Saving Equus

~~

PLAIN SIGHT

~~

Fluttershy liked how the monolith sparkled in the morning light. She pranced in, and saw Belowitz eyeing her coldly over a plastic-covered table, an empty plate and glass in front of him. He looked exhausted, but nevertheless retained his cohesion. “Huh. You sure look chipper today.”

Fluttershy returned a playful grin. “The new world clicked with me.”

She had been smiling as soon she woke up, looked under the covers, and realised where she was. After the last night, the Apples must have thought they’d turned her mood around, as her timid and uptight presence the day before had faded to a blur when she came for breakfast.

The Apples weren’t entirely wrong. She had a good night with that stallion, whatever his name was, even if he wouldn’t say a word to anyone else. She directed a nod at him before she left the Apple residence, and he almost looked guilty. Why, she thought, when the very idea of intercourse with an alicorn was so rare, so mysterious. She’d expect it to be a mark of privilege.

Regardless, she left the Apples the same way she found it, but with something more. Palsley had taken after her as a kind father to Bloom, and nice enough to her, too, having given her a whole hoofbrace to wear on her leg, fully equipped with its own pale blue screen. “If y’haven’t seen one before, they’re quite commonplace,” Palsley mentioned. “It’s like a base product, y’see, and y’add things onto it. They’re called Apps. Here, I’ll show you.”

Palsley let her discover a pre-built App on the device, which he called Magitalk. He told her that Magitalk was an App that allowed her to talk to anyone she had the ID of, and he gave her his one afterwards. “That way, if y’ever need help or want t’talk, fire it up and y’all find me. That’s a certainty, princess.”

She joined the new world thinking it was friendless, and empty. She left the Apple’s residence knowing that somewhere, there was always someone to trust. How much she trusted the stallion in front of her now, though, she couldn’t say.

Belowitz tapped on his hoofbrace, and soon, a white interface hovered up in front of him. He checked it briefly, before looking back to her. “Good. It looks like you’ll have to be clicking a bit longer.”

Her grin faded. As little as she knew about him, something must have gone wrong. “What is it?

“We can’t go to the DHQ today, not by any conventional means. I’ve found a report by command that the airship’s been knocked out of action, and it’ll need at least a week to repair.” He swiped across the hovering interface, and started tapping links to different pages. “I only found out a couple hours ago… but we need to replan our way there.” Fluttershy raised her brow, and he continued. “How’s the clothes?”

She didn’t care how her clothes were, and went back to the important question. “How is it out of action? I was only brought here with it yesterday.”

Belowitz sighed, and shrugged. “I really, really have no idea. This report is about as damn vague as what I told you… here, I’ll show you.”

The words sprawled on the white page took up a line, or two at most. He wasn’t lying. “Well, you just told me what we’re going to do, right?” Fluttershy said. “You said that it’ll need a week, so we’ll have to stay here.” The thought of returning to the Apples was a blessing. “I could do that. It’ll be a breeze.”

Belowitz winced as he kept tapping. “Any time we spend here is too long. We need to find somewhere trustworthy to rent an airship, and get you out of here.”

Having seen the massive thing that carried her to the monolith, Fluttershy was sure the Apples didn’t have an airship of their own. She was reminded of something they had said, though.  “Really? I would trust you, but... you haven’t even told me what a Dee Haych Que is. You’re being very secretive to the alicorn that’ll save the world, Belowitz.”

He turned to face her, leaving the interface still up. “I'm sorry, Fluttershy... it's been a bad day. The DHQ stands for Doomer’s Headquarters, based and pretty much owning Manehatten by default. Everypony knows it. That’s where my organisation, the Doomers, stay at residence. We’re a resistance front, of sorts, against the ponies who own government here in Central.”

A resistance group called the Doomers, she thought. Perhaps that’s what Palsley meant when he said one of those ‘violent types’. “Why that name?” she enquired.

“It’s the grim prophecy our organisation was built around. The end is coming, and you’re our key to survival. That’s what I heard. I'm honestly not high-ranked enough as a Doomer to know any more detail than that.”

It sounded like a cult to her. “Why did they not send a high-ranking member to find me, then? Surely that would be safer.”

“Surely not,” he said, going back to the interface. As if I would have known. “I must have made myself unclear. I’m pretty up there in the ranks as it is, and the ‘high-ranked’ ponies I mentioned are the organisation founders. They’re eh... old ponies, really old, so they're not great at escorting. They’ll be the ponies you’ll meet with when we go there though, I'm sure of it. My guess is they want to tell you something, or give you an artifact. Maybe something to harness your power as an alicorn? I can't say... my knowledge is sketchy at best, but I know what they're saying is the right thing to do. Trust me.”

She at least had a broad idea of what was going on now. It was from Belowitz’s perspective, and hadn’t convinced her fully, but there was something that would sell her. “What do you plan on doing, if your group succeeds?”

Belowitz hesitated as he was scrolled down a list. “Me? Our organisation’s goal is to prepare for the end. What that is, I can’t say.  I was told the elders'll make sure there’s never a looming threat of war and violence again. They showed me that's what they did... Manehatten is one of the safest places to live. That’s what stuck me in. I heard the end stuff later.”

She could taste bile from her throat. A small resistance group couldn’t have the power to end the world… could it? She didn’t know what to make of that. No, surely not.

Belowitz pressed one more button on the interface, before swivelling around on his chair. “I’ve got a location for us to go. We’ve worked with them before, so they should trustworthy. Just in case, though, I’d recommend keeping that hoodie on." Belowitz minimised the interface and got off his chair. "Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she said. “I am an alicorn, remember. If there’s any storybooks about the power of alicorns… turning a draconequus to stone, banishing ponies to the moon, they’re all true. So, if you show the slightest signs of lying to me, you won’t be able to stop me from leaving your group.”

Belowitz nodded. “Understood. ”

~~

Belowitz led her through the city, off the beaten path, and into a more run-down area than she’d soon going to the Appleshrine. The buildings were smaller, and they reached out in all directions, seemingly never ending.

Finally they came to a door, which Belowitz walked up to and knocked on. There was a pause, before a brown mare that looked strong opened the door. The mare glanced up at her, before looking back at Belowitz. “It is good to see you in form, Belowitz. Is this all?”

“Just the two of us. There’s nothing we need to bring, either. A quick trip to DHQ, that’s all I’m asking.”

The brown mare’s face went serious. “Hmm, good. Yes, this will be easy for us. Come in, please, make yourselves at home.” She beckoned him in, and then her. “Does the unicorn have a name?”

“My name is Fluttershy.”

The earth mare looked her over. “Heh, you look the spitting image. I’m Ruska. Welcome to Central’s Sentries, Fluttershy. If you take the door to your right, as Belowitz will show you, then that is where the gathering room is, and where you stay while we get the airship ready.”

She didn’t like the look of Central’s Sentries. It was much darker and plain than the monolith, more modern and makeshift than the Apple’s rustic family house. Aesthetically misplaced chairs dotted the foyer, and the doors were made of iron with many rusted locks, that made the doors look like they had been salvaged from a bunker.

Belowitz opened it for her, and as she walked through he whispered in her ear. “Don’t act too snooty around these guys.”

The gathering room was assembled with two great tables, adorned with many of the little chairs she saw in the other room. They looked disgusting, reminding her of a couple of jail cells she’d seen in Cloudsdale. “When did I ever act snooty?” she whispered back.

What a rude stallion. He led on, sitting with a group of zebras and griffons armed in what looked like leather, smoking some strange pipes that filled that side of the room with a haze. Maybe I made a wrong call here.

She sat herself away from the crowd on the opposite side of the table, and spend her idle time playing with her hoofbrace. Palsley and Bloom had shown her how to use it, but opening it for the second time made it seem ridiculously confusing. After a while, she relearned the basics, and was pondering on whether or not to call the Palsley when the mare they met at the door sat next to her. “It is hard to speak when you don’t know anyone. I know the feeling.”

Fluttershy turned to the mare, forgetting her name. “Sorry, it’s not that. I’m not very sociable when it comes to big groups.” She wasn’t sure if what she said was true, but she wanted an excuse to not speak further.

The mare had a thick Hibernia accent, like a soldier. “We have an engineer like that. Stallion, of course. We always say, he is smart with his tools, not his tongue. What is your talent?”

“Farmer.” The Apples ingrained their job in her mind, and it came out of her mouth almost instantly. “I’m from far away.”

The mare looked curious. “You look strong… I thought as much. Though I admit, a unicorn farmer is not a profession I know. Perhaps your fields are cleaner than ours, eh?” She chuckled. “Would you like to smoke with us, farmer Fluttershy?”

She wanted to be as far from them as possible. “No,” she said, and quickly corrected herself for courtesy, “I’d rather not, thank you.”

The mare thought to herself. “How about a game of cards? You could earn some bits, farmer.”

Looking at the Apple’s current state of affairs, it made sense that she would mention it. That said, Fluttershy was not an Apple. “No thank you. I’d rather sit here, thanks,” she said bluntly.

I’d be having a lot more fun in the Apple residence with ponies I trust, thought Fluttershy. The idea of trying to get any entertainment out of a den full of soldier-types didn’t sound like fun to her. She wanted the airship to be ready, and as she thought it, she called out to the now-leaving mare. “Out of interest, how long will our wait be?”

Ruska had got as far as the end table, but submitted, glancing back. “I can’t tell you a thing about that ship. If you would like to know, you should ask the engineer. You will have to search for him in the alleys, but you will know when you find the ship. Expect him on the deck, alone.” She pointed to an open doorway leading outside. “By the magi, I will never understand introverts… inside here, we will be playing cards and smoking like old friends.”

Fluttershy smiled back at Ruska. “We might be old friends too someday, but that’ll be after I get on this ship. Thanks.” She got up from her chair, and walked past the smokers and through the door out back.

The area outside was a spacious courtyard, concreted and littered with boxes and roadblocks. It took her some time twisting through some other lanes before she found something, that being the ship. It was perched unceremoniously where she found it, right in the middle of what seemed to be a private walkway.

There was room enough to squeeze around it, but by Celestia it’d be distracting. The entire thing looked like a ragtag sailing ship, hobbled together with sheet iron and wires. It was a small thing compared to the airship at the monolith, about a tenth of the size and like to fit no more than thirty passengers.

She could tell the size of ship easier with the scrawny stallion standing on it, working on some box in the mid-section of the ship. He was skinny, blue, and she noticed his horn when he turned sideways, fixing some ugly valve that jutted out from the chassis.

She could comment on the look of the ship all she wanted, but it was the reliability she cared for. “You’re one of the Sentries, are you?” Fluttershy asked, calling out to the stallion, who didn’t reply. “You, the blue unicorn on the ship.” She made sure she was close by, so she didn’t have to shout.

“Are you an op?” he asked, not turning away from his job.

She didn’t know what an op was, but expected it had something to do with legality. Weird, since the ship wasn’t exactly subtle. Buildings surrounded them, and many had windows looking right at the abomination. Fluttershy called back to his question. “No, I am not an op. I was sent here with Belowitz, if you know him. We’re hiring your ship out.”

“Oh!” The stallion turned. She was that he was wearing an oil-stained apron, and after he pressed a button on his hoofbrace, the stallion clutched a pipe, and slid down it off to the ground. He landed on his back hooves, and looked like he was going to fall over before balancing himself on all fours. “Tell the others to come here. The ship is at the best stage of readiness,” he said, puffing his chest and placing a hoof on it. “I make it so.”

The stallion looked sketchy, and she was skeptical about him at best. “Perfect,” she said. “You can ride along with us, then.”

The stallion burst out into squeaky laughter. “Did you expect any less? I am the driver of this beauty, this wonderful ship!” Fluttershy couldn’t help but snigger at that. The stallion eyed her when she did. “What is so funny?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I didn’t think you… nevermind.” Her hope for safe travel was fading the longer she looked at the thing. Who knows what it’s like on the inside.

“Privilege-ponies. Never seen a proper ship in your life, have you?” The stallion shook his head. “This is the true ship, inside and out. It may not look pretty like your powdered wigs, but it runs like a beast. I know, I made it.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Fluttershy muttered, trying to look happy. “It’s good to see somepony so… content with their line of work. I hope we meet again. My name’s Fluttershy.”

The stallion looked almost curious. “Fluttershy, huh. Like the old tales?”

She perked up. “Yes, like those. I was named after them.”

The stallion shrugged. “Really? What a bummer for you, then. I always thought those old tales were shit.” He paused to punch his hoof out in front of him, and he then pointed it under his chest, groping the outlying fabric of his apron. “Not enough fighting and sex, you know?” He put his hoof back on the floor. Smart with his tools, not his tongue. Well, she’s right so far. “I’m Sweller, like my ship. It’s Sweller than them powdered wigs. See? Much better name.”

She was scowling by the end of it. “Well, you’re certainly something, Sweller. I’ll make sure to remember you.”

He barely seemed to respond to her scowl. “Yeah, high time to get back to my ship. See you.” Sweller turned around, and climbed up the ship to where he was before. Fluttershy took the opportunity to find her way back. I’ll make sure to steer clear of the driver’s room in the future.

~~

When she arrived at the door to Central’s Sentries, she Belowitz was standing outside, and the door was closed. Strange, she thought, as she’d only been gone for quarter of an hour or so, and he looked like he was enjoying his company back then.

“Fluttershy,” he said, walking up to her. “By the magi, am I glad to find you!”

“Magi?” she repeated. “What are they? I think I’ve heard that saying before.”

“I’ll tell you later,” he said, looking down the alleyways into the courtyard. “Where did you go? Nopony knew where you went, and I’ve been searching for you.”

Fluttershy liked the sound of that. “Are we going?”

The door to Central’s Sentries burst open, and Fluttershy’s heart sank. Two mares, no, three came bundling out the door; there were two armoured mares she recognised from seeing in the building, and they were dragging a third dressed in a pale blue outfit, her head limply facing the ground. She recognised the uniform from a passing officer near Appleshrine.

She froze instinctively at seeing a beaten up, potentially dying officer.  “What is this? Stop this insanity, and let her go!”

The mares dragging her out didn’t respond, even after she repeated it. In the end, Belowitz spoke up. “I... nopony expected her to be here. This mare’s a Centralite operative, Fluttershy. She was trying to call more operatives. They'll try to arrest or, Tartarus, attack us! We need to find the safehouse, now. Please, follow me.”

Fluttershy stood adamant, staring daggers at him. Vicious groups, they told me. “I thought you were on the good side, Belowitz, what my friends and I fought for! This isn’t the path to harmony... this is beating up lawmares. This is chaos.” The ponies continued to drag the mare out, and descended into an alleyway. “What if she dies? What will you think then?”

Belowitz looked hurried. “This really isn’t the time for this, Fluttershy! The Central's operatives are trained to oppress. We’re the resistance against them, remember? The atrocities they’ve committed are too high to count. Trust me!”

Too high to count? She hadn’t seen a single thing from the government for as long as she had been in Equestria Central. There were no starving ponies on the streets, nor an oppressive power at large. Celestia’s mane, they allowed a resistance group, the Doomers, to own a massive monolith in the middle of the city!

Her mind turned back to the Apples. While they were not as successful as they used to be, they weren’t in direct poverty. In a way, it made sense to her. With all these new buildings, technology, clothes, the market clearer has more things to spend bits on. I bet food is made easier now, and its cost decreased.

More and more of the reality that stood in fact contradicted the rebels in front of her. These are ponies of the underworld, who fight to gain wealth and use wealth to build monoliths, and airships. These are not my friends.

Ruska arrived. She saw the two of them, and hurried over. “What is the issue here? The operative called in, you know. But this is not a problem, as long as we get moving quickly.”

“I'm not going with murderers,” Fluttershy spat.

A voice called out. “Belowitz, get your friend and come the fuck on! We have no time to lose.”

Fluttershy looked around. Now more than ever, she wanted to be back with the Apples. A few more of the armoured ponies were stepping out of the Central’s Sentries. None of them looked like they had been hurt by the Centralite operative, and one of them had a machine mounted on their back, holding a turret like a cannon. The mares were killers, and she made up her mind. “This isn’t the same kind of resistance that my friends and I held. Friendship and Harmony doesn’t kill!”

“Fluttershy, morals or not, we need to get going…”

Fluttershy certainly made up her mind. “I’m leaving. You can have your friends, and kill as many lawmares as you want. I won’t partake in needless slaughter.” She starting walking away.

Ruska's voice boomed. “You are not leaving, Fluttershy! You will be caught.”

Fluttershy huffed at that. “Caught? I’d like to see you try.” She started running.

Fluttershy bolted off in the alleyway closest to her. Shouting and confusion came from behind her, but she kept on galloping. Her own hooves block out most of the sound, but she could hear double. There’s... someone following... me.

She turned a corner and bolted as fast as she could. She may have been a pegasus, but with two hundred years of working on a farm, her legs worked as well as any earth pony. She soon lost her pursuer, and lessened to a slower pace, giving her space to breathe, and think about what she was going to do next. Hopefully the alley turned into the main road, and from there, she might be able to grasp the city’s layout to an extent to find the Appleshrine, and from there, the house she stayed in for the night.

It wouldn’t even be that hard, as she recalled the very thing perched on her shoulder. The hoofbrace had Magitalk, and she could ask where the house was from there.I’ll tell Palsley what happened. Tell him how Belowitz almost betrayed me for a terrorist group.

She slowed to a walk, and soon stopped to check down on her hoofbrace. The interface opened up. It was a bit fuzzy, but still seemed to respond.

The idea that the airship could go ‘out of service’ on the very day she arrived was ridiculous. She arrived at the monolith on the very next day, and the airship was in perfect condition when she was on it. A vague report saying it crashed would not dissuade her.

By the time she got to the Magitalk App, she noticed figures in front of her in the alleyway. She looked up, and they seemed to be wearing similar clothes to the beaten up mare the Sentries had dragged out. More lawmares, she thought. I might be able to tell them what happened, before the criminals escape.

Fluttershy put her hoof down, closing the App. She didn’t know what to call them, so she decided not to. “One of your mares is being beaten down here,” she said. The two at the front of the group of lawmares glanced at each other. The earth mare on the left was short, and had a metal box attached to her hoofbrace, while the unicorn-on-the-right’s hoofbrace was bare. “They’re down the alleyway, turn on your first sharp left, and keep going to the courtyard. There’s another alley behind the house there, I think that’s where they went.”

The mare with the bare hoofbrace spoke back to her colleague. She sounded gruffer than she looked, an everyday lawmare in everything but voice. “D’you think she’s lying?”

Fluttershy didn’t say a word. The mare with the metal box peered at her, then responded. “Hmm, nah. She don’t look like a Sentry to me. You weren’t part of this, were you, unicorn?”

She shook her head. “I watched it, and fled.” It was the truth, even if she withheld some facts.

“Just in case,” the gruff unicorn said, and her horn glowed. Fluttershy could feel a wisp of warmth, a spell, wrap across her own horn. It tightened around her and felt restraining, which she didn’t like one bit. After that, she felt more spells take hold around her legs. Within moments, she couldn’t move an inch.

The gruff mare was sweating by the end of it, her horn’s glow fainting. She growled at her. “Pretty hard to get that spell over you. You’re a strong mare.” She turned back to her comrades. “Pelma, lead the ops forward. Me and Merryhoof’ll join back later.”

Everyone but the gruff unicorn, and the shorter mare with the box moved past her. She couldn’t shy away from them, and it felt strange as they passed by her. “Is this really part of procedure?” Fluttershy asked. Her legs were sending warning signals, tiny pains sprouting across them as she stood.

The mare kept a formal tone. “You may not know, but Sentries are partial to their drug trade. We’ll need to do a full body search of you. Make sure you’re not carrying any contraband, miss. After that, you can go.”

She didn’t like the sound of a full body search. What if they found out who I am? This isn’t some scared mare at her desk… this is law enforcement. The mares approached, and began searching through her pockets. “Hold up. You’re packing something, aren’t you?” The smaller mare, Merryhoof said.

“No,” Fluttershy replied truthfully. “All I’ve got are my clothes.”

“I’m sorry, but… that can’t happen.” She could feel the fabric being pulled, it unraveling quicker than she could think. I’ve got to do something, or else I’ll be exposed. She tried to block it, but her horn was still under pressure by the spell. No… they can’t find out.

Her mind’s thoughts pressed on the horn’s spell. Somehow, through her force of mind, it broke. She could feel the pressure lifted like the end of a painful headache, and she put a glow to her horn. Then she broke one leg’s magical grip, then the other, until she could move everything, while the mares beside her froze.

“Miss, you… she broke the chords. Merry!”

“Show us what’s under the hoodie, miss,” the gruff one said.

“No!” Fluttershy put a glow to her horn, applying what she thinking to reality. The pressure was melting her mind’s fatigue, but the power emerged. A wave of pale pink energy appeared from nothingness, and swept through the air to the lawmares. It was like wind, only stronger; it slid the two on their hooves away from her. The floor was uneven, and Merry tripped, falling down while keeping the box narrowly away from her chest in the collision.

Breathless, she tore off down the courtyard, ignoring the stallion.I’m alone now. I can’t trust him, I can’t trust his friends, I can’t trust his enemies...

She had been galloping for ages, far too long for any normal mare. Pain and fatigue came back to her after the power from the wind-wave and the constant movement. She never slowed, though, sprinting past the battle scene with her raw power.

Fluttershy’s sight was hazy as she stayed focused on the alleyway ahead. She could see the fight in front of her as blue blurry crystals streaked across the courtyard, hitting walls and breaking into a million pieces. Pain was prickling across her, but no-one seemed to notice her but Belowitz, and she had ran far past him.

Another voice called out. “Call reinforcements! We’ve got them, this is it.” It reminded her of Canterlot, when the changelings invaded. No one seemed to have fallen yet, though, and there was no clear winner. All the courtyard was blazed in blue crystals, or magic, and the high whizzes they made when travelling, and the smashes they made when they hit.

Smash, smash, smash… then something hit her hard in the chest, but she kept running. The roar of something seemingly unnatural came from one side of her, but she kept going. I must keep running until it’s all far away, where I’m not a part of it, when I’m safe.