Fallout Equestria: Outcast

Fallout Equestria: Outcast
Chapter 1

“If you fit it just right, their body never gets used to the feeling of wearing it. It cuts in just enough when they swallow or turn their head to remind them who they belong to and it's that constant reminder that keeps them docile.”

Mr. Xerath dived behind the wagon as a shot rang out from the gun that the blue mare was holding. He was really fast, and I saw another one of the ponies that had come with him to the wagon run behind it after him. Not a second later I heard the sound of a body hitting the ground and gurgling from a pony that had their throat slit. The blue mare frowned and motioned to another tall earth pony to move around the other side of the wagon. He nodded back and began to creep to where he was told to go.

“So what is this all about Fortune?” I heard Mr. Xerath call from the other side of the wagon.

“You don’t remember do you?” the mare next to me called back.

“Could you be kind enough to refresh my memory? I would love to know why you are trying to kill me,” he asked.

That was when it all got too much for me. I fell to the ground and wrapped myself up in a fetal position. It was just like when my sis got killed, and I couldn’t do anything. I was doing the same thing that I had done then, and just waited for it all to be over. I didn’t know why they were trying to hurt each other. Mr. Xerath had said that ponies in the wasteland try to hurt each other all the time, and you had to take care of yourself. I can’t take care of myself though. I am just a weak little kid.

I couldn’t see what was going on behind the wagon. I heard a gunshot go off, and the mare next to me talking to Mr. Xerath, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I buried my head under my hooves and hopped that everything would just go away. I was so scared. I heard another two gunshots come from the other side of the wagon, and the blue earth pony next to me make her way over to where the sound came from. I hesitantly opened my eyes and saw the blue mare standing behind Mr. Xerath with a pistol pointed at his back.

“Nothing personal it’s just business,” I heard her say before she pulled the trigger.

There was a small retort from the pistol and Mr. Xerath fell to the ground. He was still breathing, and a pool of blood began to form around him. He looked up at the mare who had shot him. She looked so happy, but at the same time she seemed really mad. I saw him grin before his head fell back to the ground and he stopped breathing.

I didn’t know what to think at that time. It seemed every time I got next to a pony they ended up dead. Mr. Xerath had killed my big sis, but had helped me out and made sure I didn’t starve. Now he was dead too lying in a pool of his own blood on the ground in front of me. The mare that had shot him turned and pointed the pistol at me. I didn’t back away from her, I wasn’t really able to move at this point.

“Are you not scared of me kid?” she said smirking at me with the pistol in her teeth.

“I-I… yea I’m scared,” I choked out.

“Then why are you just sitting there staring at me?” she asked.

“I-I-I” I couldn’t answer her. I didn’t know why I was still sitting here. I could have run away when all of the fighting had been going on, but instead I had just sat there.

I heard hoofsteps approach behind me and turned around to see three ponies in barding galloping towards us. It didn’t take them long to reach us, and when they did the tall white unicorn in the middle approached the blue mare behind me and began to talk with her.

“Fortune what is going on? We heard gunshots,” he said.

“Nothing that important. I was just carrying out an order on behalf of Banker,” she replied, holstering her weapon.

“What kind of order?” the white stallion inquired.

“Banker wanted me to kill Xerath,” Sshe said motioning to the corpse of the black pony on the ground. “He also wanted me to pick up this colt,” she continued, turning to me.

The rest of the ponies there also turned to me, and looked at me with a range of different emotions on their face. The white stallion looked down at me with pity, and the two ponies behind him looked at me indifferently. The blue mare that had killed Xerath, and I assumed her name was Fortune, looked at me with an evil grin that promised she would bring me pain. I couldn’t stand there anymore, and turned to run as fast as I could. I made it a few meters before I heard Fortune call out to one of the ponies behind me.

“Break, don’t let him get away!” she shouted.

Then I was lifted off of my hooves by a magic field that had enveloped me. I was turned around midair so that I could see the white unicorn that held me in his magical grasp. He no longer looked at me with pity, but rather looked resigned to just following Fortune’s order. Fortune made her way into my view and glared at me.

“So you thought you could just run away. I don’t think so. You belong to us now, and will do what we tell you,” she said before she turned to Break. “Now take him inside and get him fitted with a collar,” she ordered.

I knew what that meant. My sis had told me about the collars they make some ponies wear. When the pony does something wrong or tries to run away their head gets blown up. I didn’t want that to happen to me so I began to kick and scream as I was floated towards Shattered Hoof. I didn’t accomplish anything as I wailed and tried to fight my way out of the magic that was holding me in the air. We slowly made our way back to the gate, which opened at our approach.

It seemed that my screaming had made Fortune become angry once again as she glared at me. I didn’t care at this point, and continued to struggle against my captors. Fortune then turned and bucked me in the face causing the world to go black around me.

_______________________________________________________________________

When I woke up the world was completely black. I began to panic as I felt around trying to find something solid. The floor that I was laying on seemed to be made of concrete, and was cold. I tried to calm down, and make a light with my horn, but it was really hard.

After a few minutes of concentration a yellow light began to shine from my horn lighting up the room I was in. The entire room was empty except for me, the walls were made of the same material as the floor. I looked around the barren room hoping to find a way out. I saw the door on the wall opposite me, and stood up so that I could make my way over to it.

When I tried to get to my hooves I felt a pull on my fur around my neck. I lifted a hoof to my neck to feel what was there, and found that in my sleep I had been fitted with an explosive slave collar. I fell back onto my haunches, and sat there in the room. I began to cry.

The events of the past few days were just too much for me, and began to overwhelm me. Not two days ago I had seen my sister killed right in front of my eyes. I was then taken across the dessert to this place where the ponies inside had killed my guardian, and taken me to be a slave. I just wasn’t able to handle it anymore and let my emotions pour from my eyes, and spill onto the ground.

A sat there crying for what could have been hours, but I wasn’t able to judge time in this place. I was pulled out of my depression by the sound of the door on the other side of the room opening. There was the clank of metal on metal as the lock on the door was disengaged, and it opened inwards. I quickly backed up against the wall and put out the light from my horn.

A blue earth pony stepped into the room, Fortune. She had been the one that killed Xerath and taken me into this place. She looked around the room before her gaze came to rest on me curled up against the wall, trying to make myself look as small as possible.

“You,” she said looking directly at me. “Come here.”

I didn’t move, I was to scared to move an inch. She was the one that had managed to kill Xerath the strongest pony I had ever seen. Did she want to hurt me too because I had been traveling with him? Was killing him not enough revenge for her?

“I said get over here!” she yelled at me.

I still didn’t move from where I was laying against the wall. She muttered something under her breath and marched across the room towards me. She stopped when she was standing directly over me. She was by far the scariest pony I had ever seen. She bent down and grabbed my mane in her mouth and began to drag me across the floor.

I didn’t kick and scream like I had earlier when they brought me inside. I was too tired to kick and my voice was raspy from all the crying I had done. Instead I just let her pull me across the room, and made no attempt to get away from her. This somehow made her angrier, and she dropped me on the ground.

“Get your ass off the ground and stand up!” she yelled. This time I tried to do what she said and made it to my hooves. “Now follow me or I’ll put you back in this cell,” she said as she left the room.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, but staying in this dark room wasn’t something I wanted. I slowly made my way out of the room and out into the hallway where the blue mare was waiting for me.

“Now come on Banker wants to meet you,” she said turning and starting down the hallway.

I didn’t see many options in front of me so I hung my head and followed her. It seemed that all I could ever do was follow the adult telling me what to do. It had been that way when sis met Short Fuse, and wanted us to join up with his gang. I never liked him much but sis said that I had to stick with her so I had to stick with them also. When Mr. Xerath came and killed all of the ponies there he told me that I had to follow him too. I didn’t like Mr. Xerath at all, but he didn’t seem like he was evil. He said that my sister was, but I don’t think that she was either.

Now Fortune had killed Mr. Xerath and told me that I had to follow her. It seemed like that I was just a prize that ponies won when they killed each other. Did what I had to say not really matter to anypony? Was I so worthless that my opinion meant so little? Maybe Mr. Xerath was right and I had to look out for myself. It didn’t seem like anypony else was going to do it for me.

I looked up and saw that we had reached our destination. Fortune now stood in front of a large metal door waiting for me to catch up to her. When I finally made my way over to her she pushed a button on the wall near the door and it opened. Fortune kicked me in the flank and sent me sprawling into the room. I managed to get back to my hooves, and glared at Fortune who was smiling at me. When she saw my face she burst out into a fit of laughter.

“Now now lets not get carried away,” I heard a voice come from the other side of the room, and I quickly spun around to see a unicorn looking at me.

He had a blue coat and a green mane that covered half of his face. He wore what looked like a business suit, at least that’s what I thought it was. I hadn’t seen many ponies out in the wastes that dressed up so I could only guess. He started to slowly walk towards me, his smile never wavering.

“Hello there. My name is Banker, but you will call me Mr. Banker. Now tell me, what is your name?” he asked, stopping a few hoofs away from me.

“I am,” I coughed to clear my throat, “My name is Berry Blitz.”

“Berry Blitz, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You are probably wondering what you are doing here,” he replied.

“Not really, I pretty much figured that I am now a slave from this collar,” I said motioning to the explosive around my neck.

“Excellent deduction,” he replied coolly. “Yes, you now belong to us here at Shattered Hoof. The pony you were traveling with earlier sold you to us for a good amount of bits so I expect you to be useful while you are here.”

Did he say that Mr. Xerath had sold me to them? Was that why he had brought me here? Any thoughts I had about Mr. Xerath not being completely evil flew out the window. He had been worse than I could possibly have imagined. He had killed all my family then taken me here to sell me into slavery. Could he have been any more evil? It seemed that Banker saw the anger on my face.

“Oh did you not know that he was going to sell you to us? My whatever will we do now? It matters little I suppose,” he said waving a hoof. “I was informed that you are very good with magic is this true?” he asked.

“I don’t think that I am,” I replied not wanting to lie to a pony that could kill me by pressing a button. Banker stared at me for a short while before speaking again.

“It seems that I was misinformed then. It is a pity, if you were magically inclined then I suppose that we would have more use for you. If that is not the case then we will have to find something more suited for you,” he said looking to Fortune who was standing behind me. “Take him to the mining fields, and put him to work digging,” he ordered.

“You got it boss,” Fortune responded.

I felt my mane get yanked again, and I was dragged from the room. The doors shut behind me, and I was left in the hallway once again with the sadistic mare. She kicked me in the ribs earning her a yelp and began to chuckle to herself again.

“Get up brat,” she ordered, “You got work to do.”

I complied and slowly got to my hooves. My side hurt from where she just kicked me. It probably wouldn’t bruise, but still ached. I then began to follow her through the hallway once again as she led the way outside. We walked for a long time in silence, and my thoughts began to plague me once again.

I couldn’t believe that Mr. Xerath had actually sold me to these ponies. He had said that I couldn’t trust anypony and apparently that had been true. He was dead and I would never get to be the one that finished him off. This mare in front of me had stolen that from me. She had killed Xerath and now I would never be able to get revenge for my sister’s murder.

Fortune pushed open a door at the end of the hall, and stepped outside. I obediently followed her through the door, and out onto the grounds. Outside I could see a lot of ponies with collars around their necks like the one I had around mine walking back and forth. Behind them they were pulling carts filled with gems. There were ponies in leather barding standing around watching the workers move around. Every once in a while I could see a slave driver whip somepony for being too slow.

“Here we are,” Fortune announced. “This is where you will spend the rest of your life. You will get up in the morning and be taken out here so that you can dig up gems for us. At night I will come and toss you back into the small dark cell you were in earlier. Who knows every once in a while I might also give you something to eat before I lock you away for the night,” she smiled down at me, what an ugly smile she had.

She then began to walk again, and I followed once more. We were headed for what looked like a cliff, but as we got closer I saw that it was just the wall of a massive quarry. The ponies had dug up the earth, and it extended down at least a hundred meters. Fortune then began to walk along a path that lead deeper into the gem quarry.

I walked along the path behind her and looked to the bottom of the quarry. I could see a lot of ponies down there working with pickaxes digging into the ground. There were others loading gems into wagons to be pulled by other ponies back up to the building at the top of the quarry. I noticed as I looked down that there didn’t seem to be any unicorns among the ponies at the bottom.

We reached the bottom of the path and Fortune made her way over to what I assumed was the quarry foreman. He was a tall red earth pony who had a pickaxe for a cutie mark. His purple mane was spiked, and a long scar ran over his left eye. As Fortune made her approach he stopped ordering a slave to do something and turned to her. He then cast his gaze on me.

“Axel, Banker wants to put this foal here to work,” Fortune informed him kicking me in the ribs again. I really hated this mare.

“Fine then give him a pickaxe, and put him to digging,” Axel said turning away from Fortune and returning to his work.

Fortune seemed annoyed to having been given orders by the stallion but said nothing of it. Instead she turned her annoyance at the situation on me.

“You heard him. Get a pickaxe and get to work,” She barked, pushing me to the ground.

I got up in time to see her walking back up the path we had entered through. I looked around and spotted a shack against one of the walls of the quarry. A guard with a shotgun stood in front of the door. I decided that I might as well do what Fortune had told me to or else she might come back and beat me up some more. So I slowly walked over to the shed that I assumed held the digging materials.

As I approached the guard of the shed started following me with his eyes. The purple stallion seemed slightly wary of my approach, and stiffened up as I got nearer. It seemed odd that a fully-grown stallion should be so apprehensive of a colt.

“Um,” I began, “Fortune told me to get a pickaxe and start digging,” I informed him.

“I don’t know.” He replied, “I ain’t never heard of no colt digging.”

“In that case I guess I’ll go tell her,” I said turning away.

“Wait!” he called after me, “Alright just wait here.”

The guard turned and opened the door to the shed, and went inside to search for the tool I had asked for. It seemed that everypony around here was as afraid of Fortune as I was, or at least some were. I heard the crash of something metal falling over inside the shed followed by a colorful swear. A moment later the guard made his way back out with a pickaxe held in his teeth.

He dropped it on the ground in front of me. It was probably the smallest pickaxe that was in the shed, and looked like it was meant to be swung by a colt. The thought that they had a tool in that shed designed for child labor made my heart sink even more. I picked up the pickaxe in my telekinesis and walked out into the quarry.

There were a lot of stallions and mares in the quarry digging at the rocks with their pickaxes. Most of them were drenched in sweat from toiling for hours, but continued to dig. I spotted a pink filly with a purple mane digging into the dirt with her own pickaxe. I made my way over next to her.

“Um, so am I just supposed to hit the rocks with this thing?” I asked. I have never used a pickaxe before, but I understood the idea was to hit the ground with it over and over.

“Be quiet,” the pink filly whispered back.

“But why?” I asked.

“If they see you talking they will whip you,” she shot back with a glare to punctuate her desire not to be whipped.

I decided that it was probably a good idea to stop talking, and turned back to the rocks in front of me. I used my magic to swing the axe down at the rocks. To my surprise they broke open when the pickaxe connected with one of them. Wow this was really easy. There weren’t any gems inside, but I was excited that I had broken the rock on my first try. The pink filly next to me just looked at me dumbstruck.

“You aren’t supposed to break those rocks stupid,” she whispered.

“Wha?” I intelligently replied.

“Those are the rocks in the don’t break pile. These are the rocks in the pile that you are supposed to break.” She said motioning to the rocks on the other side of her.

“Oh… thanks…”

“Name is Peach,” she finished for me.

“Hi I’m Berry Blitz.” I informed her.

“I better not be hearing talking over there!” yelled somepony behind me.

I quickly made my way around Peach to the rock pile that I was supposed to be breaking. These rocks were a lot harder to break with my magically suspended pickaxe and took several strikes. Every couple of rocks I would find some sort of gem inside that would then be taken by another pony and loaded into a wagon. After a few minutes I was beginning to get tired, but I kept going. This rock breaking thing was going to get old really fast.

______________________________________________________________________

Several hours of rock breaking had worn me down considerably. My muscles ached, and I was barely able to hold the pickaxe in the air. I continued to pound it against the rocks that were placed in front of me. I noticed that it was taking more strikes of the pick than it had before to make them break open. I was so busy focusing on my task that I didn’t even notice it was nighttime.

Some of the guards would come down into he quarry every so often and escort a couple of workers out, back to where they slept for the night. Little by little the place became more and more deserted until it was only me left digging at the rocks. I didn’t stop however, I was afraid that if I stopped somepony would come back just to whip me.

I had taken several whippings throughout the day and I think some of them even drew blood. My back was screaming in pain, and felt raw. The exhaustion in my muscles seemed odd to me since it was my magic that had been doing all the work, but I still continued to dig. That was when I heard hoofsteps behind me. I stopped for a moment and turned around to be met with the smiling form of Fortune.

“Hello there runts” she greeted and then shoved me to the ground. I didn’t bother getting up.

“Tired already? I haven’t gotten the chance to have some fun with you yet,” she punctuated with a kick to my ribs.

“Please stop,” I begged.

“Stop? Stop! You are my slave, and I will do whatever I want with you!” she screamed, kicking me again.

I knew that the kicks were nowhere near her full strength. If she had wanted to she could have easily broken my ribs with a single kick of her strong earth pony legs. Even so, I was going to be very bruised. She didn’t let up and kept hitting me in the ribs over and over. Eventually I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out. I picked up the pickaxe in my magic and swung it at her.

She deftly caught the edge of the pick in her mouth, and smiled down at me. I small amount of blood began to drip from her teeth. I let my magic drop from the pickaxe, and she spat it out at my feet.

“So you want to be a fighter do you?” she asked.

“I’m s-s-sorry I d-d-didn’t mean to,” I stammered.

“Sure you did. I believe I heard you say. Please Fortune, I want you to through me in the pit so I can fight for my life,” she said grabbing my mane and dragging me across the ground. “Well don’t worry kid Aunty Fortune is here to make your dreams come true.”

“No! Please stop,” I begged. She kicked me in the side again, but this time it was so hard it made me start coughing uncontrollably.

I was dragged along the path up to the main prison building by my mane. The rocks along they way left superficial cuts in my hide, but the pain in my chest overshadowed them. I hardly noticed when the earthen path had changed to the tiled floors of the building. Fortune didn’t seem to mind putting my raggedy mane in her mouth and pulling me along.

It didn’t take too long before we reached the cell I had been kept in the night before. Fortune unceremoniously kicked the door open and tossed me inside. She stood there in the doorway staring at me for a moment before leaving, slamming the door behind her.

I was left once again in a pitch-black room all by myself, and I started to cry. This time it was less about the terrible situation that I was in and more about the pain that was throbbing in my chest. I tried to make a light with my horn, but was far too exhausted to manage anything. So I just curled up against the wall and tried to get some sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________

I woke up, but had no way of telling what time it was. I stomach alerted me to how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten for two days. So I sat in the completely black room contemplating what was going to happen to me. I had taken a swing at Fortune so she was probably thinking up something unimaginably awful to do to me.

Sure enough a few minutes later Fortune opened the door to the room, and entered. In her mouth she held a long stick that was made of metal. She smiled at me and pressed a button on the end of the stick causing the other end to crackle with electricity.

“How are you today Berry?” she asked walking closer.

I shrank away from her. She clearly was going to torture me with the thing, and I did not want to be touched by it. I managed to back myself into a corner trying to get away from her. I no longer had any room to move. Fortune smiled at me again and then swung the crackling end of the stick at me. When it connected with my unbruised side I felt searing pain lance through me.

My muscles seized up and I couldn’t move. The cramping that the shock had caused was also very painful, but was nothing compared to the burn mark I now had on my side. Fortune let out a laugh at my pain, and nearly dropped the stick. She got a hold of herself, and jabbed me with it again. This time I let out a scream as she hit the exact same spot on my side.

“You scream like a little filly,” she managed to choke out through her laughter.

She stabbed me again with the evil device, and I began to lose consciousness. I felt the sweet blackness start to come to take away the pain, but a hoof smacking me in the face stopped it.

“Oh now you don’t get to go to sleep yet,” Fortune said slapping me with her hoof in the face again trying to keep me awake.

Unfortunately, her slapping managed to keep me conscious a little while longer. I was too tired to think by this point and just managed to weakly try to push her away from me. This caused her to burst into laughter once again. That laughter was infuriating.

This sadistic mare had me trapped here against my will and all she wanted to do was torture me. I hated her more than I have ever hated anything in my entire life. I couldn’t stand that look on her face as she stood over me. That smile, I had to take that smile away from her. If she could see what it was like to be the one getting shocked here, maybe she wouldn’t do it so much. No! I didn’t even care if she would stop. I just wanted to cause her the same pain that I felt.

A flash of yellow came from my horn and struck Fortune in the dead center of her chest. She was knocked off her hooves, and fell to the floor with a thud. There was a scorch mark on her chest where she had been struck by the electricity I had shot her with. I smiled a little as I realized what I had done.

I tried to stand up so that I could make a heroic escape, but my legs weren’t working well. I couldn’t even make it to my hooves so I laid back down in the corner, and laughed a little at the dazed blue mare. Maybe there was something to this, it felt good to get some pay back on a pony that had been torturing you. The look she gave me as she got back to her hooves told me that she didn’t think it was as funny as I did.

“How dare you!” she screamed as she made her way back over to me. The anger in her eyes caused me to laugh even harder. I knew I had gotten her good.

She picked the stick back up off the floor where she had dropped in, and stabbed me with it again. My laughter was cut off as my jaw snapped together and locked up. This time Fortune didn’t let up after shocking me once. She kept stabbing me with the end of the stick, and I smelt my fur burning where the stick connected with me. After a couple of more jabs I managed to pass out.

_________________________________________________________________________

This time when I woke up I was no longer in the dark little room. Instead I found myself in the same office that I had met Banker in. There was a desk in the far corner of the square room that I hadn’t noticed earlier. I tried to stand up, but found that I was still very tired.

I heard movement come from somewhere behind me, and I turned to see who was there. I watched in horror as Fortune pranced into the room, but this time she completely ignored me. She stopped and stood by the door. Then the door on the other side of the room opened and in walked Banker.

“I see that you are awake now. That is good,” He said walking over to me.

Behind him he levitated a tray of food and a red bottle. My stomach rumbled at the sight of the food that he had, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in at least a day. Banker looked down at me and smiled, it wasn’t the sadistic smile that I had seen Fortune wear. It actually seemed to be a sincere smile.

“I heard that you hadn’t been fed in a while so I took it upon myself to bring you something. Would you like a sandwich my boy?” he asked offering me the tray.

I didn’t even nod my head as I quickly grabbed the sandwich with my magic and stuffed the whole thing into my mouth. I chewed it quickly, and almost choked on it. Even so it was the best thing I had ever tasted, probably due to the fact that I hadn’t eaten in what I estimated to be two and a half days.

After in finished the sandwich I snatched the glass of water that was sitting on the tray, and drank it greedily. I made sure not so spill a single drop of the sweet liquid. Once finished I looked back up at Banker who was still smiling down at me.

“Thank you Mr. Banker,” I said trying to appease him.

“You are quite welcome Berry,” he replied. “It seems that you have somehow injured yourself. Here.” He offered me the red drink.

My sis had told me about red drinks and how that when you drank them all of your injuries started to go away. I was curious as to whether or not that was true so I also took the drink from him and studied it. It might have been poison, but it didn’t seem like feeding somepony just to poison them was a very smart thing to do so I decided to drink it. Immediately my injured sides began to feel better. I looked back and saw that the small scorch wounds were beginning to close up. After a minute I felt like I hadn’t even been kicked in the side in the past few days.

“Well it looks like that did the trick,” Banker said.

“Thank you again Mr. Banker,” I said, truly meaning it.

“What a well mannered young colt you are. Now I have something that I need to discuss with you, Berry,” Banker replied.

“What is it Mr. Banker?” I asked.

“Fortune informs me that you do in fact have some affinity for magic.”

I cringed at the thought of Fortune coming here, and telling her boss that I had hit her with magic. Just what are these ponies going to do to me? Did they fix me up just to torture me again, because of what I did? Banker saw the look of worry on my face.

“You are not in trouble Berry, far from it. I have brought you here to offer you something that many in your position would literally kill for,” he said, his smile coming back to his face.

“What is it Mr. Banker?” I asked again.

“When we purchased you we were hoping to gain a colt with some natural magical ability. You see there is a lot of money to be made from such a colt. Now I can see that the colt I have been looking for is indeed you, Berry.”

“Why do you want somepony like me?” I asked.

“Don’t interrupt Berry it is very rude. Like I was saying I have been looking for a colt that is magically inclined. You may not know this, but ponies like to organize fights between slaves. The slaves that participate are treated very well, and live a comfortable life. The owners of the slaves that win these fights stand to make a lot of money. Are you following me Berry?”

“You want me to fight,” I stated flatly. I was beginning to not like this situation at all.

“That is exactly right my boy. I am hoping that a unicorn that is innately talented in magic would do very well in the pits. So I have brought you here to offer you the chance to improve your lot in life. So what do you say,” he said giving me another tooth grin.

“I don’t really have a choice do I?” I asked.

“I see that you are indeed a smart young colt. No you do not have much of a choice in the matter at all. You are going to be thrown into the pit regardless of what answer you give me. So it is up to you on whether or not to go willingly or to be thrown in against your wishes.”

I looked down at the ground and weighed my options. I didn’t really have any choice in the matter like Banker had said. No matter what I told them they were going to throw me into a pit to fight against another colt. I had to do the only smart thing that was available to me.

“Okay Mr. Banker, I’ll do it. On one condition,” I said after a moment.

“Oh that is interesting. What is this condition?” he asked.

“Give me a nice room with a bed, and a good meal every day,” I replied.

“Done,” he said and motioned to Fortune.

She moved from where she was standing, and made her way over to me. She looked down, and I could see anger clearly shining in her eyes. I expected her to lash out at me, but she didn’t.

“Come on kid. You have a fight to get to,” she said.

She didn’t grab my mane and drag me across the floor. Instead she just stood there waiting for me to get up off the ground. I complied and stood up; it was a lot easier than before. Once I had made it to my hooves I looked up at Fortune who towered over me. She scowled at me before turning and leaving the room. I followed behind her.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. It seemed like I was already being treated better, and all I had to do was go to this fight. I imagined that it wouldn’t be too bad. There would be another colt around my age, and we would hit each other until one of us had won. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Fortune turned and I followed her down a hallway I hadn’t seen before. The tiles on the floor seemed exactly the same as they had in the hallway we had just left, but the walls had a bit more grime on them. We continued to walk for a little while before Fortune stopped at a door that had Employee Lounge written on the door. She pushed it open, and I followed her inside.

Once I had made my way into the room I saw that it was very large and housed two rows of bleachers on either side of a dug out pit in the middle. There were a lot of ponies in seats cheering at something that was going on in the pit. A second later the cheering turned into a roar as something unseen by me happened in the pit. A brown unicorn stepped forwards and tried to quell the cheering.

“It looks like we have a winner folks. Give it up for Little Buck,” he said causing the crowd to redouble their cheering.

Something about the scene was immensely disturbing. All of the ponies that were in the room looked to be raiders, and if they were happy about something that usually meant that something very wrong was about to happen. I saw the brown unicorn’s horn light up and a second later an unconscious filly was magically lifted out of the pit.

The filly was grey with a blonde mane, and looked like she had taken a real beating. One of her legs was bent at an odd angle and blood was coming from her mouth. It was then that I realized just how much I didn’t want to be here. I looked back and saw Fortune smiling down at me. She then started pushing me forwards towards the pit.

I tried to fight against her, but she was just too strong. It wasn’t long before I was scrambling against the edge of the pit. My struggles didn’t last long, and I was unceremoniously dropped inside of the arena. I fell to my rump with a thud, and looked to the other side of the pit. A few meters away stood another colt about my age, but he had the same smile on his face I had seen on Fortune’s.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts we have a new challenger!” said the brown unicorn. “I have heard that this colt here will give us quite a show. Place your bets now.”

The ponies above scrambled to place their bets before the fight could start. I stared at the blue colt across from me that held a wicked knife in his lips. I had seen those eyes before. They were the eyes of a raider, a pony who no longer cared about life and death, and he had a knife. I was completely screwed.

He took a slow step forwards, and I was unable to back away. I scooted along the circular wall of the arena trying to keep as much distance between the two of us a physically possible. His ragged red mane accented the blood that was dripping from the end of the knife. I continued to push along the wall trying to keep as much space between the two, but he stopped as the pony above began to speak again.

“This fight will be to the death of course. But is it really fair for one to already have a knife?” he asked the audience.

There were shouts of approval that answered his question. Some of the ponies yelled for him to throw me a knife. They no doubt had placed their bets on me winning this fight. The brown unicorn considered what the crowd had to say before he looked down and picked a knife out of a box with his magic. He tossed it into the arena at my hooves, and motioned for me to pick it up. I gladly scooped the knife up with my own magic, and noticed that it had been the knife that I had seen Xerath using before.

I waved the knife at the other colt trying to get him to stay back. This did very little to deter him, and he slowly approached again keeping an eye on the knife that was waving back in forth in front of him. I pulled the knife away as it almost cut him in the neck, which he saw and began to move towards me faster. I could hear that he was starting to laugh a little bit as he made his approach. I pressed as hard as I could against the wall that was behind me and closed my eyes.

I swung the knife frantically at the approaching colt hoping that I wouldn’t die in a few seconds. I heard the sound of the knife connecting with something fleshy, and a second later the sound of a pony hitting the ground. I opened my eyes a little bit to peek at what I had done. The blue colt lay on the ground not breathing with Xerath’s knife deeply imbedded into one of his eyes.

I had just killed a pony. I couldn’t believe that I had been forced do something like that. The crowd above roared, and a brown aura encased the dead pony in front of me. His body rocked a little and then was lifted into the air, and out of the pit. I looked up at the ponies cheering in the bleachers, but they sounded so far away. I could clearly see Fortune looking down over the edge at me smiling that vicious smile that she always wore.

“We have a new champion!” the brown unicorn announced causing the crowd to roar even more.

“Bring out the next challenger!”

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Footnote: Level Up!

New Spell Added: Spark (level 1) – fire a spark from your horn causing moderate electrical damage.

Skill note: melee weapons (25)