The small pony squealed, her hooves hitting the ground sending resonant pounding through her ears, she frowned at the sound which so cruelly reminded her of the all-consuming fear, the desperation to leave that hung all round her. She sped up as fast as a filly can run the constant images of being alone and hated, all but abandoned in a small dark room nothing but a useless dog. She had been forced to work all her life kept secret from the other ponies she had scarcely seen another filly and had to work hard receiving little food and no praise. They really did treat her like anypony would treat some kind of dog. Her thoughts wandered they always called her a dog but she had hardly ever minded her only friend had been a young diamond dog pup, he had given her this chance he was sacrificing himself for her chance to escape. He would be beaten as he had given himself up for her, attacking their master. And despite his amazing kindness here she was running desperately running, and leaving him, she thought about when she was first beaten when she refused to obey how much it hurt, they had forced her out of her small room, she remembered it vividly all gentle golden shimmers in the bed and curtains, the gently gleaming metal and smooth floors, the intricately carved door that granted her peace. A young and good filly with a fair life, she had hardly any work, was fed properly but one day when she fell ill she had refused to work. She remembered the awful contraction in her stomach, the pungent odour emanating from her small ailing self. She could not have worked and so refused and in turn they beat her. They threw her into a far worse residence, down in the middle of the labyrinth of corridors, each cloaked in a freezing darkness. A room with creaking floorboards, which seemed with each ear-splitting shriek that they were lamenting their life, the darkened window which had so long ago been vanquished and now was only a firm barrier of rotting wood on the wall. The resounding lack of furniture in the miniature cell, nothing but bored, brown walls each painted and tainted with darkened rot and cold, and the whole cold hove was always poisoned with fearful night. But there was one thing she adored in that room ever since a year ago during her first night there, a small diamond dog puppy watching her with fearful eyes each gleaming with hope and sympathy. She would always remember that first time they talked in the deathly stage of fallen night.
“Have you finally been thrown down here?” he asked, the filly looked up in confusion, he had expected her to be left here, she frowned it was inevitable then that she would be forgotten, mistreated, beaten and worked without any last remnant of love from her family.
“Yeah I guess I have, finally.” She responded softly, her voice cracking form the long gone sickness and pain still ricocheting through her small body. The dog frowned at her.
“it’s not so bad, hey, have you ever been beaten before?” he asked looking at her pained and frightened expression with confusion and true concern, something the filly could hardly recognize on the strange dogs face. She shook her head in reply, the dog sighed and gently began helping he took a small red gem out and fed it to her, with the fleeting explanation of it being medicine from some zebra guy he met before he was captured and taken here. There was a small jolt of searing pain and the filly cried out in agony, but her struggling was soothed by the pup gently holding her, helping her with kindness, and the pain soon left, her body seemed healed accept for a searing pain at her neck. The dog examined it with concern as she rubbed at it.
“That one I can’t heal, it will scar.” He said carefully, taking another look at the filly’s horror filled face “hey don’t worry I’m here right, we’ll stick together, maybe we can leave one day together as friends right?” he said his voice soaring in a grand proclamation. The filly blinked and nodded rapidly smiling at the pup who, over a year of work, bordering torture together, would become the dearest friend she had. “Say what’s your name?” the puppy asked his voice strained in forgotten emotion like joy and relief. The filly faltered.
“Well, I think its dog or filly or kid or… maybe I don’t have a name.” she admitted the dog blinked at her then smiled with his sharp teeth gleaming like lanterns.
“Hey, me neither but we should have names right?”
The filly’s eyes widened slightly at the realization of how dark it was “say do you ever see the sun down here?” she asked desperate for the small comfort the fading light brought her.
He looked at her with curiosity, “what’s the point in seeing the sun? All it ever does for pups or ponies like us is set.”
“Yeah the sun… sets.” She echoed.
“Sunset… it fits you, a poor little filly who still is so bright, yet all the great princesses and those disgusting other mules can do is abandoning us in the night. But hey what do you think sunset?”
“Yeah sunset fits. But you should have a more cheerful name you’re a dog so how about Rover?” he looked at her questioningly.
“I hate it.” He said bluntly “but if you like it then fine Rover it is.” The filly or rather Sunset smiled brightly.
“Promise me you’ll keep it forever.” He chuckled
“Yeah promise. And you promise me you’ll never leave me.” She looked at him and his pleading gaze and smiled reassuringly at her new found friend.
“Never, you and I will always be friends Rover I’ll never leave you.”
She wore her bright hair over her ear limply to cover her thin scar even now. It still stained the atmosphere with pain whenever she should disturb it, a small and unchanging sign to show her never to refuse, never to run and to be grateful for the pain she lived through, or at least to be grateful for Rover.
They had been thinking of plans to escape for a while now, in late night rendezvous, hushed voices swirling there symphonies of freedom, but when the plan had come to a head, to an action sunset had frozen, she was competent in magic despite having never been trained, the need for it after constant beatings and having ran out of the odd medicine long ago had caused some sort of natural ability to form within her. she was meant to perform a simple spell to disorient their master so they could run after Rover attacked but she had stopped, reluctance to hurt, to kill sweeping over her, she blinked at the situation and to her utter surprise her horn had begun to glow a faint condemning orange and her horn had shot out a small beam of light, just that she so desperately wanted to crate, and maliciously hit the pup. He had been caught because of that, struck to the ground and taken, injured, he had looked at her begged for help from her and as he began to cry asked her desperately to keep her promise.
“Please Sunset don’t betray me like this.” He begged. But all she did was turn and run the fear taking over leaving him all alone.
Sunset had got him caught sentenced him to bring trapped forever, an ear-splitting howl cut through the air and her masters voice ripped the deathly night like a scythe.
“DOG, if you don’t return immediately I will kill the mutt.” Her voice rung with seriousness, but all sunset could do was keep going, betraying him, leaving him to die. Her escape was aided with the sudden chorus of Rovers screams desperate, pleading constantly, screeching her name in pained fury until they died away to failing nothing and he was gone to the filly his body discarded on the hardened ground and the master with fury in her tone addressed the still running filly one last time.
“I hope you are glad of this dog, flee and leave you murderer, betrayer all you are is a two-faced murderer.” Her voice was so condescending, so firm so unarguable, but she just kept running of into the dry eyed and deadly still night.
