PRESENT
November 29
Silent tapping sounds. Rapping sounds. Cold merciless iron shackles brushed against soft fur and kissed the concrete ground. The iron looked almost like copper bearing the reflections of harshly glowing yellow-orange floodlights flickering under the weight of the tormented night sky. The whistling of the wind added a soft intensity to the silent symphony as it blew passed abandoned buildings occupied only by the most insignificant of memories: the worker who had to work twelve hours whispered to the outside world save my family and the cold-blooded wind yelled back with enraged shouts of complete silence. The wind didn't care, the night didn't care.
Flowing through the broken gutters of despair flowed the water keeping time with its reverberating dripping sounds. On the hardened ground beneath, the shivering stream pounds. What used to be a glistening ring of keys unlocking the sealed steel door for the ponies it frees was now but a time keeper of this symphony of terrible tumultuous silence. The water washed nopony. The tar of dark and somber pasts it did not cleanse. A plastic bag rolls with the wind, the broken glass sings, water drips in devout timing, iron chains play a melodic tune, the oppressive darkness of this night lights the stage, and the moans of hopeless pegasi are not unheard. Nothing goes unheard in this awful symphony of utter silence.
But the silence is broken.
"Down!"
...
"Down!"
...
"I said get down. On the ground." A vein ran across the dark red head of a stallion who demolished the terrible silence. Iron rings and bangles did not infect his hooves, they were free to point at the unfortunate pegasi whose hooves could not do anything except carry them closer and closer to a terrible death so it seamed.
"Calm down-"
"Don't you tell me to calm down Greenie colt!"
"Rudo, you shut the hell up, Mechus will be here with our pay at any time, he wouldn't want a prick like you jackin' around 'ere" Another free stallion with a dark green coat also carried only the passion to abuse the ponies who were not so free. His blood was hot, so hot it had already melted his heart down to the solid inner core that drums to the beat of life and nothing more. His silver eyes, though, they were icy cold and wherever he turned, he could freeze water with a little effort and freeze souls with no effort at all.
Rudo hated this stallion.
These stallions weren't just free from a cold-hearted captivity, they were free to curse the captives with the blackest tortures and a stinging death. Rudo brandished a sinister machine gun and peered into his reflection in the steel barrel. His hoof found the trigger and the other found the handle as he stood up on two hooves completely balanced, completely focused. Having taught himself the subtle art of psychological torture, Rudo swept the two long rows of prisoners with the tip of his weapon. We knew it was just to scare, but the amount of pain that one of those new weapons could cause was unfathomable. I knew it could divide a family in a single instant... I was safe from that at least.
But Rudo aimed his fury up at the sky and vented his anger upon the stars. Yellow-orange explosions tore through the painful silence crying tears of solid metal miserable because it was forged to be used for the necessary evil of slaughtering ponies. The metal shells lamented at their master's evil as they bounced once on the concrete before rolling out of sight. Gunfire spoke like the dragon-like spirit of violence rapping his claws on the black desk of damnation.
So the machine gun spray once again caused the small crowd to cower. We knew he wasn't gonna kill us, not yet, but the bullets managed to rip apart our subconscious. I noticed the green pony wasn't happy.
"The hell was that Rudo-"
"-Get your flank in line, Greenie colt. Boss pony says I'm in charge now, now get your lamers in line!"
"Up"
...
"Up"
...
Rudo's machine gun vomited bullets again.
The ponies on the shook the ground with fear, cowering from the looming threat of getting shot. We knew death by those new weapons was an easy and fast death, but we were so frightened that we couldn't live that fact. Every time the other prisoners heard a tapping sound, they would jump sending shock waves down the iron chain. Of course we had no idea what was happening to us or that we wouldn't eventually be shot. The pegasi grew from the concrete ground, our hoof shackles singing the song of traffiking and oppression.
We stood still. Wings stiff with fear.
A bullet wedged itself into a distant brick wall making all of us jump. Dammit, we should be used to all the gunfire by now. It was a shotgun this time from somewhere else. There were more free slavers hidden in the shadows where we couldn't see keeping an eye on all of us. They were afraid we would escape but as they lingered in the darkness with their right hooves resting on the trigger, they knew they had the ability to kill, we didn't.
"Ayt lamers, you all are slaves!" Deafening clicking mechanical sounds bit at our ears as the yellow explosions lit up the concrete pad revealing where we really were: in the ruinous part of nowhere. Endless machine gun shells rained behind Greenie's stone voice.
"Slaves!"
"Slaves!"
"You are Celestia-Damned slaves, Understand?" Greenie paused and looked over the lamers, "hm... I said, do you understand?" Greenie said in a sweet voice with a soft, covert hatred carrying the power that could melt lead into molten anger.
The lamers all nodded slowly at first and some of them even said yes. Their eyes, though, their eyes whimpered no.
"Good, as you don't know, The Mafia Stallia needs fresh winged meat like all you lamers for his, eh, personal benefit. You all will soon see what fun fun things you will be doing in enough time." Greenie's insane smiled froze any lamer's last attempt to hold onto any stray cotton thread of comfort left over. "Good thing you have all been carefully hoof selected for the task ailing The Mafia Stallia. My," Greenie cringed choosing his next words carefully, "...supervisor, has done an excellent job of recruiting. You all will soon be marching your flanks over to that there bus and if you were smart... or kind, you would try not to escape from us." He stared at all of us making sure the point sank in, it didn't make any sense to me and I still don't know how I got here. I doubt any other pony knows either. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I won't shoot you if you try to escape, no, no, we need you to work for The Mafia Stallia; however, the pony next to you will meet a stinging fate." Greenie stood still after his speech which was surprisingly eloquent for a kind of pony like himself.
I knew exactly what he meant. If I tried to escape, the pony next to me would get shot. Damn, they're using our own hearts to enslave us as if they knew what it felt like to love or be loved... as if I knew. I slowly turned my head to my left and looked to the pony next to me, he was shaking and mumbling, painful burning rivers of grief sliding over the hills of fur. We were chained in rows of two, everypony on the end. Nopony safe. Dear Celestia, do not let them kill me. My mind was running, thinking things it should never have thought before: should stains of red rivers be more painful than stains of watery tears? I couldn't possibly wear the blood of another, I would die before I die.
Dear Celestia, do not let them kill him.
I turned forward again trying to remember how things came to this. How did I get here? What did I do to deserve this? The more I tried to remember in vain, the more my burning amnesia blocked my wandering brain like a solid brick wall lit on fire drinking the inner tears of my pain. Looking up, I knew it didn't matter anymore. All the slavers emerged from the darkness carrying those torturous machines that made us all jump.
More ponies with sticks of rapid stings, I couldn't escape it.
I didn't want any of this to be true but the harder I thought, the harder I tried to remember, the more and more I could only focus on how cold my hooves were against the cold iron braces and the rocky ground. But the slaver soldiers were yelling again and their shouts cut my thoughts short.
"Well, well, well, Greenie colt, it looks like we got some keepers." Rudo's smile froze the air. He looked over the lamers spotting some of the tougher stallions capable of some hard labor. Most pegasi were more fragile with a frame suited more for aerodynamics and speed, but that wasn't always the case.
"No lamers a keeper you dumbflank, they will all... what's the right word, ah, decay." Greenie's soft voice spoke as coldly as Rudo's smile. Greenie looked over the lamers one by one resting his bright eyes on each soul for only a few seconds. "Seriously Rudo, you act like you don't know what's gonna happen to these shits."
"You're not serious, Greenie?" Rudo stared at Greenie obviously not happy about the insubordination, but he didn't show his anger as well. "Ayt, lets get these lamers on the bus-"
"-Rudo, don't be rude, ask our guests their names." Greenie said without much contortion in his face. He knew Rudo didn't know what he was doing.
"Why the hell should I do that, Greenie?" Rudo spat only noticing too late that Greenie had passed his breaking point. Greenie buried his face into his navy blue jacket and brandished in his mouth a dull grey knife with an excruciating jagged blade. As Greenie lumbered forward, Rudo didn't have time to move back. The knife whistled in the air above where Rudo ducked. He was only wasting time and soon Greenie lunged forward burying the furious blade into his shoulder. Bright life juices flowed with the hatred of another pony causing pain to one but not the other. Stooping to the ground, Rudo limped clutching his front right shoulder with his hoof yelling profanities in the cold November air. The prisoners watched in terror.
"The hell Greenie, I'm gonna kill you Greenie, the hell, the buck was that, the hell, I'm gonna kill you, make you bleed. Greenie!" Rudo's death threats fell flat for both of them knew that he couldn't fight back. He limped away from the concrete pad towards an abandoned warehouse. His dark red fur molded into the darkness.
Greenie leaned over to one of the over-watching guards and whispered, "Kill him after the transfer is over." The guard simply nodded digesting his master's command as he was always trained to do.
Casually sliding his bloodied knife back into its home in his jacket. Greenie continued, "All you lamers may not know me but I definitely know all of you." No, that wasn't possible, it couldn't be possible. If I don't know, he shouldn't know. "Brave Slider, how's the family, oh yeah they're a bit dead." He chuckled as he went down the line of prisoners, "Freoly, how did you do on your advanced flight test? Not so well I can guess- I know it was rigged." The mare hung her head in despair and I almost felt bad for her but my own worries got in the way. Greenie turned towards me staring strait at me with those lifeless silver eyes of his. "Oh, how could I forget the most important pony here: Lightly. It looks like the legends were wrong all this time, oh, The Mafia Stallia would be proud." Greenie stared into the golden eyes of a feeble white pegasus with a gold mane and tail. A red stripe along his mane and tail looked ominously like blood and the flat style of both made him look like the very quintessence of insignificant and weak. That weak pegasus was me; I'll own up to all of it... but I was no legend.
The fiery wall of amnesia nodded in agreement.
Greenie looked up from his insults and addressed the rest of us even though he never really could take his eyes off of me. Whatever this legend was, he was mistaken, I was nopony.
He paced. "You might all be wondering how you got here and I have to tell you that I don't give a damn." Greenie's smile was not as powerful as Rudo's but it conveyed a much blacker hatred. It was then that I noticed that this dark green pegasus wasn't all that buff but I could tell that his smile could grant him the ability to lift the mountains.
Suddenly somepony spoke out from the lamers, "You can't do this to us, we will fight back, you don't get to mess with us!" The orange pegasus stood out with a stone face, his eyes conveying a dark anger unlike Greenie's bright eyes of hate.
Jumping up and down with disturbing glee, he shouted, "Oh goodie, we have a talker boys! Time for the pillar driller!" This statement tugged at the laughter of all of the guards and some started to chant. This wasn't good, this was no doubt some kind of torture. Panic set in as I felt knives, and needles, and whips, and all kinds of other primitive torturous weapons graze the fur and the flesh of my body. My nerves danced as they burned from the fires of fear.
More pelting sounds from the guards didn't help and the waves of fear sent down the iron claws of slavery only made the panic worse. I was tired of my mind and heart being so afraid.
But I noticed the machine gun fire did not phase that orange pegasus. A guard unchained him from the line and then two other guards flanked him on either side and slammed a plastic snap tie on his front hooves. Not being able to walk on his own, the guards had to drag his body to a single iron pole poking out from hell. The guards tied his white plastic snake to the iron and backed away allowing him to try to escape though he did nothing. I was shocked, he didn't even resist, he just rested there with his body vulnerable to attack; now this was a stallion who wasn't afraid.
"You won't break me." The orange pegasus said plainly. He wasn't frozen because he gave up resisting, he was frozen because he was resisting. His blue eyes narrowed in rebellion sending sparks flying into the two rows of prisoners. The sparks stirred up the hearts of the captured pegasi, he was their victor. It didn't have any effect on me in the end though, I was nopony.
Greenie wasn't impressed. "That's a bunch of talk, we'll see how long you can keep that promise. Now lets dance!"
The surrounding guards fired off an entire round of metal pellets in a vain attempt to scare the orange pegasus tied up to the iron pole. They managed to scare us but they didn't care, they were too focused on cutting the taller straw down to the size of the rest.
Machine gun fire was followed by heavy dubstep and metal music, the kind that was meant to send meeker ponies on edge. One of the guards removed his belt and folded it in half. The guard slowly marched over to the orange pegasus hoping to scare him using his size and stature. The guard slowly lifted his weapon as if it carried the world and slammed it down on his bright skin. The sound of tenderizing meat with a hammer reverberated across the concrete pad and into the terrified ears of us prisoners.
The orange pegasus was able to swallow the screams from the first two strikes but as his fur was singed off from the heat of the leather belt, he couldn't help but to wail in agony. He cried as his body's defenses collapsed. After awhile, blood flowed from his back and even though we all knew he was still strong and resistant, the shouting and screaming made my subconscious uneasy.
He was whipped again, and again, and again.
"Ah... ...Wait!"
"Ha, are you calling it quits pillar meat?" Greenie sneered through his voice but his face remained hard.
"...No... Never... I will... stay here until the... sun rises and then... everypony will know that you and your... guards have been trafficking... pegasi. You can't break me."
"Touche my friend," Greenie jeered now with his face in compliance with his voice, "I doubt you can keep that promise as noble as you are, it is clear to see. Do you consider yourself to be a good pony?"
He didn't hesitate, "Yes, what do you want exactly?"
"Shut up and listen. Now. Point out your best friend, fillyfriend, wife, mother, son, daughter or whoever and I will let them go, you have proven to me that you are unbreakable." Greenie held a vicious little smile.
"Why... would I tell you? You will... just kill them or... whatever." Wait, he was using reverse-psychology, it was a trap.
"You may believe that I am quite two-dimensional my orange friend and that my promises was obviously a lie, but you have also made the mistake of pissing me off and so the pony I select will die." Greenie walked up to the two by two line of slaves and chose a bright yellow mare with long blue hair tied in a ponytail. "You, get over here, let it be known that you will die by this orange bucker's, should I say, indecisive cowardliness." Greenie's smile beamed across the concrete pad. "You, my friend, are not a good pony, now you are a stallion responsible for torture."
The guards performed the same ceremony for the yellow mare, untying her from the iron and tying her up to the pillar. The guard, who already had his belt out, approached the mare and then suddenly stopped and stared at the yellow mare's hindquarters with unsatiable thirst, "C... Can I Greenie?"
Greenie smiled in response but said, "I know what you are thinking, now is not the time, just hurry up with the beating." There was a subtle stirring in the shadows outside of the abandoned warehouse where the prisoners were being held captive on the outside.
The guard raised his belt and struck it not on a yellow furry back but on the cheek of Rudo creating a giant, bloody gash, and marring his already maimed body.
All was still.
The blaring music stopped, some guard turned it off.
Greenie scowled deeply and responded slowly in immense anger, "Enough."
One of the guards shouted, "Permission to kill?"
"Don't kill him until the transfer is complete, that motherbucking betrayer will die. Enough bucking around, time to get everypony on the bus."
Rudo slipped back into the shadow of the warehouse while the guard with his belt in his mouth had to untie the yellow mare with the blue mane and tail. He blushed like he had been caught looking at the newest release of Playpony hot mare edition. Eventually the plastic was torn off the yellow mare and she was re-chained to the line of slaves ready for their awesome vacation.
After this, us prisoners were filed on to the bus one by one with our chains still eating at the flesh of our ankles. The mobile prison was packed from one end to the other, the number of slaves totaled almost one-hundred and the guards fifty. Greenie was definitely not screwing around with this operation.
I was shoved onto the bus both by one of the guards and the pony behind me. I fell up the stairs into the bus tripping over metal maggots and sulked over to an empty space near the window; I was lucky there was any space to sit down at all. I looked out at the concrete pad outside the warehouse where we were lined up. The bus was hot from the stench of the other prisoners and wet from the tears of the pegasi falling to the aisle floor. The amount of grief ranged from barely just able to hold the tears in to crying at the power of vinyl power washers. I guess we were all afraid that if we started to cry, we would all lose control.
But instead my mind was racing, why did Greenie say I was part of a legend, If I wasn't mistaken I could almost say that they were afraid of me. I would have never stood up to those slavers like the orange stallion or defend a mare getting whipped like Rudo, I even thought that Rudo was working with Greenie. Nothing made sense anymore, it made me feel more and more alone, and the cold world outside the window didn't help either.
I don't know how I even got here, my memory isn't very good and I know I have amnesia but I think I should have remembered what happened to me or how I got here. Nopony simply appears in the middle of nowhere tied up in chains. This entire thing shouldn't have happened to me, I was having a good life, then this shit happened. I cried aloud, "Celestia-dammit. Why? Why do you never help ponies like us?" I knew I shouldn't blaspheme against the almighty princess but I couldn't help vomiting tears.
I became sick, the reality of what was happening to me chocked the life out of me. I was as good as dead, the darkness from the outside had already infected my soul telling my heart and mind that I could never escape from this. Whatever I did in my life, whoever I was before I was captured, it didn't matter anymore.
Then I heard a pony approach me. Shit. I looked at a blurry image of a pony through my curtain of water flowing out of my eyes and onto the floor.
"It's okay, We'll survive, and hey, we might even live." A soft mare's voice emanated from the figure.
I nodded, lifting the world up by my neck. Too much hope is a bad thing but I desperately wanted her to be right, I wanted to know for certain that I would live. I... I...
A disgusting feeling rose in my throat, I can't even hold my sanity for long. I guess this is when ponies say when to use courage and love and all that good stuff, but I'm kinda stuck inside of my own heart. I kept thinking about me this entire time, the orange stallion, he cared about the rest of us. If we could've fought back, we would've won.
The mare sat next to me; her optimism was like foreign food to me but then I noticed we were both able to sit down when other pegasi could not. It was a simple privilege. My cheap leather bus throne suddenly became uncomfortable and it caused me to become kind.
"What's your name?" I asked rather dully.
"Freoly, what is yours?" She said plainly in her kind voice.
"I... I'm Lightly... would you like to sit by the window?" I attempted at being good, so far... so good?
"Wait, you're that one pony that Greenie said was part of the legend." Her silver eyes grew wide and bright. Now that she said it, maybe she was right. I still couldn't accept it.
"Uh... ere... Yes, but I had no idea that, that I was some kind of legend. I... I mean I don't even know how I got here, I don't even know those slavers over there or that orange stallion." I looked over and saw the orange pegasus and the yellow mare with the blue mane; the orange pony still had his hooves tied behind him.
"Oh." Freoly sighed but not in disappointment.
"Do you still want the window seat?" I attempted to salvage the situation.
"...No." She said sighing out of disappointment this time. I could see optimism leave her like a white ghost leaving the corpse behind to rot. The light left her eyes.
"Car sick?"
"No I... I just don't like looking out of the window. And I have a bulky stallion chained to me, so yeah." I could tell that the subject at hoof was somehow depressing for her.
Well, at least the bus ride will be decent, afterwards, I would just die on the inside before I do work as a slave.
There really was no hope, it was just a lie. But that doesn't mean I so desperately wanted it to be true. I knew I couldn't be freed now but my heart still wanted to flood my hooves with the warmth so viciously torn away from me by the iron of the shackles and the hate of all the slavers.
The world stood still until one of the guards on the outside of the bus quickly turned his head, "Boss, somepony approaches."
Greenie turned to look with a terribly molded smile, "Ah, looks like somepony is late."
An Indigo coated earth stallion trotted up to Greenie, he was another slaver, "Sorry I'm late Greenie colt." He had to catch his breath.
"Snow-Mo, how have your sales been going? I wonder, have you got the usual boomerangs or have you caught some newbies?" Greenie said in a strangely trivial voice.
"I gotta me some detoxers who just had to come back, but the real jackpot, you would never guess, I was able to sell my coke to some of 'dem prep school mares, at least twenty bought." Snow-Mo looked proud with his chin up and everything.
"Wow Snow-Mo thats awesome," Greenie's tone suddenly changed, "Why the hell did you not get here on time?" A vein ran across Greenie's forehead warning Snow-Mo that he had pissed him off. Unlike that clueless mustached pony Rudo, Snow-Mo knew exactly what would happen if he got ticked off.
Snow-Mo thought on his hooves, he was good at making excuses and Mechus usually bought them, "That deal was just made, ya know the one with the ma-"
"-I don't give a shit, get yo flank over here when there's a transport, boss pony will have your neck when he gets here." Greenie couldn't get the message past his thick skull.
"Oh yeah, and when was boss pony supposed to be here?" Snow-Mo sneered but Greenie did not flinch.
"It doesn't matter when boss pony gets here, he's pays us." Greenie said plainly with his usual stony face.
"Where's Rudo?" He tried to change the subject.
Greenie's face lit up with giddiness, "He betrayed the operation, I will kill him once the transfer is over. He attempted to run the operation when boss pony put me in charge. Now that I think about it, he might've purposely put this operation in danger. He works for that shifty decoy after all and the Stallia's been planning this raid for a while now."
Snow-Mo sighed, "You're too strict Greenie, Rudo and I were always the best at torturing the lamers but you, you are just cold, he's no traitor."
Greenie looked agitated at first but after staring for a second or two, he bowed his head, "I don't care." He whipped his head around, "Hey buser, lets get a move on, we'll be behind you."
With that, the bus driver turned the key and the engine responsible for carrying the prisoners to a life time of servitude rumbled and then roared like a scrawny and vicious lion but quickly ran out of breath.
I just couldn't believe what I was hearing, the bus wouldn't start! Its a miracle, it took all of my energy not to cry again after all I have been through in just an hour's time, it might have been just a bad nightmare. It was a miracle, the sun rises again after all. I... I must've just... forgotten.
But then Freoly...
"Out!" Yelled the irritated green slaver.
...
"Out!"
...
The guards fired off more rounds of machine gun fire this time purposely hitting the side of the bus for the fright effect. These terrorists were insane.
"You bunch a dumbbucking lamers, get out!"
The bowels of the yellow bus stirred and the chains scraped the floor marching us prey out of the cave den following our master's command. The body heat from all of the ponies helped keep us all warm in the bus but it was freezing out in the open as never ending gusts of wind rippled the ends of my fur. All of the pegasi were nervous, looking around, up and down. All were wondering the same thing. I wondered what was going to happen to us now?
A burly gray pegasus stallion approached Greenie from a distance lumbering along a street that ran next to the concrete pad.
Greenie said vehemently with his face lit up by a flood light, "Mechus, thank goodness you are here," he stammered, "I was wondering when you would arrive and I'm sure whatever the reason it is excusable. Well we have a little problem: the bus ran out of gas, I just don't understand, we filled it up just before we got here."
The gray stallion named Mechus replied with an unusual light voice that definitely did not match his appearance though it did have a bit more presence, "I will see about that with the bus driver, however, I have surveyed the surrounding area and although it was clear at first, I fear that small fragment of an enemy faction might move into the area if they haven't already."
"You don't mean those-"
"-yes I do, I bet they've been waiting for us too."
"I have it covered, I bought fifty guards with me all equipped with combat weapons, you didn't think that they were all for the lamers, no, I can't risk getting caught nowadays, especially with you know who signing that contract." Greenie's expression was difficult to read but Mechus seemed to read deeper than his stone cold face.
"That disturbs me as well, though I think the Mafia Stallia can decide for himself how much power that one politician can control." Mechus narrowed his eyes in skepticism. Politicians were never trustworthy but this one in particular could do some major damage if he really wanted to. He quickly thought of something else and so did Greenie.
"What about... her?" Greenie shuddered with uncertainty
"...I don't see her as a threat, the Mafia always overreacts when a new pony comes in to manage a job with lots of executive power. Besides I, lets just say, I contributed to her landing the job. Enough updates, Greenie, we need to fix your bus problem." He acted like he was covering something up, it was obvious.
Mechus walked over to the bus- a considerable distance away from the lamers in order to provide space and to stay out of sight. It was true, the Mafia had planned this operation for quite a while now and it seemed like any little glitch or error in the plan would bring forth disaster. Every little hoof step had to be planned with painstaking perfection and executed like the precise jumps of a dancer or the threateningly accurate marches and drills of an enemy army. Clearing his mind, Mechus reached the bus and heaved himself onto the steps to the inside and felt an unexplained chill down his spine...
...
A blinding light flooded my vision.
The bus was sauteed with a hefty dash of C4, steam fried with the force of red flames dancing in the engine compartment and in the underside, spiced up with an exotic portobello mushroom cloud of smoke and ash. Everypony's vision was obscured by the smoke: the guards and the lamers, and Mechus was no doubt dead.
Machine gun fire came from somewhere. The guards were still running around for clean air.
All of a sudden, I saw a few shadows of ponies running and crouching down behind various boxes and barrels and blocks of concrete. They were all whispering to each other thought the guards took no notice.
The smoke eventually cleared.
Seconds passed.
The chains coughed softly.
I was frozen with fear.
Again.
...
More bullets resounded triggering everyponys' flight reaction but the mob couldn't move anywhere, we were all trapped.
The shadow ponies erupted into gunfire and tore down a few of the guards with their stingers, their number couldn't be much more than a dozen but their surprise attack nailed down at least twenty guards.
The guards were quick to react and with their advanced weaponry, they were soon spitting steel as well.
Back and forth the shooters argued. Ammunition was flying everywhere, destroying old walls and broken glass windows of far off apartments and long time abandoned stores. Flashes of yellow light lit up the darkness surrounding this wretched place and yet I still couldn't see the shadow ponies.
A few guards fell.
A bullets exploded a wooden crate into millions of splinters
A shadow pony fell.
One of the guards reached inside a bullet-proof box and materialized a grenade. He quickly chucked it in the direction to the right of the warehouse where the shadow ponies were coming from. I couldn't believe they were able to get their hooves on that kind of weaponry.
Exploding in anger, it managed to maim three shadow ponies but it was not fatal.
Shadow ponies fired back with a renewed fury but the slaver guards weren't fazed.
The guards moved into attack formation forming a V shape and now bearing shotguns and plexiglass shields. More bullet-proof boxes were opened and some of the guards picked up more grenades and tear gas cans. The guards in the back of the formation stuffed these into high powered launchers. Whoever these slavers were, they were an army bread to kill off their enemies and torture their captured prey- nopony could stop these soldiers. All the lamers made a last attempt to move away from the battle scene and this time we were able to pull it off. Our hooves were stiff and sore and each step was another painful stabbing jolt of pain in the frozen air.
Only a few of us could look back at the violent scene erupting behind us.
Greenie stood on top of an empty box and commanded, "Stand by infantry, open fire artillery."
Rockets launched from the concrete pad where the lamers were being transferred. Great arches of smoldering soot and curves of yellow light lit up the early morning black sky. The cans and bombs bounced and exploded creating a rhythm of violence and the shadow ponies were uprooted from their fertile hiding places.
Musty and stale places behind boxes, barrels and crates exploded as the eerie blueish white smoke from the tear gas rose even in the cold of night.
"Forward March." The guard formation marched in frightening organization, we could barely tell that they were just a bunch of gang ponies, now they were more like soldiers fighting for a ruthless dictator.
The guards shot into the disorganized shadow pony rebellion but as soon as the guards started firing, the shadow ponies stopped their frantic running and started to fire into strategic locations in the V formation.
Once again, the guards were not prepared for the trick and another slew of guards were killed.
One of the shadow ponies threw some sort of bomb and was able to render all of the guard artillery useless. Furthermore, some of the shadow ponies all of a sudden sprinted to what was left of the V formation and began a melee attack. These unidentified ponies could actually win this.
With all of the mediocre guards now dead, the skirmish became a stalemate, and now the shadow ponies fought out in the open with a mixture of gun fire and melee fighting. Luckily, none of us was hurt and we finally made it off the warehouse yard and lumbered onto an unlit street away from danger.
I was stunned. I can't see anything. I wanted to run but I was chained. Oh Celestia, don't let them kill me. Then I wondered, what could they possibly be shooting at? The police? Would they come after us? Who were they? Then I heard it.
"We fight for flight!" It didn't come from the guards... Then...
"Fight for flight!" A dozen or so other ponies respond, the held guns as well. Then it hit me. They were fighting the Mafia. We were saved!.
"All hail our talent! Destroy these bucking rebels" The guards, Greenie, and Snow-Mo responed.
The battle continued for what seemed like an eternity. One side could not overtake the other, both were now equally numbered and equipped. The guards seemed to have lost more ponies and they were running out of steam. I saw it go back and forth. Iron confetti sprayed in the air like a cyborg filly's sixth birthday party and rained down flooding the warehouse yard in hollow metal shells. Gas and grenades were flung overhead and colorful explosions lit up the area like pyrotechnics dancing behind stage during a rock concert without any music.
Just when I thought situations couldn't improve I heard someone say something:
"Greenie colt, lets get out of here."
Gunfire still reigned in the background.
"Ayt Snow-Mo, its a lost cause, we'll have to go into hiding now. Damn." Greenie sighed instead of exploding in anger.
They both proceeded to one of those new machines they called cars and sped off to the east in a loud screech of rubber on rock. Some of the guards turned to see their captain leave and, disheartened, the guards retreated while the rebels attempted to pick off as many as they could.
Silence.
Anxiety filled my mind again. There were only two groups of ponies on the pad: us prisoners and the ponies who fought the guards. My heart did the math.
The twelve remaining Rebels went back inside the warehouse and reappeared with blowtorches; they must have planned to free us. All of a sudden, the pegasi cheered and jumped up and down, their chains singing a different song; I could not lie, I started to cry. We were free, thank Celestia we're free. But I couldn't shake the chains still clamped to my soul. It made me mad that despite all our freedom- I was so weak. Slowly but surely, each pegasus was freed until one of the rebels approached me. He stared at me for a moment squinting before turning to cut my chains. Although the shackles were still on all of my wrists and even though I could move around dance like an insane murderer, I stood frozen. Pitiful, I know.
The rest of the freed slaves, after everypony was cut free, just milled around the concrete pad not able to go anyplace. I seriously doubt anypony knew exactly where they were, we might be in a completely different city for all that matters.
One of the rebels approached me from a distance.
"Are you... Are you..." He stammered. He was a light green unicorn with a brown and blue mane and tail.
I filled in the blanks, "I am the legend pony, whatever, if that's what you're ask-"
"-Oh... uh good to meet you then... uh, you must come with us." He continued to stammer, his teeth hitting together like a hammer on an anvil.
"But-"
Both of us were interrupted by a berry red coated earth mare with mechanical wings, "-Stars, be nice to him for Celestia's sake, he just spent hours and hours chained up." I didn't know if that was true but she turned to me, "My name is Sunset Spinner and this clumsy stallion here's Starry Hope and I assure you he is smarter that he looks. You of course don't have to come with us but if you would like to know what happened to you, we might be able to tell you. I have been waiting to meet you, you know." Her brown eyes stared deep into my mind, but my heart objected.
Something seemed strange about her.
"How... how can I be some sort of legend? I don't even know anything about a legend. I didn't even stand up for anypony. If you should take somepony to join your rebellion, you should take that orange stallion."
He overheard us, "Wait, you ponies knew that we were here?" The orange pony exclaimed to the group of rebels. I noticed that everypony was either staring at the orange pegasus, the rebels, or... me.
"Yes," Spinner responded cordially, "We have devoted our entire cause to destroying the Mafia and their operation Double Gears. We have tracked Greenie, Snow-Mo, and Rudo to this very location-"
"-I would like to join then." The orange pegasus interjected in no time at all.
"And... dammit, I'll fight too." The yellow mare with the blue main and tail spit holy words as well no doubt grateful for a certain savior standing close by.
Now was my chance, I felt like I couldn't return to my old life anyway, "I will join you." I said loud enough but without much force.
"but-" Spinner almost objected.
"-Very well then, We are all glad to have you join us, legend pony or not." Stars rebutted with new found clarity in speech.
Silence fell again.
"I guess it's settled then, you three will come with us back to base but if you don't know already, our operations may cost you all your lives." Spinner looked at the three of us with her chin up commander-like. It was no doubt that she was the captain of the rebellion. The five of us started walking back to the warehouse when we heard a soft but powerful voice.
"I'm coming with you... I want to come with you all." The voice came from none other than white and sky blue Freoly. I was convinced that my nightmare became a sweet dream and I did not want to wake up. I would get to fight crime back to back with a nice mare I barely knew though I couldn't deny I was enamored by. A voice deep in my mind told me it wasn't going to be that easy. The four additional rebels along with Spinner and Stars walked over to the side of the warehouse when all of a sudden a shadow of a pony emerged from the overhang.
"Don't know where you all are goin', do you? I can tell you where Greenie and Snow-Mo might be 'cause, after all, I was put in charge." I recognized the bright, cruel eyes of Rudo, the black caterpillar that crawled on his upper lip, and his sad mangled pegasus body.
"Why should I trust you?" The orange pegasus did not forget his rage.
"'Cause I stepped in front of your filly friend, you bucker." Rudo responded calmly, "I am not guaranteeing anything, but I'm gonna work on my hunch here."
"Is this true?" Spinner asked us while keeping a keen eye on the shifty, dark red stallion.
The yellow mare nodded slowly, shaking and on the verge of tears, "Yes."
"Tell us where they are going then, Rudo." Stars said dully.
"It better not be a lie," Spinner warned widening her eyes.
"I know ya have no choice but to believe me." Rudo smiled a bit.
Silence descended as everypony strained to listen to him.
His smile grew wider as time went on unnerving everypony as his bright eyes churned our stomachs. "My gut tells me they are goin' to be forced to get gearin' if you know what I mean, oh and the name is Lord Rudolf... from Marble City."
