Chapter 12 - Slavery

Stainless climbed the final wooden flight of stairs, into the living hell she had only just come to know. The city was known to others as Canterlot, but the name held a much more haunting impression to those who still remained within its heavily fortified walls. It held no resemblance to its former regality. The slums were all that was left of the few free ponies who lived inside. A desolate wasteland, covered the rest; a breeding ground for hatred and desperation. Wooden poles stuck up out of the ground, scorched too blackness. Bricks and shattered glass lay strewn about in heaps, creating gigantic mounds in the places of once tall, luxurious buildings. Very few remnants of Canterlot’s former glory remained.

The air was thick with dust, ash, and smoke, creating a horrible smog. Grayness covered the sky, coating the land with the same impermeable dust. The ash, and dust was so prevalent at times, that even the color of the guards' armor could barely be seen beneath the silver powdered coats that encased their bodies.

Starvation gripped the city, leaving little mercy for those who fell under the whips and chains of Celestia. Dead bodies littered the few distinguishable streets left of the former city, meandering throughout the landscape. All of the structures of the old city-buildings, parks, fountains, roadways-had all been destroyed by orders of Celestia. Any kind of civilization that had once been obvious to those outside the city walls was now almost completely indistinguishable.

The air reeked of death and burnt bodies, and undoubtedly carried disease from the decaying corpses. Not even Celestia's royal guard were untouched by the grip of cruelty. Within the last week, it had become widely known to all of the city's inhabitants, that the guards had it just as bad.

They received little to no food, even though it was substantially more, than anything scrounged up in the ruins. If any of them dared speak out against Celestia, they would be butchered wherever they stood. Rank held little importance. Even the nobles were not above reprisal. Some of Celestia's closest advisers and generals, had all been publicly humiliated, and executed. Their heads stood tall on pikes near the Royal Palace. A gruesome reminder of what would befall those who lashed out. If any lower ranking guards, or slaves spoke out against Celestia, they too would be slaughtered, along with their families.

If any of Celestia's guard tried to leave, or escape, they would be captured, and interrogated, followed by the seemingly standard humiliation and execution.Even those who lived in other cities, were held by the same rule.

Stainless lifted herself into the gray light of day. It was early morning, but no difference could ever be made between any time of day. The only reason she knew it was morning was from the rude awakening she had received on her bunk in the underground bunker.

She had been deep asleep, only to be woken by chains being attached to her hooves, dragging her off the bed, and roughly onto the floor. She and the rest of the prisoners had been chained together, and were quickly being herded up the stairs.

Now outside, Stainless couldn't help but squint, as the smog burned her eyes. She found herself at the tail end of a maroon pegasus stallion. His tail and mane were brown, but his mane had a single distinct streak of white hair in it.

She ignored the pegasus, and chose to instead take in the daily surroundings. There were multiple groups of ponies digging through rubble, digging trenches, or building unknown structures, all of which were being watched closely by their 'officers.' Officers being the sugar coated term. They were more like slave drivers, whipping those who were slacking at their daily quota.

Her attention was ripped from her surroundings, and quickly pulled to the maroon pegasus before her, as her face proceeded to make contact with his plot. She found herself stopped. The whole line was stopped. Irritated at the sudden embarrassment, she leaned to the right to see why they were stopped.

Up ahead a rather small unicorn mare, had tripped over the blackened corpse of a small filly. Being that the entire line was chained together by collars, she had succeeded by stopping the entire train of slaves.

It didn't take long for the officers to notice, to which they promptly surrounded her, and began to unhook her chain from the pony in front of her. They didn't even give her time to stand up, before they violently drug her off to the side using her collar to pull her.

The train was reconnected, but didn't continue. They continued to stand there, waiting to be given the order to move.

It had come to Stainless' attention that the mare was sobbing horribly, nearly wailing. It only took a matter of seconds for a chief officer to arrive. They were too far forward for her to hear the conversation. Only the horrified screams of the mare could be heard, followed by the cracking of a whip.

The train began moving again. As Stainless moved forward, the mare came back into sight, as well as two officers who were whipping her hard enough to cut grooves into the ground around her body. The screams coming from the mare were deafening. She tried desperately to protect her body, by covering herself with her hooves, but she was already bleeding profusely.

She could find nothing else to look at, except the same charred remains of the filly the mare had tripped over. The filly’s mane and tail were both burned away, but her mouth was left gaping, as if her corpse were screaming.

Stainless felt a burning heat rise in her chest. It was unusual, but she was furious. There was no real reason to be. She didn't know the mare, or the filly, but what had happened to both enraged her. They didn't deserve these injustices. She didn't deserve her punishment either, and yet she was enslaved for life. Just like all of the innocent ponies around her.

She was not going to stay here. She would not let herself be forced into this murderous world. She would escape. However, now was not the time.

She continued to follow along with the train. It became ominously quiet, even the screams of the mare couldn't be heard. Stainless only noticed it for a moment, before a thunderous boom sounded through the city. The slave train stopped, everypony looking for the source of the monstrous explosion.

It didn't take long, for the entire train to be set back into motion. They were getting closer to their destination. Stainless could tell from a few certain landmarks she had picked up over the last few days that they were heading straight for one of the city's outer walls. The towering barrier grew as they marched closer.

The train was stopped for the final time. All of the chains were detached from one another, as the ponies were all sent into their designated trenches to begin their daily routine of digging.

It wasn't a difficult task for her. She had always been strong for a mare. Digging was no problem, but doing the same hard work for days straight, sunrise to sunset, was extremely exhausting.

She quickly made her way to her assigned trench, and quickly found a shovel. She found the place she had stopped the day before, and resumed the monotonous task of shoveling dirt away to create the outer facing wall.

She shoved the end of the shovel deep into the dry soil. Pulling it out and down at the same time, causing a decent amount of dirt to fall out, and land on the ground.

Stainless looked at the pile of freshly removed dirt, and decided that it was too little. Shoving the shovel back into the wall, she repeated the process. Once again, a decently sized pile of dirt fell from the wall. Annoyed that it still wasn't enough, Stainless repeated the process. Once, twice, three times. She was becoming frustrated. Not enough dirt was being removed. She was going to be stuck at this same section all day.

She decided to pick up the pace. Shoveling away more and more dirt. Faster and faster she shoveled. Dirt was falling so fast it was nearly a constant stream.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The wall wasn't cooperating with her. The same anger she had snuffed out only moments ago, was returning quickly.

"Hey, I asked if you are okay."

The rage continued to build inside her chest. She could feel her heart beating hard. Her breathing felt heavy and labored.

She was caught off guard as a pair of maroon hooves wrapped themselves around her, stopping her arms, and encasing her.

She stood there, shaking. She was so mad. So mad at everyone. Nopony deserved this punishment. Nopony deserved to be put to work in these conditions. That filly didn't deserve what happened to her, neither did that mare, but they were here. It was cruel. It seemed all so cruel.

"You're okay. Everything's alright."

With those words, Stainless felt as if her heart had broken, shattered into a million peices. She lost control, and cried like she hadn’t had in years.

The maroon hooves gripped her tighter, offering slight comfort.

"It's okay, we'll get through this."

"N-no. We're going to die here." Stainless sobbed quietly.

"Shhhhh. No we won't. Don't you know that there's a rebellion going on outside the city?"

"No."

"Well I know for a fact that the rest of my team is trying to break me out of here."

"What team?" Stainless asked, slight glimpses of hope reappearing in her voice.

"I'm part of a group of rebels from Ponyville. We devised a plan to send me in here, so we can rescue as many people as we can from the inside."

"Really?" Stainless couldn't help but suddenly feel doubtful. "How exactly do you plan to pull that off?"

"I can't tell you, unless you want in."

"Of course I do. I don't want to stay here."

"Meet me at my bunk tonight an hour after the door closes.. I've already risked a lot, just telling you about the basic plan."

"Okay, I'll try."

With that, the maroon pegasus nodded stiffly, and went back to work, placing wooden planks on the dirt floor of the trench.

Stainless couldn't help but stare at the pegasus. He knew nothing about her, but just risked his own life, to save hers and probably countless others if what he said was true. Her eyes seemed to be glued to the white streak in his mane. It seemed so out of place.

She decided it better not to question, and went back to work, filling in the giant hole she had accidentally dug into the wall.

Author's Note

Yay the next chapter!

Hope everyone liked it. I found a new proofreader: Symphonicdysonince!
Be sure to go to his page and thank him for fixing all of my butchered writing!

Thanks for reading,
~BattleMaestro~