Blooming Talent 2: The Apple Falls Far

Equisbane studied the few remnants of the sand leviathan carefully; the cause of death seemed to have been explosive in nature, but there were no burn marks or cauterizations in the remaining chunks of husk. The massive tail was mostly still intact, but it too showed signs that conflicted with the others; flesh and muscle torn outwards like a blooming flower, but no charring what so ever. Conventional explosives were definetly not the cause of death here. Then again, after seeing that rainbow, he figured they wouldn't be.

Still, the Elements of Harmony were not capable of destruction on this scale, even as powerful as they are. If they indeed were the cause, something would have had something augmenting them greatly.

He scanned the shifting sands, knowing most of the prints of anyone's would be long gone by now, but there would still be signs. Something would tell him what he needed to know.

As he searched over the area, his eyes caught sight of something almost anyone else would overlook. Equisbane noticed an inderntion in the sands on the other side of the massive crater. As he and his men moved closer to inspect, he saw the shape vaguely resembled that of a humanoid; by the little structure that was left in the imprint, he could tell it was no minotaur or dog.

"What is it, sire?" One of the silver armored horses queried.

Equisbane let his eyes scan around a little more before answering. There were many smaller indentions that looked relatively fresh; made not even a full week ago. They were not hoofprints, and more resembled paws than anything else.

"Come men." He finally said, rearing up and pointing out in a familiar direction. "It seems we can take care of both our orders of business in one place."

***

"Why are you giving that creep the Legacy Suppressor? You know how rotten he is!" Apple Bloom shouted.

Ahkma shushed her frantically, and looked around as if expecting someone to have heard. He slowly turned back to them, a very serious look in his eyes.

"Please, child...do not speak so loudly. If anyone from the city knows you are here and recognizes you, it would be disastrous."

He lowered himself onto a small stool made of dried twigs held together by who knows what.

"And to answer your question," he continued. "We don't have a choice..."

"What do you mean you don't have a choice?"

"Emperor Midas knows this is the only place to obtain the Legacy Suppressor, and he takes its secrecy very seriously." Ahkma explained. "He has plenty of horses and other slaves to do the work we do, so if we ever fail him or disobey, he will simply slaughter us and replace us so no one will ever know of it."

He looked up at Apple Bloom and Goten who were both listening intently.

"The only reason we are still alive.." He said. "Is because I offered my people to mine for him; a sort of saving of resources so to speak."

The anthro mare on the bed looked down in bewilderment. After a few moments of silence, she breathed in and prepared to say something rather bold. "So I still don't see why you don't have a choice."

Ahkma grunted in disbelief and looked dead on at the southern anthro as if she were delirious from the heat. Surely she had just heard what he'd said.

"How can you say that?" He gruffed. "We don't have a choice."

"Yes you do." Apple Bloom said firmly, raising her amber eyes to meet his yellow ones. "You always have a choice. You don't have to mine his drug for him if you don't want to."

"But he will kill us!"

"Then don't let him. I don't see any fences or anything keeping you here mining. The way I see it, you can leave anytime. Think about it; if he can't find you, how is he going to kill you? If you convince your people to relocate, you can live out better lives than being his high and mighty snoodiness' work hounds."

Ahkma put his face in his paws and sighed. "What you say is far easier said than done...how can you understand what its like living with unfair leadership and forced loyalty?"

"We know a little something about that actually." Goten said.

Ahkma looked up at him a little confused. "What do you mean, child? Is Princess Luna not a kind and just ruler?"

The couple looked to each other slowly and with sadness. "We used to think so...but in the last year, her and Piccolo haven't been making the best decisions."

The half-saiyan sat down next to his wife, gently gripping her good hand in one of his. "After she gave away our son to Midas, she passed a law stating that anyone who went after him to retrieve our baby would be banished from Equestria.."

"You two are...?"

"Yes...we ignored the law and made a choice to go after our son anyway." Goten said. "We were told we had no choice in the matter of our family, and that didn't sit well with us. So we made ourselves a choice."

"But now you are forbidden to return to your lands..." Ahkma exclaimed. "How is that a good result of your 'choice'?"

Apple Bloom placed her head on Goten's shoulder. "As long as my family is together, I don't care where I have to live. For them, I'm willing to give up anything...or do anything to keep us together and safe."

That statement started the wheels in Ahkma's head; 'for family.' He thought on that and it did not take long for the old dog to realize it. His people were his family, and he wanted only the best for them. Was it truly best for them to continue living under the constant threat of death in their home? To continue to work and work until they were no longer useful to the Emperor? He knew it was not, but what would they do? How could they just up and leave? This was where they had been for as long as he could remember.

He supposed that it must have been the same for Apple Bloom; born and raised in Equestria and now unable to return because she made the choice to keep her family safe and whole.

"You are someone to be admired, child..." He finally said. "It scares me to say this, but I do believe you are right; we should be willing to do anything for our families."

He stood up and brushed himself off. "I shall propose a change to my people, and we will see what happens. Besides...now that I think on it, I might know a place we can go."

He pulled a glowing blue vial out of his pocket before he moved to exit. "First, it is time for your injection, child."