Exploits of a slave

“Ican'tdothisIcan'tdothis!” Screamed Twilight in panic as she hung off the side of the ship.

“Stop whining color pony. No such thing as no-work-get-food. Gryphs can no get fish up high. Must work for food and room.” Jorme lectured while he himself sat on the plank of wood beside her, precariously attached to the ship by just a few flimsy ropes, prying off air-barnacles.

“Yeah dweeb, quit yer whining. If anyone shouldn't be here, it's us. This is the type of work slaves are for. That means you.” Gilda griped, pleased that Twilight was uncomfortable, though the feeling was dampened a tad now that she was forced to work as well.

Under normal circumstances both Jorme and Gilda's speeches would have been enough to rally vast armies under their control, or even talk down a dragon. Maybe even convince a lesser lawyer to give up his evil ways. But, Twilight was used to flying inside airships rather than outside, so she ignored them and clung to the side of the ship with all her might.

'Come now Twilight, this is an embarrassment. You've done scarier things than pry little-bits-of-rock-that-happen-to-be-alive from the side of an airship mid-flight. Don't you remember the hydra?'

“I never had a choice in that!” Twilight hissed, quiet enough that the little Discord in her head could hear her, him being in her head and all, but the two Gryphons beside her couldn't. 'You don't have a choice in this either.' The little Discord pointed out.

“There's a difference! The hydra I could do nothing about, I could just run. It was a heat of the moment thing. This is a rather deliberate action that I must be in full command of my mental capacities just so I don't faint and fall a thousand feet down and be met by my grisly end. There are no natural reflexes, as there might be when running from a hydra, only gut-wrenching terror!”

“Color pony! What you mumbling 'bout?” Jorme asked, pausing from his work to look at her over Gilda's head. “Nothing!” She replied with an extra 300cc of fake cheer. Jorme raised a single eyebrow in a way that reminded her of her good friend Applejack. She missed good friend Applejack. “Pony, if you not work, you get more job when this one over.” He warned.

Twilight felt that this was a message from Elysium. “YES! How about we save some time and I just go do something else right now?” She asked with an extra 200cc of real enthusiasm. “Wimp.” Gilda muttered, but Twilight chose to ignore her.

Jorme's eyebrows went from raised to scrunched up. He just didn't understand women. First they want free of their cell to clean the hull, then they want to do something completely different when they actually sit down to do it. He glanced at Gilda, trying to determine whether it was a girl thing or a color pony thing.

“{Hey doofus, my face is up here.}” Gilda said without turning from her work. Jorme blushed beet red and he quickly turned to continue prying those annoying little-bits-of-rock-that-happen-to-be-alive loose from the ship, Twilight's request completely forgotten in his embarrassment.

Jorme was right, of course. There is no such thing as a free meal, and the captain had no plans of perpetuating that illusion.

There were, however, surprisingly few chores that Twilight could do without losing her paltry breakfast over the side of, or sometimes inside of, the ship.

Gutting the fish was a no no, as was cooking them, serving them and eating them. She couldn't swab the deck without getting air-sick and ruining her work thus far, and being below deck for too long caused her to be sick anyway because of the over powering stench of unwashed Gryphon, which was very similar to the overpowering scent of unwashed stallion, but not nearly as hot.

She'd tried helping with the engine, but only got yelled at whenever she got near it. Same with the blades, but that might have been just because the ladder she was balanced on started to teeter, and none of the Gryphs where very keen on cleaning pony bits off of the side of the ship.

Also coupled with the fact that Twilight was their only prisoner, where she would normally be an expendable slave she was now a very valuable cargo.

She knew nothing about sewing, and any attempt to use her horn in any way for manual labor was met with exactly four hooves and many many teeth from Twilight, more than she had in her mouth it seemed to some Gryphons.

And that is how Twilight found herself washing dishes alongside Jorme, who was grumbling very loudly. “I no see why Jorme must clean dishes. Comfort color pony a night and stuck for rest of life. I eat off plate, don't clean plate. What slaves are for.”

Twilight had no sympathy for Jorme, he had been assigned to help her all day and had been grumbling for most of it. Grumbling about getting oil on his feathers, grumbling about cracked talons, and even grumbling about how all his grumbling had given him a sore throat.

And while she had no sympathy, she had no disdain, either. She couldn't really blame him for being miffed. It seemed that he couldn't do anything without the captain yelling at him to get back to Twilight. She didn't like being such a bother.

Soon enough the dishes were all cleaned and she was escorted back to her cell. The day was only half done, so there was plenty of time before sleeping was an option. Not that is was an option anyway. Twilight shivered as she thought back on the previous night.

She shook her head, refusing to think about it. She couldn't be... She isn't!.. But...

She was snapped out of her thoughts before they could become dark by a jolt. Not to her body, but to the entire ship. It happened again, but harder, the ship bucking beneath her. She steadied herself, trying to keep her hooves underneath her. The ship jerked for a third time, more powerfully than the last two, and Twilight was sent flying.

Being in a prison cell like cell, there wasn't really anywhere to fly to except the wall. And just like that, everything went black.

Jorme climbed down to check on Twilight, all the while muttering to himself. “Stupid captain... Making Jorme do everything... Why can't Gilda check color pony?... This stupid-... Color pony?... дерьмо.”

Very slowly, things started to become 'not black'. First, she saw the sky, and in it the Sun. But not the sun as remembered it, but rather a swollen purple orb, roiling and boiling as if it would explode at any moment.

She didn't know how long she stared at the impostor, only that it never moved, not in inch, no matter how long she stared.

Second, she looked at  the sky itself, a dark shade of blue, almost gray. A few fluffy clouds puttered about in the sky, but most of them were gathered into a single dark mass, miles and miles away. She saw a pony sitting underneath the cloud cover, but she didn't believe who her eyes told her it was.

Instead, she glanced of to the other side of the sky, but what she saw there wasn't any better. Monolithic steel gray mountain grew from the sky itself, like massive stalactites. Some were smaller than others, but most were large enough that they grew right into the ground, even though their bases must have been many miles up in the air. She saw another pony sleeping under the peaks, where they hadn't yet reached the ground. The exact same pony.

The whole time she was surveying the impossible landscape, she had been stubbornly ignoring a long series of throat-clearings. “What should we do? She's ignoring us...” Whispered a scarily familiar voice.

“Dund yah worry yur preddy leedle head! I'll gettah tah tawlk!”

Suddenly Twilight's vision was entirely filled with something she felt she could except the existence of. Not that it was a pretty thing to exist. It was about the size of Spike, maybe a little smaller. It was red all over and had a horn in the center of it's forehead curved up, with a myriad of smaller ones sprinkled across it's body. It had an upturned nose and nostrils that were entirely too big. A mouth that looked like it was great for talking non-stop was filled with what seemed like hundreds of tiny teeth. It's ears were likewise large and stiff, curved upward and filled with nicks. Twelve tiny digits were shared across it's two tiny hands, and it's eyes were huge, entirely too much like a pony's for Twilight's liking.

After it had gotten her attention by jumping onto and grabbing her face, it smiled a smile that revealed that it had quite a few less teeth than Twilight imagined. She could tell by the gaping holes between the few that remained. It jumped off of her face and immediately went into a crouching position, which Twilight could only imagine was the way it stood.

“What are you?” She asked, eyes going wide in wonder. It struck a sultry pose and was about to answer, but Twilight continued. “How many teeth did you have at birth? How are you staying upright without a tail? What purpose does your horn serve? Can you do magic? What about your claws? Why do you have six on each hand when so many creatures with talons only have four? What causes the red pigment in your skin? Is that even skin? How hard is it? Why do-”

The red creature grabbed Twilight's lips and held them shut. “Sh sh sh, awl questons hav ansas, and yoo shawl get dem jus as shoon as Iy finish muy introduction. Dew yew undastan?” Twilight nodded rapidly, lips still firmly held shut. “Gud.” It said before letting go of Twilight's lips, moving in front of her and striking the sultry position as he had previously. “Iy,” He said, bouncing a non-existent mane. “am yah inna beoody.”

Twilight would have fainted, if it were possible to faint in one's own mind. She gazed first to her right, than to her left. Besides the giant ponies she could see that were so far away, there was a massive crowd surrounding her. All of the ponies were the exact same. All of the ponies were her.

But, they weren't exactly the same. Some were covered in scars, where as some looked like they hadn't seen a day of labor in their lives. Some were brash and openly eyed her, and others shied away from her gaze. Some were tall, others were short. Some were thin as sticks, others, to be honest with herself, were fat. She saw Twilights that acted like her friends, and she saw Twilights that acted like nothing she had ever known, even though they were just standing there, shuffling their hooves. Variants of variants. And they were all looking at her.

“Oooh, I knew we shouldn't have let Troll Twilight break the news!” Cried another familiar voice. She whirled around to see who had spoken, and she saw herself. Nothing altered in the slightest, except the voice. And the voice was that of Discord. “I mean really I'm all for fun and games, but this is no laughing matter. We need to hurry, and Troll Twilight's shenanigans are nothing if not time consuming!” Twilight didn't react to the words, only the voice. She stared at the voice that had begun to talk to her not so long ago, and she marveled.

“Hay! Iy am noight her inna trowll! Iy am her inna beoody!” Troll Twilight yelled at Discord Twilight. It crossed it's arms and turned it's head away.

“She isn't an outer, inners don't make sense anymore! I thought we had gone over this!” Discord Twilight yelled back. A meek looking Twilight with a very long mane edged forward.

“Um, Discord Twilight, I, uh, I think we should... I mean, uh...” She tried to get a word in, but both Troll Twilight and Discord Twilight's argument was getting continually heated.

“Iy dun cayre whut the reyst of yew Twiwlights agreeyed! Iy aym her inna beoody! Aynd anudda ting! Wheyre do yew getta be her inna crayuzee siyde iyf she awlready hays a inna trowll? Huh?!”

“Maybe from the fact that form the first time I spoke I've sounded like Discord?! How could that be interpreted as anything but crazy?!”

“Mayubee yew ah her inna eviwl, eva thinka dat?!”

“Why I oughta..!”

“Girls!” Chided the last familiar voice. “That is no way to act, especially around Waking Twilight! She's only just arrived and I'm sure she's very confused.” Twilight turned and saw she who had spoken. It amazed her. It was Twilight, but her mane was long and perfectly styled in a corkscrew. She was Twilight, but she was Rarity. Twilight and Rarity?

Twilight's head was starting to hurt. Or rather she imagined that it should have, if she were not in her own head. (Mind joke, Yohohohoho!) “Dahling, are you quite all right?” Asked Twilight-who-looked-like-Rarity. “I know this must all be very confusing for you, but you look positively pale. Would you like a glass of water?”

Twilight gave her a confused look before saying, “Rarilight?”

Twilight-who-looked-like-Rarity froze. Her expression didn't change in the slightest, her posture didn't budge an inch. Except for a blush that was spreading across her cheeks. Twilight was still confused. And she only got more confused when a pegasus version of her who appeared to be wearing a halo flew down from the sky and punched Twilight-who-looked-like-Rarity square on the jaw, sending flying into the crowd. “Thou shalt not leave thy mind in the gutter.” She uttered before flying upwards and out of sight.

Twilight looked in shock as the pegasus Twilight flew off.

Twilight-who-looked-like-Rarity rose to her hooves, dusted her coat off, and walked back to Twilight as if nothing had happened. She began to speak again. “I must apologize, I didn't quite understand when you first spoke, but I do now. I suppose we should start with preassigned names.” Twilight, who had been watching a small stream of blood make it's way down Twilight-who-looked-like-Rarity's lip, perked at the mention of names. Because names are important.

“I suppose I shall introduce myself and all the Twilights you've met thus far, and then proceed alphabetically. I am Proper Twilight. The mare behind me is Graceful Twilight, and the two mares glaring at each other behind my back are Troll Twilight and Crazy Twilight.” The two mentioned mares quickly stopped making faces at each other and folded their hooves. Crazy Twilight even materialized a pair of halos for good measure, but the effect was lost on Troll Twilight.

“Now these here are Aardvark Twilight, Adventurous Twilight, Archeological Twilight, Attackee Twilight, Attacker Twilight...”

Rainbow Dash was bored. No, she was more than bored. She was super bored. No, that didn't quite describe her level of boredness... She was Super Ultra Uber Mega Bored. Yes. That was exactly how she was feeling. Or was it? Maybe she could fit in a few more adjectives...

She was, of course, bored because instead of donning their various adventure hats and going to rescue their good friend/student Twilight, her friends and the princess(es?) were discussing tactics over a hot cup of earl gray in the Princess' bedroom. Tea is many things, but none of those things are 'Exciting'.

Dash glanced at (Princess?) Luna, still marveling at the fact that she had lost her deity status over a nightmare. Her mane didn't flow anymore, at least not like it used to. Without the use of her moon princess powers, the only time her mane flowed was when it got in the way. Of everything. All. The. Time. She had already bit her mane no less than seven times trying to drink her tea.

So, to keep it from getting in her way, she had tied it up. She first tried a bun, but there was just too much mane for that to work. She had looked like a dark blue hoofball had been stuck to her head. After that, she tried a pony tail, which made Pinkie burst into hysterical laughter, for whatever reason. It may have been the fact that Luna couldn't walk five steps without tripping on it. So, lastly, it was braided. Which worked. Probably because Rarity is a mane-witch.

Dash stopped examining Luna's mane and switched to studying her back, as if staring at it long enough could make a pair of wings pop out. But that's ridicules, if that were a thing Pegasi could do than there would be no such things as 'Earth ponies'. Or Unicorns, really. Just Pegasi and Alicorns. Or maybe not? Would they really want to share their gift of awesomeness? Maybe with her friends. Pinkie would love to fly. Not that she needed wings to do that, that is...

She started to stare at Luna's forehead, where previously a horn made it's self at home. That had also been taken from Luna. Dash had never been able to do magic, for obvious reasons, so she couldn't sympathies in the least about that. But that got her to wondering, did she still have Earth pony powers? She knew that Applejack could grew a tree in ten weeks flat, and that Pinkie was unusually strong for her size. Did Luna still have all that? Did she have all that in the first place? You couldn't really identify Earth pony magic without a demonstration, so...

At this point Luna was staring at Dash's forehead, perhaps to ascertain if there was anything going on behind it. Dash was just staring at her, probably for the same reasons that she had begun to drink her tea with a fork. Because they were bored. Luna lowered her vision just a few inches, and looked into Dash's eyes. And she saw it.

A void, dark and cold. Devoid of thought and reason. An empty chasm that had once been filled, even though it couldn't hold very much to begin with. Luna stared in awe as she saw the remains of Dash's Attention Span. It was completely empty. And very small. And come think of it, it didn't look like it had been full in years. She could see the water line, and it barely came up half-way.

But that was just like Dash, she supposed. Had a small attention span to begin with, and never filled it up. She would have chastised her, if she didn't do the exact same thing. She stopped philosophizing when she noticed that Dash was looking at her eyes. At this point they had formed a sort of bond, a friendship forged through the flames of mind-numbing boredom ignited by her sister's planning abilities.

She tuned into the conversation, just for kicks. Maybe they had solved the problem?

“... But if we wait for the sea monkeys, twilight may have already drowned in the nacho dip! We must release them before battling the cyborg dolphin-sharks!” Celestia argued.

“But if we release them too soon they'll have passed the point of rescue, leaving Twilight stranded and at the mercy of the salsa crabs! If you really want to release them early, you must send Soarin' wearing the Leather Speedo of Distraction to keep the sea monkeys in check!..”

...Yeah, no. this is stupid. Luna looked back towards Dash, but saw that she was now paying full attention to the plan. Luna narrowed her eyes, and she would have chastised Dash. If she herself had not used the Leather Speedo of Distraction as many times as she had. She blushed at the memories.

But she cherished them. Memories of good times. Back before she had to rule a kingdom with her sister. Back when she could dance on the Borealis and seduce the Stars. Back with all her friends... She still remembered them... Sea Foam, Gill, Applepie, Double Helix, Higledy Pigledy, Cape Hope...

All of them gone.

She couldn't look back, she couldn't fall prey to the meloncholy that had claimed her for so long after her return. But neither could she ignore such precious memories. She could never discard them, and yet not doing so would tear her to shreds, if not literally than emotionally for sure. She started to stroke her mane, immersing herself in memories of times long past, of her friends. They were gone, but did she not have an obligation to remember them, and hold their memories dear? If she did not, nopony would.

But she also had a duty to her new friends. She could not let the past muddle the present and damn the future. She looked at the faces of each of her new friends in turn. Pinkie Pie, who could always make her laugh.

Applejack, who counted her, an almost complete stranger, as family.

Fluttershy, who was so sweet and kind.

Rainbow Dash, who no matter what was always by her side.

Rarity, who... Made her dresses? Yes. She made her dresses, and would often times speak to her, counseling her, giving from her heart that which is so precious. Luna closed her eyes.

But there was one pony missing. Twilight. And she couldn't let her stay like this. No. She couldn't just stand back and look away as another of her friends were lost. She had already lost too much to allow that. For far too long she had been without friends, without those with whom she could share the joys and sorrows of life. Now that she had found ponies willing to walk beside her, to comfort and even chastise, should the need arise, she would not let even one be taken from her. Not now, not ever.

Luna's eyes snapped open, and for the briefest instant her pupils were slits. But, her now small magical pool drained, and they returned to their proper shape. She rose and slammed her hooves onto the table, cracking it.

“Enough talk!” She bellowed. “I'm going after her myself!” And she ran out the door, but not without slamming into them head first.

Rarity looked nervous. “Should we go after her?” She asked.

Celestia took a long sip of tea. “I wouldn't waste my energy. She has been... away... for a time, as you know, and still needs a servant to lead her around the castle. She's obviously not thinking straight, so she won't think to call one. Trust me, she won't get far.” She explained calmly as the group heard a cry echo through the halls.

“Damn you post-classical Equestrian slash Gryphon architects!”

Celestia tilted her head as if to say, 'See what I mean?'. She didn't actually say it though, of course. That would have been rude. And one did not maintain an entire kingdom surrounded by bandits and predators for a thousand years by being rude.

Applejack, however, was still looking at the door which Luna had exited from nervously, wringing her hat between her hooves. “Y'all absolutely sure there ain't no way she could get out? She'd cause a right ruckus if she did is all...”

Celestia patted Applejack's naked head in a way that might have been condescending from anypony else, but was almost motherly from her. “Please trust me, my little pony. The only way she could leave the castle would be if she jumped through a window. She might not be thinking straight, but she wouldn't leap out a window up this high, not as she is.”

Everypony's eyes suddenly got very wide. They all went dead silent and strained their ears, as if listening to something very quiet. Celestia looked at them all in confusion, until she realized what she had said. “Oh dear.” She breathed before joining in, hoping beyond hope that Alas had not heard her.

After several minutes of only hearing curses drift through the door, they relaxed. Celestia levitated a napkin to her head and began dabbing at beads of sweat that had appeared. “I'm so sorry, I didn't even realize what I was saying. Luckily nothing-” She was cut off as everypony else in the room dove to cover her mouth.

But it was too late, for the very next second they all heard a shattering of glass and a distant cry that sounded very much like “I'm coming! Traveling buddy!”

They all got up from their impromptu pony pile with a groan. Celestia stayed on the ground, a nervous smile on her face. “Whoops?”

Five hours later. Or ten. Or a hundred. Or a thousand. Or no time at all.

“ … Zebra Twilight, Zesty Twilight. And that is the last one. Any questions?” Proper Twilight asked. Twilight raised her hoof immediately, and when Proper Twilight didn't respond in half a second, she started waving it around. Proper Twilight gave her a look before saying, “Yes, Twilight?”

Twilight grinned hard enough to make a 'squee' sound before putting on a serious face. “Earlier you referred to me to the other Twilights as 'Waking Twilight', but you didn't mention it when we were going through the names. Why is that?” She asked.

Proper Twilight looked shocked, then amused. “I should expect nothing less from, well, myself. I applaud you none the less. I didn't mention 'Waking twilight' because the only Twilights that need labeling are the ones in here, your mind. Some of the other girls don't like it, but you are Twilight Prime, in that when our body is moving, you are in control, not any of us. I called you 'Waking Twilight' when I spoke to girls so that they wouldn't get offended.”

“Oh.” Twilight said with a neutral face. “I see.

“Well than what about those two giant mares? I don't think you mentioned them either.”

Proper Twilight pursed her lips. “Well, I didn't mention them because they aren't really, erm. What would be the word for it? uh...”

“Alive?” Suggested Blunt Twilight.

Proper Twilight looked uncomfortable, but nodded. “I would have liked a... nicer word, but I suppose it does describe them. They only appear to have token life. You see, when this all began, some days ago, even though you only heard Crazy Twilight at first, we were all 'born' at the same time. One might imagine such an event would be a fuzzy, and inaccessible memory. On the contrary, it is a very sharp one, for me at least.

“I awoke, and was surrounded by a multitude of ponies, all of them bearing a striking resemblance to each other, myself included. Now, we hadn't figured out any of the, shall we say 'specifics', of our birth. And before you ask, we still haven't cracked the origin. At any rate, those two mares were the first to rise. From the way they walked, I could tell they knew right away what they were supposed to do. One walked to those mountains to the west, and they other to the clouds in the east.

“After that, however, they did nothing. We've tried multiple times to speak with them, but they just ignore us. The only action that suggests that they are even alive is that every so often, at seemingly random intervals, one will wake up, and the other go to sleep. And, that's all they do. I didn't mention their names because neither of them have one.” Proper Twilight finished, just a little out of breath.

Twilight rubbed her chin, thinking so hard her head would have started to hurt, if she weren't inside of her head. (Yohohohoho!) “Well. That's kinda weird. But, at this point you're just going to have to add it to the pile. How co-”

She was cut off as the air was split by a giant screech. It made the ground tremble and the impostor sun spit flames all the more violently. The Clouds scattered, and the mare underneath them snapped her head to where the roar had come from, pure fury written on her face.

She growled, the ground shook again, and she started walking to the origin of the howl. All of the smaller Twilghts on the ground all looked wide eyed at the massive mare making her way across the horizon. “Well.” Twilight began. “It appears the situation has changed.”

Proper Twilight was not only staring wide eyed at the colossus, she was sweating buckets. “Twilight, my dear, I must confess I have not been entirely honest with you, and it appears that just now was the absolute wrong time to do so.”

Twilight turned her head to look Proper Twilight in the eyes, but she wouldn't meet her gaze. “What,” She said icily. “have you not told me?”

“W-well, when we were all 'born', the mares here with us weren't the only ones to appear. Along with the ones you see here, there were about as many who were... not so, nice, attributes. Mares that represented greed, jealousy, anger, and the like. There was a... a bit of a tussle. You've no doubt been having conflicting feelings lately? Devoid of emotions you imagined you might have at a situation? Well, I'm afraid we are responsible for that. At any rate, we finally sealed them inside of the mountains, where you should be able to still feel them, but were they can do no harm. However, there was one we couldn't seal, because it was like the two mares, it was enormous. And like Troll Twilight here, it was physically changed grossly.”

“Heyuh!”

“You see, erm, the thing that you heard and might possibly kill us all is Basilisk Twilight, which we've come the theorize represents your immanent death.”