Fateless

Applebloom looked into the fire. Where the yellow pony had been was now just a smoldering crater of ashes. She turned her gaze to the pony that had put him there, he was sleeping peacefully.

She felt confused, true she had disliked the yellow pony, but to see his life ended so quickly, and without a hesitation… it had been a shock to her.

“You ok?” Stormbane was staring at her, they had moved back to the wall with the rest of the group.

Most of the ponies had a sick expression on their faces. Some had actually thrown up and were now sitting shaking, staring off into the distance.

“Y- yeah, I’ll be ok,” Applebloom stammered, she forced herself to look away from the fire.

The sun was beginning to rise and she could feel its warmth on her side. She looked up to the sky, pausing to take in the colors of the sunrise. She then turned to look at Stormbane.

“Did he deserve it?” she asked quietly.

Stormbane looked down into the fire, she stood staring into the fire for a while before responding, “no one deserves this…”

Applebloom nodded and they both stood, watching the fire burn out in the morning light.

A door on the far wall burst open and the lieutenant trotted out. Along with the regular armor that he wore, he had a long sword strapped to his back.

Trotting out behind him came three ponies, Two she didn’t recognize, one a unicorn the other a pegasus, but the third was Lance. He gave her a crooked grin when their eyes met.

The lieutenant stopped in front of the ponies, counting them, “so I see we are missing one” he paused and looked at the fire, “A shame too I really was looking forward to having a laugh with him.” The lieutenant chuckled before composing himself again.

“This is Dawn, Flint, and Lance they will be showing you how things work around here. The rest of the Fateless are going out on scouting missions, there have been reports from command that a large number of changelings have moved up into our area.”

Lieutenant Check turned and walked past the fire, stopping before the gigantic pony, “OAF!”

The large pony opened his eyes.

“Get your lazy ass up and bring this armor to the smith, I want it melted down and reforged into new sets.”

Oaf rose to his feet, towering above the lieutenant. Without a word he seized the ends of the the tarp that was underneath the armor. His massive hooves tied the tarp ends together suprisingly quick. He then slung the entire bag over his back, and proceeded towards the gate.

The lieutenant turned to look at the three ponies that had come out of the door with them, “Flint you're in charge” Lance frowned at this but did not speak up, “if any of these foals give you trouble…. Well you can show them where they will end up.”

“Yes Sir!” The large brown unicorn pony said.

“Good, on that note, I don’t even want any reports of trouble when I get back! Or you will be joining whoever caused the trouble in the hole you hear me?” the lieutenant said staring at Flint steely.

“Yes Sir! Understood Sir!”

With that the lieutenant turned and walked back over to the door on the wall, opening it he gave the group one last look before the door slammed and he was gone.

Flint, the unicorn the commander had put in charge, stepped forward.

“Alright Dawn you go get these ponies some training gear, its time to suit up and get to it.”

A few minutes later Applebloom found herself standing with the other ponies in her group. They were lined up on the side of the sand pit that was in the far corner of the courtyard.

Applebloom couldn’t watch, the pony in the sand was shaking with fear. Training as it turned out was letting Lance attack them, and seeing how well they could defend themselves. So far no one had landed a hit on Lance, and he was enjoying laying each of them out.

They were wearing a set of sparring armor, the leather armor fit snugly over her body and the metal helmet was a little to big for her. The blades on the helmets were not sharp. They were rounded off at the top and tips. However Applebloom had a feeling they still hurt after watching others be mauled by Lance.

Applebloom was next in line, she looked to the pony in front of her. Boomer was looking as fearful as ever, Applebloom felt sorry for her, the little pony wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Boomer,” Applebloom whispered.

The shaking mare turned to look at her, “W-w-what?” she barely managed to stammer out.

“Trade places with me.”

Without hesitation the little pony zipped behind Applebloom in line. Applebloom smiled for a moment, and then realized what this meant. Turning her gaze back to the sand pit she saw Lance, standing over the now battered pony in the sand.

Lance turned to look at the line, seeing her next he smiled.

“Next,” Flint called out, he was standing on the side of the sand pit. Flint was the one that started and ended the fights. So far he hadn’t let the fights go to far, for one of the ponies the fight had actually ended after Lance laid one hit on him.

As the pony in the sand hobbled off to the side Applebloom slowly trudged to the center of the sand pit. She stood before Lance and looked up into his eyes. He smiled that crooked smile and took a few steps back and lowered his head slightly.

Applebloom spread her legs slightly and lowered into a partial crouch. After watching the first few fights she noticed that Lance would just charge in head first. If she could manage to roll or jump out of the way she might have a chance of landing a hit on the stallion.

“Begin!” Flint yelled out from the side.

As Applebloom expected Lance lowered his head and began a charge towards her, she quickly jumped to the side only moments before Lance barreled past.

Closing her eyes she turned her back to where she thought he would be and raised he back legs. She imagined herself back in the orchard, she could picture herself standing in front of a large hideous tree… she was going to buck this ugly tree in half. Her back hooves lunged out, however she never made contact with Lance.

Turning her head she could see he had lowered himself to the ground, almost instantly after missing her. He shot out a hoof from his position on the ground, connecting with one of her forehooves she fell forward onto her face.

Lance rose to his feet and prepared to kick at her on the ground. Applebloom rolled to the side hearing his hooves come down in the sand where she was a moment ago.

She rose to her hooves and turned to face Lance once again, she barely had time to move out of the way of a buck he had sent in her direction. When his back hooves had connected with the ground he used his front hooves to spin himself around.

The side of his helmet made contact with hers, the lose fitting helm went flying off of her head. She stumbled backwards her head ringing. Lance, began to bring his head back to land another hit.

Applebloom managed to duck under it and quickly put all of her force into a headbutt that landed on Lance’s chest. She heard him let out a gasp as he stumbled back a few feet.

Applebloom took advantage of his momentary incapacitation to retrieve her helmet. Turning she saw that he was once again charging at her full tilt, it was to late for her to jump out of the way and she braced for impact.

He connected with her side and she felt the metal bumps on the helmet send stabs of pain up through her side. Lance lifted his head after feeling it make contact causing Applebloom to be sent flying into the air.

She landed on her side in the sand and Lance walked over he raised a hoof and prepared to bring it down.

“Enough!” Applebloom looked over to where Flint was standing, he had a smile on his face. “Good job!”

Applebloom rose shakily to her feet, Lance leaned in close.

“You're weak, just like the rest of them.”

Lance walked past her, and when he was behind her he turned and made one more remark.

“Soon you’ll be dead, just like the rest of your family.”

Applebloom reacted without thinking, she raised her back legs once more and let out a buck that would leave Big Mac’s jaw hanging.

She felt her hooves make contact with the metal of the helmet, and she felt it buckle under the force of her blow. She stood for a moment, shocked at what she had done.

Slowly she turned to look, she expected to see Lance lying on the ground. Instead he had merely stumbled backwards a few paces.

Lance spat out a tooth along with some blood, “Oh…. You're going to regret that.”

Lance lowered himself into a pouncing position and prepared to leap. Before he could get off the ground a glow of yellow magic surrounded him and she heard Flint speak up.

“ENOUGH!” He strode across the sand pit towards the two of them. “Lance go see Patches and get that fixed up. Dawn you’re in charge here until I get back.” He then turned and stared down at Applebloom. “You… you’re coming with me.”

With that Applebloom felt his magic encase her and she was lifted slightly off the ground, they headed towards one of the doors on the wall and Flint opened it and they passed through it.

When they had passed through she felt his magic release her and she fell to the ground. They were in a room with cells along the walls in the middle of the room was a wooden table, it had leather straps that looked as if they were for binding a pony down. Next to the table were a series of sharp knives and other instruments she didn’t think she wanted to know were for.

Flint turned to look at her, she was surprised to see that instead of a furious expression he wore a smile, “That… was fantastic.”

Applebloom looked up at him surprised, “What?”

“Oh you do not know how much I have wanted to lay that guy out, and seeing you land that hit.” Flint smiled as he remember the incident.

Applebloom again looked at him stunned, “You're not angry?”

“Not in the slightest…. “ His happy expression faded, “however, I cant let you off without punishment.”

Appleblom felt fear seep back into her mind, looking back towards the chair.

“You heard the lieutenant, im sorry, but you’re going to get hole time.” Flint walked over to the back of the room where a wooden frame with a tarp wrapped around it was lying on the floor.

Gripping the wooden frame in his magic, Flint raised it off the ground. When he had lifted it Applebloom got a look at what it had been covering. There in the floor was a black hole. Applebloom walked over and stared down into the blackness.

“Listen,” Flint began. “If it were Lance in charge you would be down here for a whole week, but lucky for you im in charge so you’ll be let out in two days. Not all of us are as heartless and evil as Lance. He wasn’t always that bad but this place has a way of twisting your soul.”

He paused and then, with his magic levitated a rope over to where they were standing.

“Grab on to this.”

Applebloom just stared down the hole.

“Look either you grab the rope and get in the hole, or we both are in it for a week.”

Slowly Applebloom took the rope in her mouth and felt Flint’s magic once again wrap around her. She was lifted over the hole and then felt his magic release her, she dangled by the rope and felt herself slowly being lowered down into the blackness.

Applebloom felt her hooves hit the dirt and she released the rope. She looked up the hole and watched as the cover was placed back over the opening. She was alone in the dark.

Applebloom did not know how much time had past. She had spent the first hour slowly feeling around the inside of the hole. There was quite a large amount of space down inside it.

While the neck of the hole was directly in the center of the celing the floor was wide and open. She guessed she was probably twenty or twenty five feet below the ground.

After she had explored the hole, she felt herself become exhausted. She hadn’t slept the entire night and the fight had taken a lot out of her. She lowered herself to the floor and closed her eyes.

She heard a door slam, after closing her eyes she had fallen asleep. She couldn’t tell for how long, the darkness never changed.

She moved closer to the center of the hole and stopped when the sound became clearer, she must be standing directly under the hole. She could hear struggling and then she heard a voice. It was Lieutenant Check.

“Strap him in.”

She heard more struggling as somepony moved closer to the hole, she remembered the chair and assumed that’s what they were talking about.

“You two leave us, go get the commander. Tell him we found him.”

“yes sir!” she heard another voice respond. She heard hoofsteps and a door open and close. There was silence once more.

Applebloom strained her ears to hear what was happening above. She could hear somepony breathing very heavily.

The silence was interrupted by the door swinging open. She heard some pony walk in.

Then she heard it, the voice of the commander, she shrunk back at the sound.

“Ahhh, so you finally join us here mister….. Grey Scale is it?”

She then heard a voice that was neither the commanders or the lieutenants. The voice sounded strained and broken.

“F… Fuck you”

“Oh now Grey theres no need for such language… you know you wouldn’t be in this position if you never ran.”

There was silence again.

“Listen, all I want to know is why you were so far north… not many ponies venture up that way nowadays. I was unable to be there for your pick up… well because when we arrived at your house, you weren’t there. I had to teleport to Canterlot and request a impromptu meeting with Celestia herself."

There were hoofsteps as the commander walked around to another position in the room.

"Needless to say she was quite displeased with our failure but… she has a student who is quite adapt in magic. With her aid we were able to get a general location of your whereabouts. So I sent word to the guard that I had left behind to send two men after you and bring the rest with them.”

The commander paused again before continuing.

“So ill ask you again, what were you doing so far north.”

She heard a spitting noise followed by Grey’s voice, “You can’t make me talk.”

She heard the commander chuckle, “Grey my dear boy… we have no way of making you talk…. Screaming however.”

She heard a loud thunk as something, she assumed, connected with the wooden table. She heard Grey scream, it eventually faded into coughing.

“Heh… is that the best you can do?”

There was a pause before the commander spoke again.

“It really was silly of me to not send a pegasus guard on your capture, I did not estimate that my guards would be so… incompetent.”

There was a pause once again.

“Do you know how easy it would be to ensure you never flew again? It only takes two cuts… trust me I have done it before… But alas that would be a waste of such a talented flier as yourself. As my guards tell me you took out quite a few of them before they grounded you.”

The commander paused once again she heard hoofsteps once again and the commanders voice got louder.

“No…. removing your wings would be a waste… better to break you.” The commander laughed. “Ah yes! You grit your teeth and glare at me now, but in time you will break… they all do.”

She heard hoofsteps walk away from the hole and heard the door open. Once again the commanders voice echoed across the stone room.

“Check… remove his primary flight feathers, we don’t want him flying for a while. When you have finished toss him in the hole.”

“Yes sir!”

Applebloom heard the door close and heard hoofsteps once again. Lieutenant Check’s voice sounded down the hole.

“Hes right you know…” She heard the lieutenant grunt followed by more screams from Grey. “They all end up breaking.”

Another grunt and more screams from Grey.

“We once had a pony, massive stallion, you probably saw him on your way in.”

Grey let out another scream.

“He was rebelious, fought us every step of the way.”

Grey could no longer scream and let out a quiet gargling noise.

“But the commander persisted, and though he has become little more than a mindless oaf, he broke.”

The lieutenant let out another grunt.

“In the end he succmbed to the commanders will, as will you.”

Check let out another grunt, Grey did not scream this time however, he must have passed out.

“There we go, that should solve our little flying problem for a few weeks.”

Applebloom was blinded as the cover of the hole was lifted and light shone down on her. She heard straps being unbuckled and then what she assumed was Grey’s body was floating above the pit. Suddenly the magic holding him was released and he tumbled down the hole.

The pony landed with a heavy thud on the dirt floor, the cover was replaced.

Applebloom stared at where the body had landed, she had company.