Chapter 3 - Stainless

An earth pony mare stepped off of the train from the Crystal Empire, into the Canterlot train station. Stainless Heart, was a rather emotionless mare. This fact, was portrayed quite well, through her drab, olive green fur, and her dark blonde mane and tail.She always found it hard to make friends in such a happy place as the Crystal Empire. She was always thought to be tomboyish, because of the ponytail she always kept her mane wrapped up in, and her deep, but still clearly feminine, voice. Considering that she had lived in the crystal empire, she could tell when she was walking into a bad situation. That skill came from the days she spent hiding in the carriage factory, where she had worked before the time of Sombra, and hid during his reign.

She had hid successfully, until one day she felt suspicious of a guard patrol, that had passed by the front of the building. They had stopped and rummaged around the area for what felt like hours. One of the guards got the bright idea to search the ‘abandoned’ carriage factory. Her coward of a boss, was found, and was quick to throw her under the carriage, as he gave a way her hiding spot, for an attempt at freedom. Of course, they chose to kill him instead, for being a coward.

She was imprisoned in slavery, and learned that day to always trust her gut feeling. Her gut feeling, which, told her to run, as soon as she took the first glance around Canterlot. The city was gray. Buildings all around her had visible markings of an intense fire, smoke still rising above the rooftops. For whatever reason, she decided to ignore her gut feeling, and enter the city.

There must have been an intense fire. She thought, looking around at all of the buildings, charred beyond recognition.

She started to trot to the stairs to leave the station, and was surprised to turn the corner, and step into a pile of ash, coating the bottom of her hoof in white powder. She gawked at her hoof, and looked to the sky, to realize for the first time that the sky was gray in smoke, and ash fell frivolously from the sky.

What surprised her even more, was the sight of two ponies pushing down the corner post of a house, that had burned down entirely, save for the structural supports. She realized that her surprise was unwarranted, as most ponies would rebuild after a massive fire. Stainless shook her head at her silliness.

She continued down, what looked like it used to be clean, the now ash coated cobblestone road. Stainless looked around at the buildings. Most of the stone ones, were still standing, albeit scorched to complete blackness. There appeared to be a store up ahead on her right. The sign that once hung from the hook outside, was gone. Stainless approached the building, and looked in through a shattered window.

The inside of the store was a complete mess. There was black stone, and charred wood, lying all over the floor. A section of the back ceiling had collapsed, and the debris, had fallen behind, the still smoldering wooden countertop. Stainless could see what appeared to be a cash register, sitting up on the counter, just out of range of the fallen refuse. The cash register had been partially melted, and the parts of it that had melted, formed now solidified puddles on the counter.

How bad was this fire? Stainless asked herself, not able to strip her eyes away from the chaos inside the store. The exterior windows had shattered outward, she assumed from the heat of the blazing inferno. The door had been left ajar inward, she pushed it in, and the door loudly fell off of it’s hinges and collapsed on the floor of the store. She jumped backwards at the sudden noise. A cloud of ash and smoke rose out from where the door had fallen to bits, blowing all over her face, and body.

Stainless waved a hoof around in front of her face, trying to clear the air, so she could breath. Through shaky breaths and coughs, she made her way out of the death cloud, and into the store. There was no visible evidence as to what the store may have been before the fire. She sighed and continued to look around.

Stainless heard footsteps approach the outside of the store.

“Hey! What are you doing in this building?” An obvious stallion's voice asked her.

Stainless turned her head and saw two stallions clad in golden armor glaring at her. “What do you mean, ‘What am I doing in this building.’ Am I not allowed to look around?”

The first unicorn stallion that addressed her, moved to the doorway of the building. He looked around the room, and a smirk formed across his muzzle. He stepped out of the doorway, and whispered something into the second pegasus stallion’s ear. The second stallion smiled.

The first stallion stepped back into the store, and began to walk towards Stainless. “What is your name?”

“Stainless Heart.” She answered confidently.

“Okay then, Stainless. You are under arrest, for the vandalism of public Equestrian property.” The unicorn smiled, and picked up Stainless, in an orange glow of magic.

Stainless flailed her limbs about wildly, trying anything to remove herself from her captor’s magic. “WHAT?! That’s not true! I was just looking around!”

The Pegasus stallion, waved to somepony behind him. “Suuuuure you were...spy.”

The unicorn laughed, “Oh, you’re a spy now too? I’d hate to be you right now.”

“I’m not a spy! I never did anything wrong! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!”

Neither stallion said a word, as two other stallions, wearing the same armor, came into view in front of the store. The two new stallions, were pulling harnesses, that held a large wooden cart behind it. Inside the cart, was a gigantic metal cage, with a door facing the back of the cart. There were multiple different ponies sitting inside the cart. All bound, and gagged with cloth.

Before the cart could stop, the Pegasus stallion, shoved a white cloth into Stainless’s mouth. She tried to scream, but all that came out was a muffled moan. She was carried around to the back of the cart, and a large barred door was swung open. She was tossed inside, where ropes were magically bound to her forelegs and hind legs. Stainless looked back to yell her final resistance to the stallions again, but quickly found that they were no longer there, and that the cell door had been shut.

Author's Note

Hey, welcome to the bottom.

This was just a chapter introducing the new Character. Why she's here? I can't tell you. I know that her back story is pretty much nonexistent, but be patient, all will be revealed with time.

I'm trying to do better with writing setting description and what not.

I'm sure most of you have questions. I probably have answers to most of those questions. If I don't...oh well.

I'm not sure why I'm rambling. I'm certain there are more things I need to address, but I can't think of anything at the moment.

Oh well.

Anyways, Thanks for reading. Let me know what you all think so far. Not that there's much to go off of.