Chapter One: Leaving Behind Love
Cuero
I walked through my small town of Starlight, thinking about the day ahead of me. The town had such a beautiful name for such a dump. The houses were overcrowded, filled with families with as many as 8 children to a home. The air was filled with smoke from the factories we were all forced to work at, making thread, weaving cloth, and sewing clothes. I worked at one of those factories. Stuck inside all day, breathing in the fumes of poorly washed ponies, passing the shuttle back and forth to weave cloth. We worked all hours of the day, and sometimes into the night, staggering home on sore hooves, and collapsing onto the bed, only to force ourselves out from between the sheets just hours later. It was miserable. My only solace was a small pony named Chispa. We had been friends since we were just little foals. Before we had to slave away in factories, we would chase each other down the earthen street, laughing like none of our reality ever existed. Chispa doesn’t work in the factory with me. She could never get to close to it before she started coughing and couldn’t breathe. She is now a slave to the owner of the factory, Giovanni Solorio, washing his sheets and cleaning his grand house all day.
Lost in my thoughts, I accidentally run into somepony.
“Hey, watch where you’re goin- Oh, Cuero, it’s you! I’m so sorry! I though you were somepony else!” He stuttered once he realized who he was shouting at.
I guess I’m known as the bad-boy around town. True, wearing leather jackets and slicking your hair back does give off a bad vibe. It’s what’s kept me sane all these years of laboring in factories. The only pony who was feared and respected more than me was none other than Solorio.
“Whatever.” I muttered and walked off, heading towards the factory.
The next day, the bell in the town square rang, calling all of the ponies out of bed to the square. I rolled out of bed, quickly running a comb through my hair and pushing it back. I grabbed my leather jacket and trotted out the door. I might be the bad boy in town, but if anyone is late to these meetings, it wouldn’t matter how bad they were. I arrived as the last peal of the bell rang out, echoing throughout the town.
“Fillies and gentlecoats!” The mayor called out. “War has broken out between the Starlights and the Mesopotamians!”
The Mesopotamians were our enemies. They had fought us for this land before we claimed it, declaring that they owned it, when they really hadn’t. They had steadily been attacking the towns outside of Starlight, but now they directly announced war. This, obviously, meant war.
“Do not be alarmed!” The mayor attempted to calm the increasingly rowdy crowd, but to no avail, until somepony in the crowd shouted “QUIET!!!” Once the ponies calmed down, the pony began to speak. “I have a plan.” He announced. The whole town turned to him in expectation. “We run.” he said simply.
The town ponies were starting to talk amongst themselves about this plan, finding it better then waging war against the Mesopatamians, with their thousands of soldiers and weapons against our small number of ponies.
Chispa sidled up to me, pressing her head against my shoulder worriedly. “I don’t like this plan.” She whispered to me. “Just pack up and leave our houses? Our businesses? The city we fought to keep?”
I bend my head and nuzzle her her mane comfortingly. “I’m sure we’ll come back as soon as this is over. At least we’re getting out of this dump.” I reassure her, trying to find a good reason to leave.
“Come back and find it in ruins you mean.” Chispa points out. “The Mesopatamians won’t go easy on us. They’ll be expecting a village full of defenseless ponies, and when they find it empty, they’ll take that anger out on the village. There’ll be nothing left to come back to.”
“Then we don’t come back. We won’t be slaves anymore. You won’t have to take care of Solorio, and I won’t have to work in that factory.” I offer.
“But what about everyone else? Where will they go? The children? Or the old ponies? All they know is this village. All we know is this village.” She counters.
“They can find someplace else. There thousands of places better than this. And just because this dump is all we know, doesn’t mean it’s all we have to know.” I respond. All around us, the townspeople are trotting back to their homes to pack as quickly as they can and evacuate.
Her eyes filled with worry and brimming with tears, Chispa lowers her head. “I knew you would choose this.” She said sorrowfully.
“I’m sorry.” I say before turning away and walking to my house to pack.
()()()()()()()()
I was leaving without Chispa. I would never see her again. The thought of it struck me as I pulled my bag out of the house, ready to flee to another life. I would never hear her joyful laugh again, or listen to her release her pent up feeling about working for Solorio. I would never see her light green coat or smooth, flowing hair. This was the last time I would look her in the eye and say “Don’t worry.”
As I was about to walk out the door, I ran inside the hut and grabbed the picture of Chispa on my nightstand. I might be leaving her here, but I was not leaving her completely. I also quickly scrawled a note and left it on the table. ‘I’ll write you once I settle. Goodbye.’ It said. She would undoubtedly come to my hut while I was gone. I turned away, walked out the door, and never looked back. My journey was just beginning. I would be free of this place, free of the factory, and all of the sorrows that came with it.
()()()()()()()()
Author's Note
This might be my favorite story left. While I was writing it, I kept thinking it was like Grease and Romeo and Juliet. Bad guy falls for Good girl and just when it seems to be working out, something goes horribly wrong. As always, tell what I did wrong. (I know there's something wrong in there, I just have to find it.) Don't be afraid to point out mistakes! 
As I trot down the dusty road from town, I have a strange sense of freedom, as well as a sense of dread in leaving Chispa behind. I felt that, if I left her for too long, something would happen. I worried what would happen when the Mesopatamians invaded, and whether or not they would let her live. One part of my mind said that I might see her again if she lived, but in the heartbreaking conditions I had read about. The other part argued that if their prisoner camps were that terrible, she would be better off dead. Both thoughts broke my heart.
I met up with a group of colts I vaguely knew from the factory, and we trotted in silence away from the doomed Starlight. I still had a bad premonition about what I was leaving behind, and tried to bury it in the back of my mind, and chatted a little with the stallions around me. We walked for hours, then stopped for the night. I laid in my tent on top of my sleeping bag, staring at the shadows crossing the tent and recalling Chispa’s high, clear laugh as she threw back her head and reared up on her hind legs, making me ache for her even more than I had before.
In the morning, we were off again, the unicorns packing everything up, the earth ponies throwing everything into a wagon, and the pegasi scouting ahead to make sure we wouldn’t run into anything. When the pegasi came back with the ‘all clear’ we started off, walking all day, stopping at night, continuing in the morning. This went on for several days until the pegasi scouts reported that they had found the perfect land. They said it had a big forest full of animals, a small stream nearby, and the soil was perfect for planting and gardening. This made the mayor very excited.
“Yes!” he shouted, so excited he almost did a little dance. “Move out!” he said, pointing in the direction that the pegasi had just arrived from. “Onward!”
I walked with the stallions and listened as they talked excitedly about the new land. I had walked with them enough that I knew their names, but didn’t feel like joining in the conversation. I was thrilled about the promise of a new home, away from the dingy Starlight I had left behind, but I still hadn’t gotten the idea of never seeing Chispa again through my head. Whenever I saw anything the same color as her pale, spring green coat, her sky blue mane, or her deep purple cutie mark, I had to fight the desire to run all the way back to Starlight, sweep her into my arms, and never let go of her. I was awakened from that daydream by the mayor, announcing that we had arrived.
We stood next to the edge of a deep, dark, forrest, and I could hear a stream of water flowing to the south somewhere close by. I stood with the whole village, staring out into the great beyond of the land, until we heard a little pony shout,
“This dirt is the dirtiest dirt in the whole dirt world!”
Which made everypony giggle, even me. The mayor had the pegasi and the unicorns work together to survey the land, and make sure there was enough room for each family to have a house and a garden. It seemed everything around her made me think of Chispa. She used to tend Solorio’s garden, as well as her own. Whenever she told me she couldn’t take care of it that day, I would take over for her, tenderly watering the flowers, turning the soil to get ready for spring, and tugging all of the weeds that were choking the plants. I turned away from the crowd, and happened to look towards the forest. I saw a pair of yellow eyes staring out from beyond. As I was turning to point them out to the mayor, they blinked out and were gone. Visions of mobs flashed through my head, carrying pitchforks and hunting down the beast with yellow eyes.
The whole village spent the next month building houses. The village elders kept commenting on how Starlight was built in half the time, with less promise of a better future. We had all planned on bigger, grander houses, to bury the memory of the overflowing cabins of our past. I kept the design of my new house clear in my mind, imagining it with a high roof, a wrap around porch, and a garden that took up most of the backyard, surrounded by a low wall. The land I claimed lay by the edge of the forest, no more than a few yards from it’s perimeter. The garden would be so big, the only room to walk around in it would be paths connecting different sections of the garden. It took months to build my dream house, even with the unicorns helping it along. Once the porch was finished, I would spend hours sitting on it with Chispa’s picture in my hoof, staring at her, memorizing every hair in her mane.
()()()()()()()()
Dear Chispa,
We have found the perfect land: filled with forest, a stream, and fertile land perfect for planting. I finished building my house. We traveled northwest for three days, then turned at the left at the mountains, and walked for two more days. We immediately settled down and started building our new homes. My house is so big, each room is almost the size of my whole hut! My garden is twice as big as yours in Starlight. You would love it. Planting it has taken just as long as building the house. Every night, I sit on the porch and think about you. Are you sure you want to stay in Starlight? It might be less crowded now that everyone else has left, but the Mesopatamians will surely come. At least visit our new town. I miss you desperately.
Cuero Chaqueta.
You’re Leather Jacket.
()()()()()()()()
I finished writing the letter, sealed it with the wax of the candle next to me, and gave it to one of the former scout ponies with specific instructions.
“Do not let this out of your sight. Go straight back to Starlight, and deliver this letter to Chispa. You know who she is. If you don’t make it back in, say, two and a half weeks, I will send another scout after you.” I informed him as he trotted off in the direction of our last town. Knowing my attitude, the scout would hurry along as fast as he could.
I waited as patiently as I could for two weeks days. On the sixth day, I paced on the porch, to impatient sit still. The scout came barreling down the road, out of breath and heading straight towards me.
“Sir! Cuero!” He bellowed, “News from Starlight!”
He slowed as he approached me.
“Well?” I questioned, slowly raising my eyebrow.
His face fell when I asked that, and he sobered.
“I arrived in a little less than a week.” He began, “The town was ransacked. The gardens torn up, doors thrown open, and the drawers looked as though they had been searched. And I’m sorry to report, but the only sign of Chispa was a half finished letter.”
My eyes teared up, not believing what was happening.
“Sh- she’s gone?” I stuttered
“I’m afraid so.” The scout replied. “There was no trace of her. But here’s the letter she was writing.” He said, handing me the piece of paper.
I took it with my shaky hand. Her writing was wobbly, as if she had written it hurriedly. It read:
Cuero,
I don’t have much time to write this. You were right. The Mesopatamians invaded. I don’t know whether they will let me live or not. I wish I could have seen you one last time. I know you feel the same. We might not see each other ever again. I just want to say, I love y-
The rest of the word trailed off, like she had been abruptly interrupted. So it was true.
Chispa was gone.
Author's Note
Finally! I feel so terrible for making you wait almost a week for this next chapter! Here it is. I hope you like it. You know the deal: Tell me what I did wrong with it. If this chapter gets up to 20 views, I'll build a Minecraft version of Cuero's house. I might even do Starlight on Minecraft. Then again, even if it doesn't hit 20 views, I'll probably build everything.
Sabrina Roth 
