The Memory Spill

The light was blinding at first, but the sight afterwards was so much more beautiful. Maybe it was my new demeanor on life, or maybe it was how darker and grittier things were starting to seem more appealing, but this was definitely a sight. I was standing on the top level of G block, hands griping the railings in front of me, viewing the large Colosseum before me. The cave itself was quite expansive, the walls spanning several hundred feet in the air. There were several spotlights located on the out rim of the ceiling, all pointed towards the center of the ring below. I was standing atop the highest level of the block, several more stood below me. I couldn't count how many levels there were, the lights were not giving attention to that part of the prison, leaving it in darkness. I could tell that the top level had the widest platform that surrounded top of the block. It's hard to describe, but I guess it gave off the appearance of a toilet seat. I leaned over the railings to view what was below. The ground level had an arena, which was occupied by two fighters. A crowd of prisoners filled each platform with not only their presence, but with their cheers.
The guard behind me levitated my chain to attach to the railing. He informed,"Hey, final match of the night. Prisoner, you get to watch from the guard seats. If you so much as move, then over two hundred guards will be on your ass, so be good."

The view was not exactly fantastic from my position, but thankfully my HUD had zoom enabled. Closer inspection of the battlefield revealed blood stained dirt and chalk outlines of the arena itself. I suppose theirs some rules about fighting, I doubt they're actually enforced here. There were two fighters engaged at the moment: a zebra, clothed in dirty cloths and a rusty iron shoulder pad. He carried a wooden club, more or less just a plank of wood with several nails driven into it. The other, was Lime green mare, sporting a long, greasy dark green mane and equipped with sword in...mouth? Most of the guards I've seen here either have had spears hooked onto their armor, or it was just held in hand. I never knew that oral combat was also an option. She had no armor equipped, the cuts and bruises on her were the result of such carelessness.

It was odd watching the two duke it out. The zebra had a small buckler shield, but he kept it on his shoulder, meaning every block was dangerously close to his head. And the green mare had an odd way of swinging her blade. She would still move her entire head like an arm to swing the weapon, but would also use her front teeth as a pivot point and spin the blade to the other side of her face. I'd have to get a closer look to fully understand this fighting style.

It wasn't long before the fight was over. The lime pony ended with a spectacular finish. Throwing her blade into the air as a distraction, followed by a quick kick to the face, knocked her opponent onto the floor. The blade followed in suit and landed directly into the zebras chest. The crowd went wild as she nodded to her fans, and walked out of the arena. I hadn't noticed the guards unhook my chains from the railing, they were now yanking at them with frustration.

"Get moving, prisoner!" They shouted. I followed their orders and defended down into the depths below. The spotlights began to shut off, only to be replaced by floodlights on the walls. I could now get a better idea of my location as I descended further and further. The cell block was shaped like an upside down funnel. The top cells were the smallest circle of cells, with only fifty or so cells circling around to top, while the bottom level had a large circumference of two hundred cells. I suppose this was to make it easier to see the fight below for the prisoners.

The final spotlight was shut off, and all lighting was returned. The entire block was dimmed to a mood light, the floodlights on the wall covered in orange paint to represent fire. The center of the arena had disappeared into the abyss of the darkness, along with the other side of the cell. One would think that that would be dangerous to allow criminals to conspire in the dark. I guess there's some sort of metaphor by keeping the block to a dim torch light. Maybe it was to make the prisoners miss sunlight, or maybe it was a metaphor for how there was no good or 'light' in this hellhole. Whatever poetic illusion they think they're trying to pull off won't benefit them, there's too many problems with keeping their prisoners in darkness. What happens if a guard is murdered on one side of the block and the guards on the other side can't see what happened?

My question was answered when the sound of a fight broke out in a cell close to myself. Three cells away, two ponies began trading blows over a statement about one of their sisters. Not exactly exciting events, but what halted the fight was more shocking than the fight itself. From the darkness in the center of the prison came several Pegasus guards, dashing straight to the prison cell, swinging open the cell door, and subduing the brawlers from continued fighting. I could hear the guards shouting, "If you want to fight, you're gonna have to wait until tomorrow in the ring! Next offense will be punished with solitary confinement!"

I was yanked away from the cell before I could hear anymore of that situation. Further I traveled down the stairs to my happy home away from home. I guess that explains the darkness. With the prisoners unable to tell if they're being watched or not, they have to be on their best behavior. Clever, but they didn't expect me to have thermal vision on my HUD. I silently activated the thermal vision to examine the darkness a little bit easier. My sight went from normal to thermal, the blackness turning to dark blue with several orange outlines of winged guards, surveying the prison. There was, at least, two pegasi per level. If I wanted to converse with my new roomie, I'd have to watch out for pegasi eyes observing our conversation.

"Prisoner, halt!" The guard leading me announced. The guard behind levitated a key into the lock of a nearby cell. The door of said cell swung open and invited me in to stay for a while. "Welcome home newbie! Now get your ass in their." I obeyed the guards orders and enter the cell. The room was slightly larger than the cells I passed. Perhaps this was due to the fact that a six foot tall human requires more living space than a four foot tall pony. The ceiling proudly existed ten feet above the ground below. The room must've been ten by eight in width and length. There was an iron frame bunk bed located to my left, and a bucket to my right. Thankfully for me, I would not need the bucket. Any sort of waste my body produces is immediately wormholes to the Armory, which then fires it off into space.

I assumed that I was heavier than my roommate, so I selected the bottom bunk for myself. I ventured myself over to the bed, placed myself in the middle, swung my legs on, and lied my head against the pillow. One of the many problems of my suit was how I couldn't properly rest my head against something soft. It was all the same feeling, my head against the padding in my suit. And as much burden this suit was, I still need this suit to survive. Without it, I'd have no way of defending myself. I haven't even shown them the full potential of my suits capabilities and I still can handle myself with just the essentials. They only know about my six shooter, I'm going to guess that they think that's my best weapon. In which case, they are horribly mistaken. My most effective weapon was the System Purge. I promised never to use it unless worse came to absolute worse. The close contenders were the several LMG's, high powered rifles, grenade launchers, flame throwers, and machine guns. I'm not exactly an expert on these weapons, but I still know how to use them, and they don't know how to counter them, so I think it's safe to say that I'll be around for a while.

A yawn escaped my esophagus. I could feel the grips of Mr Sandman firmly compelling me to join him in slumber. Tomorrow was to be a huge day, for it was the day that I make a name for myself. But for now, I will rest my tired eyes.

*******

I was awoken sometime early morning to the sound of an incredibly butch voice, complaining to a guard. I tied to ignore it at first, but my curiosity won the battle with my exhaustion, and my eyes opened to view the situation. My body rolled onto my side, and my head peaked over the side of the bed to find the source of the complaints. Outside of my iron bar cell door, three guards were using all of their might to pull on a prisoner and a fourth was barking orders at him.

"Prisoner! You are assigned to this cell! If you resist further, we will have no choice but to employ brute force!"

"Iron Will refuses! What if it's some pony who murders?! Or somepony who beats other ponies up?! I cannot risk it!" He shouted in retaliation. Oh god, did I accidentally request to room with a pansy? The cell door swung open and the Minotaur came flying into the room.

"Too bad!" The guard replied as he slammed the door shut. The Minotaur was lying face down, but I could still get a good look at him. He was a muscular, blue skin and fur, and had fists the size of my head. He was at least seven feet in height and had a standard bull cranium. Not what I had in mind when I thought when it came to minotaurs, but what do I know. I swung my legs over the bed and sat up. If he was gonna be a wimp, I might as well make our first interaction easy on him. "Hey, pal. I'm Anthony, I assume you're Iron Will."

His head poked up from the ground he was thrown on, he was still a little shaken. "Ugh, I want you to know that I do not want any troub-WOAH!" He shouted as he glanced over his shoulder to view me. He promptly flopped over onto his back aapnd backed into the wall behind him. "You!.. You're no pony! What are you?!"

"Would you believe me if I said human?"

"I will believe anything at this point. Are you going to hurt me?"

"No. I actually need your help. But first, I have a few questions."

"Wait, if you're not here to hurt me, then why are you here?"

"What kind of question is that?

"Every cell mate I was with would normally beat the snot out of me at this point!" It's at this point that Iron Will burst into tears. Someone made him his bitch and he wasn't forgetting it anytime soon. Tears were falling from his face. This giant monster obviously had a troubled past, but I didn't expect it to turn him into mush!

My god, I've made a huge mistake. I expected a hulking giant to be my muscle, not some big softy. I might need to give some counseling before I can put those muscles to work. He seems like the kind of guy who would rather have a friend than a boss, maybe I could work with that. Hell, it'd be nice to have a friend in this world instead of another talking technicolor horse shouting orders at me. And I was a big loveable oaf like him before the war broke me, so it'd be nice to gain some of my souls back.

"I promise I won't hurt you, not intentionally at least. I want to help you Iron Will."

"You-(sniff) you do?" Iron Will asked, wiping the tears from his eyes. Oh god, this is gonna take some work. It will be a challenge, but not entirely impossible. I'm gonna need to dig deep inside to find that kind hearted man again. Now that I think of it, they broke me remarkably fast. Only one day and one death and I'm already in Alpha mode. Only god knows what happened to him to turn him into such a wimp.

"Yeah. Look, this prison is full of the scum of the earth. There are dangerous peop-...sigh, ponies out there that would not hesitate to drive a shiv through the back of our spinal disks. And even though my spine is impossible to break or penetrate, I need someone to watch my back. And I know you need a friend more than anything right now, so whaddya say?" I asked in a friendly manner, extending my arm out to help him up.

"...(sniff), I guess it wouldn't hurt." He decided as he extended his hand out to grab mine. I promptly hoisted him up onto his hooves, as he took his place in the bunk above me. I could hear him get adjusted into a comfortable position before I asked,"So, what's your story? What landed you in here?"

"Oh, it's kind of a long one. I might bore you with it."

"We don't exactly have anywhere to go, Iron. Tell me from the start."

My blue ox compadrè leaned back and heaved out a heavy sigh. I could tell this was going to be a doozy, but I needed to know what happened to this monster. I need muscle, and I need my last request to not be a new roommate. Bringing his body back to the edge of the bed, he sighed,"Okay." And begun his tale.

"I can tell you're not from here, so I will tell you the whole story. I came from the land under Equestria. My home has no name, because we really don't have any rulers. It's just unclaimed territory that every pony is too scared to claim. The only rulers of the land are specific clans who gain control of the most territory. I was born into one of the strongest clans in all of that territory, the Iron family. Unfortunately, this poor mamas bull was born a midget! My older brothers, Iron Fist, Iron Brute, and Iron Warrior, were the largest minotaurs alive. But they would pick on me for being the smallest alive. They all grew up to be mighty soldiers, fighting proudly to claim a good chunk of the territory. Iron Will was outcasted for not being large enough to join my brothers in combat!" He exclaimed with shame.

That was slightly hard for me to believe. He was already huge, standing at ten feet tall and with more muscle than Andrè the giant. He could easily grab me with his freakishly large grippers and fling me farther than an Olympic javelin tosser. If he was too tiny for war, than I'd hate to see what his brothers look like.

"What are the size requirements then?"

"A Minotaur must be twenty feet tall with a bicep diameter of forty inches! Iron Will was born a dwarf, and was considered a runt to Minotaur standards! Have you ever seen a dwarf fighter?" I understood his point. Little people weren't exactly considered for combat in my time, but they weren't considered freaks! But a Tolkien style Dwarfs, that's another story. Perhaps it's a story that he needs to hear about.

"Iron Will, the Dwarfs of my time were brave warriors! There weren't as many in my time, most of them died in the Great War of...err...Grundleguard mine." Ever since Tolkien had revolutionized our views on Elfs and Dwarfs, they became a generic icon of almost every single fantasy game, book, and movie. It was pretty easy to bullshit a mythical races lore with so many different stories of how they came to origin. "Dwarfs first appeared in the age of kings, they worked in mines and forged mighty axes and heavy armor to compensate for their height. If you thought Dwarfs were useless, think about this. Dwarfs kept humanity safe from Dragons for thousands of years. And humans are bred to fight, so you know they're the real deal." I'm really hoping that no one asks me about the actual history of humanity. It's not like I don't know it, it's just that I may alter it beyond the point of no return.

My oxen friend wiped another tear from his eye. "Really? Dwarfs are proud warriors in your time?"

"Yep!" Nope. But if this gets him going, than what the hell, I'll try anything. A smirk appeared out the corner of his mouth. He's not at his full potential yet, but it's a start. Maybe if I continue the lore on these "dwarfs", he'll man up and try fighting for once.

"(Sniff) I am glad to here that dwarfs are a strong race, but it will be a while before I can be as strong as his brothers. Anyway, I got sidetracked. Where was I? Oh yeah, I had to move north to Equestria, and find work. I decided to be a life coach, and give weak ponies the backbone they needed! From Manehatten to Las Pegasus, I changed the lives of every pony I met. I was on my way to Canterlot, to make it big. I just had to finish one venue in Ponyville..."

"What happened in Ponyville?"

"One pony..." Iron Will leaned back and grunting angrily,"Oh boy! That one pony! She was the softest, mushiest, most whimpy pony I had ever had that misfortune of meeting! I taught her everything I knew, I made her strong!" Iron Will pushed himself up from the bed and began pacing. I think this might be my key to unlocking his potential.

"I heard wonderful stories of how my training turned that pipsqueak into who didn't take any shenanigans from no pony. But when I went to collect payment, she refused!" Iron Will began to breathe heavily. His face was turning red, and his muscles began to throb with anger.

"Why did she refuse?"

"She wasn't satisfied with my services! According to my slogan, if you aren't satisfied with my services, than you don't pay! I was so stupid! Soon, after I was bested by the spineless pony, other ponies began to talk. Rumors of my defeat reached Canterlot, and soon, all of Equestria knew Iron Will was a fraud!"

Iron Will clenched his fist, and flexed his burly muscles. With a gigantic growl, Iron punched the stone wall with all of his might. Color me impressed, he left a decent sized crater on the wall. Now I know that he can do some damage. All I need to do is make sure that he continues to do so. My oxen ally turned around only to vent the rest of his story to me.

"I tried to escape his fate, so I moved across the Sea of Songs to Symphonia, to the capital of Harmonia! But it was too late, the story of Iron Will's missing backbone had reached these ponies. I tried to have a seminar, but only children showed up, mainly to throw stones and rotten vegetables at myself. I was running out of money, and decided to get some sweets to cheer me up. By the time I got to the bakery, the same colts from the seminar cut me in line! I couldn't take it! I showed them the I rocked! I grabbed the first little colt by the back hooves and used him to beat the snot out of the other colt!" Iron Will continued to bash his hand into the wall. The crater was close to becoming a nice viewing area of the other cell.

"There it is Iron Will!" The ox like human stopped his rampant strikes against the wall. He turned to view me.

"There's what?! What are you talking about?!" I stood from the bed to meet Irons gaze.

"Your spine! There's the strength and anger that makes a Minotaur truly a warrior! There's the fight and the power that makes our dwarfs so strong!" The anger on his face washed away to a dumbfounded look. He truly didn't realize he had that strength in him. This was easier than I thought it would be!

"R-really? You think that I have a spine?"

"Iron, look what you did to the wall. If stone can crumble like that under your strength, imagine what that can do to a pony!"

"But I don't want to fight anymore!"

"Iron, nobody is going to buy that whole I've changed act; believe me, I've tried. And nobody here besides me deserves any less than your fist in their face!" Iron Will brought his hand to his chin and began to ponder the possibilities. After mulling it over for about ten seconds, brought his hand to my shoulder and told me,"You've got a point, Human. I am in your debt for making me into a new Minotaur!"

"There is one thing you can do."

"Anything, friend! I've been in here long enough to where saying anything means aaaanything!" It's at times like this that I'm glad that I can't eat food. It makes it easier for when I want to vomit.

"Not that! Look, I want you to be my right hand man. I can't survive in here without a partner in crime, or a friend. You fit the bill quite nicely. But you need to be this butch every time we leave the cell. We need to give off the same emotions that a mobster gives off. When we exit this cell, we need to look angry. When you fight, you need to look happy. When you kill, give your poker face because its just business as usual. And absolutely, NO EMOTIONS INVOLVED WITH KILLING! Do you think you can handle it?"

"Iron Will will pummel any pony into the ground if they so much as glance at us. I will follow you to the grave!" It might be because he had no other options, or the sudden boost in confidence, but that was way less difficult than I expected it to be. With Iron Will under my command, it should be easier to intimidate everyone else. But first up on the list is to end anyone who formally roomed with Iron Will. Any bad press about my new partner that gets out might crumble this whole operation. A bell began to ring loudly. A guard can be heard shouting,"Everypony out!" Iron Will moved towards the cell door as it swung upon on its own.

"Where's everyone going?"

"Breakfast time, human."