The Difference in Equality

Punching Bag shakes me awake and I slowly open my eyes.

"Huh?" I say weakly.

"Time for training, Nicky," says Punching Bag. He yanks the blanket off of the bed and shakes me once more. That becomes a large annoyance to me and it makes me grunt in frustration. Getting the message, I climb out of the bed with my weak morning legs. The room is pitch black and I can only see the glowing square button on the wall. When he pushes it, the light from the main hallway fills my eyes and I block my eyes with a hoof. This is the village all over again.

"Well? Come on, now." I try to strengthen my legs by pushing myself to walk faster. While following Punching Bag through the door, my eyes finally adjust to the light and I no longer need to close my eyes halfway. "Before we get to training, you need to eat breakfast. It's hardly possible to kick flank on an empty stomach, yeah?" His eyes focus towards me and he smiles. "Trust me, the food here is far better than what the absolute git Starlight gave you." My opinion about this pony changes when he insults Starlight.

To avoid tiring my legs even further, I forcefully flap my wings and follow Punching Bag by flying. It amazes me how much effort they put into building this place. If Starlight's village is a small and poor place, why are they trying so hard? It's not like they are that big of a threat. This rebellion is exceedingly populated and they seem more richer than the village. So why are they struggling? As we approach a door in the hallway, Seven Leaf Clover walks out and squeals when she sees me which makes me cringe.

When we enter the headquarter's cafeteria, I see plates lining up the silver tables and the sound of chattering can be heard throughout the place. The plates are filled with this strange flat food with square-shaped holes in them. It's the same color as the muffins in the village, so I don't trust any of them. I sit down at one of the tables and feel the coldness of the seat pressing against me. I try my best to ignore it and focus my attention on the strange food on my plate.

As if he read my mind, Punching Bag says, "Those aren't muffins, Nicky," And then I remember what Flame Lord told me about the rebellion spying on the village. How much do they know about the village or me? "This is what us non-village folk call waffles." With a lot of hesitation, I grab the waffle with a hoof and slowly move it to my open mouth. I take a bite and... oh my Celestia. This is the best thing that has ever touched my tongue!

By the time Punching Bag and I leave the cafeteria, my stomach is filled with waffles. I think I've gained a waffle addiction while I was in there. Punching Bag presses a button on the wall next to a door and it smoothly slides upwards. In the gray room there are swords, bows, arrow bags, and other weapons hanging on the walls. "We have a surplus of weapons 'cause our numbers were greater back then. Starlight's army always had ways to outplay us. But maybe they have something we don't. That's why we spend lots of time finding out what makes them so powerful." It must be difficult for a large rebellion with plenty of supplies to fight a small village."There used to be over forty of us. But now or numbers lowered to twenty-eight including you." That gives me terrible anxiety and I shiver in fear.

"That many ponies die in here?" I ask.

He nods and says, "It's a terrible war we're fighting," A smile slowly creeps onto his face. "but we're slowly getting stronger every day. Now let's get things back to training, yeah?" He reaches into a small abandoned saddlebag beneath the hanging weapons and reaches his entire hoof in there. He moves his hoof around and the clattering of various objects can be heard. I assume that the saddlebag is enchanted by unicorn magic.

He finally pulls out a white life-sized mannequin out of the saddlebag. He gets on his hind legs to push the mannequin to the middle of the room and goes back to get a longbow by biting on the wooden part. With one hoof, he takes the strap of an arrow bag out of the saddlebag and lets the strap rest on the back of his neck. "Thnkflly, yer a pegashish sho dish shood be eeshee fer you." He releases the longbow from his teeth in front of me and drops the arrow bag as well. "Pegasi are able to get a better grip on weapons, so all you have to do is fly while using the bow."

I haven't seen how ponies use bows, so this should be something new. I didn't see how the mare shot the arrow back at the village when I got busted out. All I got to see was how she died. "I don't know how to hold it," I say pathetically.

"Simple," he says. "Just hover above the ground and let your hind legs face the floor so that you're in the proper position." I simply follow what he said and I look back at him.
I coil my hoof around the longbow and then I begin to fly not too far from the ground and tilt myself so that my hind legs are facing the ground.

"Like this, right?" I ask after a long struggle with the bow.

Punching Bag nods and frowns in impatience and says, "Except you forgot to take an arrow." Blushing, I coil one of my hooves around an arrow and look at him.

"What next?" I ask.

"Put the nock, which is the back of the arrow, in between your teeth," he says.

I simply obey his orders, but the plastic nock of the arrow awkwardly dangles from my mouth. "Now put the string in your mouth along with the nock. Balance the arrow on the string and grip, pull the grip away from your face, let go with your teeth, profit. Try it." I remove the arrow from my mouth and tilt my head to the left, letting the string enter my mouth. I put the nock of the arrow in my mouth and bite down on both of them. When I notice the arrow is slightly dangling, I shift my teeth so that the arrow is straight. This might be simple.

Balancing the arrow isn't much of a challenge. The arrow is facing forward on both the string and bow. I completely forget about my target and fix my aim onto the mannequin's chest. Pulling the grip of the bow away from my face, I squint and focus my eyes on both the triangular and sharp tip of the arrow and the mannequin that is littered with cuts from previous arrows. This is it. The moment when I learn how to defend myself against the guards in Starlight's village.

Pretending that the mannequin is a village guard makes me even more confident to unleash the arrow upon it. With determination in my heart, I let go of the string and arrow. Take that, you scumbag! The arrow lamely flops from side to side in mid-air and softly lands on the floor nowhere near the mannequin. Punching Bag rests his hoof on his face in frustration and sighs. "That was quite a start. Tons of progress."

After training archery for what felt like an hour, I exit the training room with an aching left front hoof. During my hour of training, I barely got the mannequin on its neck and on its neck a few times, but the tip of the arrow only tapped on the mannequin. The only time the arrow sunk into the mannequin was when I hit in its flank. The problem was that it wasn't fully submerged like the rest of the cuts. "Where'd you get those mannequins?" I ask as Punching Bag and I exit the training room.

Punching Bag laughs and says, "Funny story," He smiles while keeping his head forward. "I got them from Ponyville. A place called Carousel Boutique. The white mare there was screaming on the top of her lungs when she found out I was intruding." He laughs. "Good times."

Flame Lord is having a conversation with a group of six ponies who are crowded up in front of him. I only recognize Smoke Clouds and Paladin in the group of ponies. As I approach them, Flame Lord looks at me and the ponies look at my direction at me as well. "He's Nick," He says. "The newest member of the rebellion!" A mare with white, short, and spiky hair along with a brown coat chuckles.

"When I was thinking that when you guys were risking your necks to get a pony from a village, I was thinking they'd focus on someone a tad bit older," She says.

"Are you kidding?" Flame Lord says. "We set our priorities just right. Nick is the only pony who shows signs of difference in the village. Something the children in the village would never dare to do!"

The mare just smirks and says, "So?" She looks at me. "Some of the rather unwise ponies aren't hesitant to show 'signs of difference'."
Flame Lord scowls and says, "And that's telling us something," His eyes widen and he breaks into a theory. "There's something going on with the offspring of the parents in the village. The parents can act different at their own will, but the kids seem like they can't. But Nick broke that pattern. But how?" The mare shakes her head.

"Yeah, I don't think you're thinking straight," She says.

"Tinks, this colt can save this generation," Says Flame Lord.

Being reluctant about interrupting the argument, I finally decide to speak. "Flame Lord?" Flame Lord looks at me with a calmer expression.

A green stallion with black dreadlocks frowns and says, "Aye, I think this lad wants us to save 'is parents. D'you think we should break it to 'im?" he says. He has a similar accent to Seven Leaf Clover.

"I don't think he can handle it," Says Flame Lord. Suspense sparks up inside of my head. What can't I handle? Flame Lord sighs. "I'm sorry, Nick. It'll be nearly impossible to get your parents. Their defenses are too strong for us to withstand. I really am sorry." Sadness and desperateness tingles in my chest.

No. That can't be right. "You're lying," I say. "I've been there my entire life and I can assure you that there are no more than just a few ponies walking around weakly armed. You can save my parents if you weren't so damn lazy!" Flame Lord takes away his convivial mood and becomes furious.

"If you don't believe me, then I'll just show you," He says. "Just wait here." Flame Lord goes to the training room and the group of ponies he was talking to follows him.

"What was that all about?" Says Punching Bag.

"It got a little out of control," I say. "I was a little too desperate to get my parents back that I took it out on Flame Lord." Punching Bag shakes his head.

"You've ticked off the Soldiers," He says. "You called 'em lazy, so now they're going to do something stupid to prove you wrong." This unfamiliar label drops curiosity into me.

"Soldiers?" I say.

"The folks who leave the headquarters to get supplies, spy on the village, or raid it," He says. "They're not people you want to mess with, Nick."

Punching Bag tells me the duties of Soldiers and talks about the Soldiers I don't know.

"The purple mare with frantically moving eyes is Mad-Eye Julie," He says. "The one with white-ish hair is Dual-Ended Dagger. The green pony with the black hair is Lucky Trots. Seven Leaf's grandson." My curiosity ensues.

"How did everypony find the rebellion?" I ask.

"There's two ways," He says. "The Soldiers did recruiting missions 'round Canterlot and chose the guards that looked rebellious. Starlight invites ponies into her village when ponies run into her. We chose the ponies who declined the request into the rebellion, and it was successful."

The soldiers emerge from the training room with weapons in their mouths, their unicorn magic, or empty hoofed with saddlebags. The first pony I recognize from Punching Bag's descriptions is Fast-Eye Julie. The pegasus's eyes are frantically moving around in her sockets as if she's paying close attention to a fly, but they are moving quickly. She has a dark purple coat and a short dark purple mane with thick black streaks. Her cutie mark is a pair of widened eyes.

A pony with a pink coat and a silver colored mane I recognize as Dual-Ended Dagger smirks and says, "I'm assuming you're our most recent celebrity, huh?" She scoffs. "The one and only different Nick." I scowl and keep my mouth shut. Fast-Eye remains silent and straight faced. "Flame, why do you want this child to come with us to do this? He's too young." Double-Ended Dagger looks at Flame Lord with a concerned expression on her face.

"He's not seeing the truth," Says Flame Lord. "so we are going to bring the truth to him."

The Soldiers and I are moving up the poorly lit staircase. The staircase is oddly eerie and it could make anyone not want to enter or exit. By the time we are out, heavy rain is slamming into the ground, soaking us and our saddlebags. My sight of the far distance is obscured by the thick rain clouds. We walk along the same path I came to the headquarters from and I have a good feeling that if the village isn't as heavily guarded as Flame Lord claimed, we can save my parents.

As we walk along the path of the damp sand, Fast-Eye Julie's eyes focuses in one direction and twitches in place. She slows down and eventually stops. The rest of the group stops along with her and look at her in a worried expression. "Is there somethin' wrong, lad?" Confronts Lucky Trots.

"I knew my mother was right," Says Fast-Eye Julie. "I had a feeling that was constantly poking at my head that maybe they did exist. Little old Fast-Eye isn't crazy after all." I think she has gone mad. By the look of it, nopony here knows what she is talking about. Flame Lord steps closer to her.

"Is everything alright?" He asks. The fact that she doesn't answer gives off an ominous tone.

"Hold on, what exists?" I say. In the middle of Fast-Eye's hesitation to respond to anyone, Paladin frowns and says, "I wouldn't be surprised if it was a-" Paladin's sentence was cut off by Punching Bag's shout.

"TIMBERWOLF!" Yells Punching Bag as he runs the opposite direction of which we came.

Flame Lord's eyes widen and his jaw drops when I turn my attention to him. The earth beneath us shakes as a nearby sound of loud thudding can be heard. I stand back behind the Soldiers in terror of what I have seen. A silhouette of a ginormous wolf's head emerges from the fog in the distance. The creature's glowing green eyes shine through the fog as if they were giant light bulbs. The sound of the loud thudding gets faster and closer. I can't move. I'm a sitting duck frozen in fear.

The head of the wolf is completely made out of wood and it looks perfectly carved as if it was pony-made. Its ears are giant trees growing out of its head and its eyebrows above its eyes are thousands of leaves that look like they were ripped off from a tree. The timberwolf's teeth in its giant mouth are made out of huge pieces of wood that looks like it has the potential to cut diamond. The body and legs are completely made out of naked trees and the timberwolf has big trees growing out of its back. And that thing is running towards us now.

The Soldiers snap out of their awe and get into fighting stances. Paladin flies in the air and pulls out a long spear from his small saddlebag. This doesn't surprise me because I know what unicorn magic is capable of. With a grunt, he throws the spear into the timberwolf's mouth and it hits its tongue. The spear did not did the tiniest bit of damage to its tongue as it fell back into its mouth. That makes it come to a full halt. The timberwolf closes its mouth and opens it again to spit out the spear which travels at an alarming speed through the air and submerges itself to the sand just inches in front of Paladin.

A loud roar erupts out of the creature's mouth and it makes out hair fly backwards in the wind. Flame Lord gets into a fighting stance and the same white ring that appeared on Flame Lord's horn when we escaped the village can be seen once again on his horn. The sound of wind can be heard and it intensifies as the ring gets smaller as it gets closer to the tip of his horn. Once the ring reaches the top, it shoots out of his horn and hits the timberwolf in its right front leg, causing pieces of wood to fly off due to the explosion that occurred.

The pieces of wood that flew off of the wolf flew up into the air and restored itself onto its leg like magic.

"Don't just stand there!" Yells Flame Lord. The Soldiers snapped out of their amazement and fought the colossal creature with ranged weapons like bows and spears. I stand behind them and notice that they are keeping the wooden creature distracted. The village is right behind him, and inside of the village are my parents. This gives me an idea. If the Soldiers aren't going to save my parents, then I will.

I keep my distance from the gigantic wooden wolf as I quickly run around it. The Soldiers were too occupied in their battle to even notice. I run as fast as my legs would allow. The timberwolf has yet to notice me as I quickly make my run around it. I get far enough behind of the wooden monstrosity and along the path to make out the village uncover itself within the thick fog. With not only rain, but determination slamming onto my chest, I run even though my lungs are telling me to stop. Even though my tongue is dry I run. Even though my hooves are getting dirty on the damp sand I run. Even if I get-

Thud. I instantly trip over and fall over due to the large impact that my right hind leg has taken. The pain sears through my leg as if sliced open. A liquid seeps down my leg uncontrollably. My vision is fading. I weakly look behind me to see the damage. A large, thick, and sharp chunk of wood has hit me on my leg. Flame Lord swears loudly and tries to run around the timberwolf but is stopped when the timberwolf takes a swipe at him. It's getting dark. Maybe I should go to sleep.

"Wake up, Nick," Is the very first thing that I hear when I regain consciousness. The voice sounds feminine and soft, but despite the voice, I keep my eyes closed. There is nothing but silence ringing in my ears after the voice. The voice spoke over a heart monitor that was not beeping, but playing out its long tone that signifies death. Curious to find out what the source of the noise is, I slowly and weakly open my eyes. Sitting upright was less of a pain than moving my leg.

The pain activated itself once again when I sat upright. I remove the sheet to see a large bandage wrapped around my leg. Blood has soaked up a large area of the cloth and anxiety fires up inside of me. I look to my left and gasp at what I see. My mom is standing right next to my bed, smiling. Ignoring the pain that erupts in my leg, I get off of the bed and get off of my hind legs to hug my mother.

All I can do is sob into her chest. "M-mom, I want to go home," I say through the tears. "I don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna leave." They did it. The Soldiers defeated the timberwolf and saved my parents. She holds me tightly in the hug and we enjoy each other's warm embrace for what feels like two minutes. Despite the exciting reunion, I feel like there is something missing.

Suddenly, I break the hug. "Where's dad?" I ask. This is not complete without him. Life won't feel right without my father.

"H-he's..." She stutters. Her voice trailed off as she looked at the floor in depression. "T-timberwolf got him." After saying that, she slowly begins to sob more intensively than she has when she saw me getting sent to the village prison. Right when the shock hits my chest, I fall backwards into the bed as if the mattress disappeared.

The wind rushes against my back when I fall through the floor into the deep dark hole below. The cover of the bed wraps around me like I'm a mummy and I am blinded by it. I am struggling to get out and fly out of here, but despite by large effort, the sheet that wrapped around me had a strong grip on me like a snake that has spiraled around its victim. I cannot breathe because my muzzle is blocked by the sheet. I twist and twirl in the air in hopes that I will be released, but it is all in vain.

This is how I end. Wrapped in a bed sheet falling in a deep abyss that appeared beneath my bed. The falling abruptly comes to a stop, though I feel no pain. It is as if I have come to a landing and something has broken the fall. I still struggle to get released from the sheet, for it is still suffocating me. I let out a shout which is muffled and I repeatedly twist my body left and right. I am not going to die by falling. I am going to get suffocated to death. I hear a large timberwolf-like step and once I hear it, the blanket unwraps itself and I take in a large gasp of air.

The bed sheet slides away from my back and flies back up into the hole that I fell from. I get to my hooves and look at the giant hole above. There are many cracks in the hole and earth covers the walls of the hole. The light from the hole above leaves a circle of light above me, but the light isn't very plentiful. The rest is darkness. The steps become louder and faster as it comes closer. I get to my hooves and back away from the source of the sound. Now the real threat is coming.

The circle of light expands larger which tells me that the same timberwolf might reveal itself in the light that is now brighter than before. But no, someone else comes. My father is on his back, shuffling his hind hooves and scooting backwards to get into the light. He is looking at the darkness and he is sweating from head to hoof. The anxious expression on my dad tells me that now is not the time to be excited to see my dad. Instead, I should be very scared.

Full Canvas is backing away from something. He's backing away from the sound of the steps that are picking up and pace and getting closer and closer. He's still on his back, so I run to him and coil my hoof around his.

"Dad?" I say silently. No responses come out of his mouth. Just the rapid breathing. Not long after I grab his hoof, the timberwolf emerges into the light and gives a deafening roar. My dad gets a tighter grip on my hoof as he stands up.

As the timberwolf quickly lowers its head, my dad turns to look at me, gets on his hind legs, and pushes me out of the way before the wolf's mouth comes down on him and slams shut. The sound of it closing its mouth echoes through the place as I stand there wide-eyed. Just like that, he's gone.

I sat up on my bed so abruptly that my blanket fell off of the bed. The blood curdling yell I gave made a mare jump and drop a silver tray of medical instruments. When she dropped the tray, she gave a short yelp. After that, she shot an angered expression to me that made me think she was going to scold me for yelling. She grunts. "Well, at least you're awake," She says.

"Erm, sorry," I say awkwardly.

"You were out for a day, Nick," She says as if she thought that my day-long dream were to give me amnesia. As I calmed, so did the heart monitor beside me. My leg is bandaged like it was in the dream. I'm half disappointed and half glad because it felt as if I actually reunited with my mother, but it also felt that my father was eaten alive. Maybe he was eaten in real life. When the Soldiers were fighting the wolf, my father could have saw me and came in.

How do my parents feel about my absence? Obviously they are worried sick. But what are they doing about it? Doing everything they can to get out of the village? I tuck myself in bed, still shivering in fear because of the dream. Beads of sweat have dropped from my forehead. Eventually I'm going to save my parents. Timberwolf or no timberwolf, I will find a way.

The wound on my hind leg has hindered my walking ability so that I have to fly most of the time to get to places. In the cafeteria, Punching Bag has introduced me to another flat food labeled as "toast" and a thick, yellow, and soft food called "scrambled eggs". Punching Bag told me that it goes good with this concoction called "butter", a rather sour tasting spread that takes the shape of a cube. You have to cut it with a knife and spread the butter across the toast. I never knew toast was such a complicated dish.

I'm grateful that Punching Bag is teaching me about objects I find unrecognizable. You don't get to see many things when you live in Starlight's village. Every time I see something new, I accidentally do something stupid. Once I saw a block of soap and assumed it was food because it smelled good. When I took a bite, however, I was coughing and spitting it out. My mother informed me that soap isn't meant to be eaten, but to be used for cleaning. That would explain the hair I found on it.

When I exit the cafeteria, Flame Lord approaches me. "Oh, you're awake," He says. "How's your leg?" I frown and avoid eye contact, feeling a sense of hatred towards him. How is he not dead?

"Fine," I say angrily. "Nick, I know you're upset with me," He begins. "but I came to you to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken you to the path if I knew something bad was going to happen. I wasn't acting myself ever since you arrived here. I promise you there's a reason. It has to do with your parents."

I then look at him in the eyes, removing the frown from my face and instead assuming a straight face. "When I was little, my dad was a drunk. He was obsessed with going to the bar in Ponyville late at night. He was stressed that mom died of cancer, and drinking took his mind off of it. He was angry almost all the time. Even if he wasn't drunk in our house." He looks at the floor and frowns.

What does this have to do with my parents? "At the bar, he met someone who claimed that he could do therapy and such with him. It costed him some bits, however. He would come over to our house sometimes. He was a funny looking stallion. He had tattoos and piercings on him that intimidated me badly." He shivers in fear at the thought. "Crimson Clouds was the name, I think. He's related to Smoke Clouds. Anyways, one day he offered my dad some funny looking apple cider. Being the alcoholic he was, he accepted. And then..." His voice trailed off.

It looked like he was trying hard to fight off tears. I could see his eyes watering. "He fell asleep. I tried to push him awake, but he didn't wake up. He was still breathing, but not conscious. I felt something hard hit my head and I was knocked out as well. When I woke up, my dad was gone. I was determined to find him after that, which reminds me of you. You're determined to find your parents like I was determined to find your dad." He slightly raised his voice, but it seemed unintentional.

"I sneaked inside of Crimson's house and went to his basement. And there was Crimson Clouds. Burying a full body bag. I ran out and found home at my grandmother's house. I sobbed in the guest room for near an hour. I just wanted my dad back." I feel really bad for Flame Lord. Seeing something like that must have traumatized him from then to today. "Just like you, I was hopeful that I would find him. I felt it strong in my stomach that he was out there waiting for me. I was left disappointed and traumatized. That's why I'm trying to prevent your hopes from being too high. I don't want you to end up like me.

He gave me a short smile. "You're a good kid, Nick. I just... Don't want you to feel like you should take the same path I did." I nod sympathetically, now with more respect for Flame Lord. He did try to save my life after all.

"I understand," I say. And I meant it.