat and unfamiliar stuff. I searched the table for water, but found none.

“No water?” I asked.

Pyre laughed. “Water’s harder to come by than booze, Equestrian. It does just as well.”

I settled for a thick brown liquid that, as far as I could tell, was mud. “Isn’t there a river or something around here? What about the lake I fell in?”

“That water is fucking terrible. Trust me, this shit is better.”

There were three distinct groups of cushions in the cavern. Most of the strange ponies there were eating in the one nearest the food table. The other two were further away. One was completely vacant, and a lone pony ate at the other.

Pyre and I sat at the vacant one. She began to eat quietly, glancing up to make sure I was still there every now and then. I was famished, but couldn’t really get into the eating mood. I nibbled at my food half-heartedly.

“So, what do you ponies do around here?” I asked.

Pyre stared at me, apparently amused at something. I cocked my head at her, and realized that the chatter had suddenly gone quiet. I slowly looked behind me, wondering what had happened.

I found myself nose to nose with Blitz. My eyes widened as his narrowed. This close, his strong scent was overpowering. “What did you just fucking call us?” he growled.

“Uhm...” I began. He grabbed me by my bandanna, managing to somehow pull me closer even though our snouts were already touching.

“Get this straight, pony,” he spat, “we’re not like you. We’re recusants. And don’t you fucking dare call us ponies again.” He glared at me harshly, and I did my best to look submissive and compliant. What’s the big deal with being called a pony? They looked like ponies, more or less. Meat-eating, razor-toothed, somewhat bent out of shape pegasus ponies. Deciding that now was not the time for questions, I nodded enthusiastically.

Blitz let go of my bandanna, and I fell to my knees, eyes down, praying to Celestia that he wouldn’t change his mind and kill me right now. These ponies—no, these recusants, are crazy.

“I’ll let you go this time, since you’re new around here. But next time, I won’t be so easy,” he said.

I noticed some of the other recusants giving me harsh looks. Trying to avoid their gaze, I turned to face Pyre. She was biting on some meat absentmindedly, smiling.

“You’re a real charmer,” she said.

I ignored the comment and crawled a little closer, lowering my voice. “So... what do you recusants do around here?” I asked.

She shrugged. “We’re bandits, more or less. The Outer World doesn’t take kindly to us. They think we’re thieving, merciless, immoral mercenaries. Which most of us are. But really, they don’t give us much choice.”

We continued to eat in silence.

I was happy to get my teeth on some vegetables again, but the sounds of the recusants tearing into their meat sickened me. I felt like if I looked up and saw one of them take another bite I would vomit.

It didn’t help that Blood came to sit next to me. I wasn’t sure if she was even eating anything. I tried not to look, but I felt like she was just staring at me the whole time. Staring right at my horn with that ridiculous, creepy smile of hers. Every few minutes she would creep closer, until I could feel her breathing on my ear. Then Pyre would give her a stern look and she would back off. The whole time I was worried I’d commit another social crime and everyone would come beat me up.

It was not the most comfortable dining environment.

It had without a doubt been the strangest day in Stormslider’s life.

The four ponies had ran a circuit of the small town they’d landed near, only occasionally looking up to make sure the Omega was still parked in the neighboring plain. They had passed bears and griffons and bartered with wolves, zebra, and some of those strange gargoyle creatures for supplies, but had lacked the financial might to get much of anything. Still, it was better than nothing.

Stormslider had her eyes fixed on the side of the road, watching the buildings pass by. She saw a trio of griffons examining a message board of some kind completely plastered with papers. She was too far to read them, but the words “dead”, “alive”, “pay”, and “job” seemed to be popular choices for the large print of the titles.

“Have we got everything we need?”

Storm wrenched her gaze away from the curious town to look to Ember, who was shuffling through the cart of goods being hauled by Cleaver. The big stallion glanced back with mild curiosity. Nix was hiding practically under his hooves, looking around her frightfully at the strange inhabitants of the town.

“Is there a chisel in this cart?” Storm asked.

Ember frowned. “No. Uh... there. That stall has one.”

The two mares made their way over to the stall, manned by a panting wolf. Storm noticed Ember looking at the same message board she’d seen earlier.

As they arrived, Storm set her mind to the twin tasks of haggling and not getting freaked out by the wolf’s fangs. Or by the fact that she was talking to a wolf.

“Mares! Good day! What are you looking for? My stall has everything you could ever need!” the wolf lied.

“Yes, yes.” Ember brushed his claims aside with an absent-minded hoof. “How much for the chisel?”

“Chisel? Ten coppers! A fine price! Discounted!”

Stormslider rolled her eyes. Every one of these merchants sounded the same. The only difference was the price. Would be nice if we actually had some copper.

“We don’t have any copper,” Ember said. “But I can offer you a piece of moonstone.”

Storm rummaged through her saddlebag and picked out a rune slug, presenting it for the wolf’s greedy eyes. She could tell that the wolf saw it as an object of value, as everyone else in this town seemed to. However, he didn’t seem to know that she knew.

“Ach!” He smiled. “Moonstone! For fifteen pieces, I will give you the chisel.”

Now it was Ember’s turn to roll her eyes. “I don’t have time for this shit.”

A small, almost impercetible glow encased her horn. With a soft clink, a candle on a shelf at the rear of the stall fell over. The cloth walls of the stall burst into flame with such speed that Storm wasn’t sure if Ember had stopped at merely knocking over a candle.

The unicorn levitated the chisel off the countertop, ignoring the wolf’s cries for help, and curtly returned to Cleaver and his cart. Stormslider hesitated, looking back. The wolf had left his stall and ran for the building with the message post outside. He barked at the trio of griffons and tossed a pouch at them. They caught it, nodded, and headed for the stall, wings at the ready.

She shouldn’t have done that. Still, Storm followed her to the cart. They’d got the chisel. That wolf was trying to scam us. He probably deserved it anyways.

She tried to ignore him as he lamented the loss of his precious stall.

After we ate, Pyre led me to a deep indentation in the cavern lined with bunk beds. “You sleep here. Pick a bunk that doesn’t look lived in.” She trotted away, leaving me to myself.

A lantern hanging lopsided from the ceiling struggled to spread some light around, to little effect. There were four beds, spaced equally along the cave wall. I tiptoed past a sleeping recusant and picked out a bottom bunk that looked relatively unused.

I crawled in and lay down, exhausted.

“Hey there!”

I jumped. Another recusant had been on the bunk above mine, and was now leaning over the side. He fixed me with a friendly smile. His long blonde mane hung beneath him, sprouting from a coat the color of dry hay.

“Uh, hello,” I replied.

His deep green eyes flashed as they caught a burst of lantern light. “My name’s Hunter, and you must be the Equestrian. Dissero, right?” I nodded.

“I saw you get the shit kicked out of you by Colonel. Don’t worry, if you fuck up enough she’ll give you hints,” he said helpfully.

I ran a hoof through my mane self-consciously. “Yeah, I don’t really know much about fighting.”

“Well you’d better shape up fast! You’ll get killed by the first fucker who sees you, waving sticks around like that.”

I heard hoofbeats, and Hunter turned his head to greet a recusant mare approaching us. “Hey, baby,” he said playfully.

She had a deep red coat and inky black mane. She was slender, even for a recusant, with black stripes on the fronts of her legs, a black snout, and a splotch of black around her tail. She’s gorgeous.

“Hello, Hunter. And hello to you, Equestrian. I am Navery.” Her voice was silkier than a filly’s mane.

I grinned like a fool, looking away from her soft amber eyes. “I’m Dissero.”

Hunter jumped down from the bunk above me, and I saw that he had brown stripes running up the fronts of his legs and another across his snout. He and Navery embraced briefly, rubbing snouts affectionately, before turning to face me.

“So, what’s your story? What’s Equestria like? How’d you end up in that lake?” Hunter asked. Navery sat by his side, seemingly bored.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I said. I had had a hard day, to say the least. Leaving a bed for the first time in weeks only to be beaten to an aching numbness and threatened one way or another multiple times. Right now I needed time to think. I needed a plan. A way to learn more about the Outer World, enough that I could survive on my own until I could get back with my crew. I needed to learn to fight well enough to defend myself in what, from what I’d heard since arriving, was a hostile and dangerous land.

You’ll never find your crew. You’ve got a whole world to search.

I pushed the nagging thought to the back of my mind.

“Okay, if you insist. We’ll be leaving you, then,” Hunter said. He nudged Navery, and the couple trotted out into the main cavern, around a corner, and out of sight.

I stared after them blankly, lost in too many ways for comfort. My crew is gone. My ship is gone. Even my home is gone. I set my head down and closed my eyes, dreading what the next day might bring.

Fire. A building covered in fire. The flames lick out the windows and the smoke fills the air. Screams and sirens in the distance, the sounds of conflict and death. A young, inky black pegasus walks out of the flames, his eyes fixed to mine. His mouth is open in silent agony. The screams steadily grow louder. I rush to hold him, and the skin starts to melt away from his bones.

My heart was pounding. My fur was covered in sweat. I shook myself as I rose from the bed and put a hoof to my forehead, trying to push the image away. I could hear Hunter snoring above me, and the sounds of others sleeping nearby.

I also heard screaming, somewhere else in the cave.

I slid out of the bed, warily trotting out of the sleeping area to follow the faint sound. It led me to another cave, halfway up the wall of the main one. I climbed up using a makeshift staircase of rocky protrusions and poked my head inside.

Colonel was sitting there, calmly watching as a scrawny griffon cried. He was tied to a post jammed into the ground near the back of the cave. His ribs were visible through thin feathers, and prominent bruises covered most of his body.

What the...? I moved to back away, but one of my hooves hit a rock behind me. It fell down to the cavern floor, making an echoing crack that felt like it’d wake everyone around for miles.

I cringed as Colonel turned to me. Her eyes were covered by shadow, and her face somber. “Oh, it’s you. I was just thinking of you. Come, I want you to watch this.”

I hesitated, but she beckoned me closer. Her voice held a quiet authority that was hard to resist. I walked to her side, eyeing the griffon nervously.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“I don’t like griffons,” Colonel said nonchalantly. She ignored my question. “I’ve lost many good mares and stallions to them. They’re cruel and heartless killers.” She glared at the sobbing figure in the darkness. “They hunt us down and present our severed wings and heads to those who would pay. They don’t even do it for the money. They enjoy it.”

The griffon looked up and saw me. He reached out with a bloody talon. “Please! Let me go!” he begged. I took a step back, unsure of how to react.

“Silence!” Colonel snapped. The griffon shrunk back as if struck, returning his gaze to the floor and sobbing quietly.

“Griffons have a very interesting idea of reputation, Dissero. When one of them is captured, they refuse to acknowledge that they failed to protect their own. They leave them behind. And yet, the captured griffon still feels loyalty to his flock. It takes considerable... encouragement... to get him to reveal any kind of information,” Colonel said.

Blood stepped out of the shadows, from another entrance I hadn’t noticed. She was smiling like a little filly, pushing a bloodstained, wheeled table before her. I saw scalpels, corkscrews, knives of all sizes, tongs, pliers, and a myriad of other devices. A cold chill ran down my spine.

“Please! Just let me go! I’ll never bother you again! I’ll pay you! Please!” the griffon shrieked. He staggered away from Blood, pulling at his chain faintly.

“Come here, silly griffon! We’re going to have some fun!” Blood giggled. She ran a hoof along the surface of the table thoughtfully. “Lets see, what do you want to do first? I don’t think I have a beak quite like yours yet... it’s cute!” she squeaked. She grabbed a scalpel and approached the griffon merrily, beaming with excitement.

I averted my gaze. I’m never getting out of here alive. “Look at it,” Colonel commanded. I silently begged her to let me leave the place, let me go back to my bed and forget about this. “Look at it!” she repeated, more harshly this time. I obeyed.

The griffon was weakly trying to fend off Blood with his arms and wings. “Hey, stop that! That’s no fun!” Blood said playfully. She grabbed one of the griffon’s wings, pulling hard. He shrieked, flapping frantically to try and get away as she reached for a rusted bonesaw.

I leaned closer to Colonel. “You’re not gonna let her do this, are you?” I whispered frantically. Why is it so damn hot in here?

Colonel stared straight ahead. Her eyes were dull and her face blank. “I’ve killed many in my life. I’ve killed with my hooves, killed with my orders, and killed with my mistakes. It’s too late for me.”

Blood brought the saw down upon the griffon’s shoulder, humming to herself as she cut through his wing joint. The sound of the saw scratching across the bone made me sick. The griffon shrieked louder than ever before, his voice breaking as tears ran down his face. The severed wing fell to the floor with a soft thud, and blood squirted from the wound. I staggered to the side, caught myself on a wall, and retched.

“A long time ago, I was different. I had ideals. I believed that there was right and wrong. Those beliefs got others killed. Now I know that there is no right and wrong. There is only perspective,” Colonel continued.

Blood stepped back to admire her hoofwork and grinned briefly. “Wait a minute! You’re all uneven now!” she said, frowning. The griffon lay on the ground, feebly grabbing at his missing wing. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up real quick!” She grabbed a dull knife and pulled the griffon up to a sitting position with her mouth.

I tried to close my eyes, or turn my head away, but I couldn’t move. Colonel continued to watch, her expression unchanging. “I decided that, regardless of what it took, I would do anything to keep my recusants alive. I vowed to stop at nothing to protect them. Since then, I’ve come to realize exactly what that means. Exactly what I’ve had to sacrifice.”

Blood sunk the knife into the griffon’s wing joint. I heard a sickening crunch as she twisted the blade and pulled it out, stabbing the flesh around the wing over and over again. Blood squirted out of the wound and onto her face, dripping onto the rock below.

“I’ve done terrible things for my clan, Equestrian.”

Blood grabbed the griffon’s wing, now hanging limply from his side, and pulled it loose with a quick turn of her head. The sound of the bones cracking was drowned out by the griffon’s blood-curdling scream. I could see his broken bones hanging out. The torturer licked the blood off her snout and smiled.

“Now, how about that beak?” She grabbed a pair of pliers.

“No... please.... please let me go...” the griffon whimpered. He was beyond screaming now. Colonel calmly walked up to him and lowered her face to his.

“You know what I want,” she said softly.

The griffon shuddered. I stared into his eyes, transfixed, unable to look away despite wanting more than anything to run from the room. I saw his survival instincts struggle with his drive to protect the flock. He shook his head and closed his eyes. His feathers were stained with tears and blood.

“Very well, then. Have your fun, Blood.” Colonel turned her back on him and stepped past me slowly.

“I admit, I envy you, Equestrian. You come from a land where murder is nigh unheard of, and your only brush with death is at the funerals of the elderly. If I was you, I would do everything in my power to return to it, before you become something you’ll regret.”

Colonel’s hoofbeats receded to nothing as I continued to watch the grisly scene before me. Blood had pulled the griffon’s beak off with the pliers. It lay on her table now, cracked and bloodstained. The griffon was lying in his bodily fluids, his tongue hanging out of the hole in his face, as Blood cut his belly open. With an enormous effort, I managed to wrench my gaze away, but I could still hear his guts fall to the floor as Blood sang merrily.

I ran from the room, but the screams ran faster.

Author's Notes:

There's the gore!
Blood also enjoys baking.