Siktral's Life in the Dark

Chapters

1. Dark Beginnings
2. Blind Meetings
3. Names and Voices
4. Captured Pain

1. Dark Beginnings

My friend Tray and I were having a good time talking in the lobby of a hotel that day. He was getting into another one of his rants about My Little Pony while I just nodded and made noises of agreement at the appropriate times. He was a big fan of the show, and while I didn’t care for it myself, I wasn’t one to look down on him for it.

After all, the show did have some good moral values from what he told me. I just didn’t care for cartoons. I had my own obsession: flying. Well, not really flying, but any way I could get in the air and feel it was an avenue I pursued. I had skydived multiple times for the thrill. The unbridled joy of swooping through the sky was amazing.

Now I was trying something new. I was going to base jump with a squirrel suit. I had taken all the classes and even done some test jumps from relatively low elevations. This time I had found myself a real mountain to have fun with. There would be an obstacle course of sorts that we had found out about.

I was going for a dangerous route right from the start. There wasn’t much sanity in it, but gliding swiftly no more than a few meters off the ground was my idea of fun. Tray and I had been able to justify our trip to come to South America through a study abroad program, but this was my reason for it.

When he started talking about the flying characters I smiled thoughtfully. If there was one thing I liked besides the principles behind his favorite show, it was the thought of wings. This squirrel suit idea was one of the best I had ever encountered. It was probably the closest I would ever get to real flying.

Glancing at my watch I cut him off. “Tray, we need to get going. Our time slot for the jump is coming, and I don’t want to miss this. Especially after we forked over so much money for it.” I was referring to the obstacle course. It was really just a bunch of balloons in strategic points to fly close to, but the difficulty of placing them was the reason for the expense.

He chuckled, “Yeah man, I know. Don’t worry. We’ll be there in ten seconds flat. Relatively speaking” He snickered at his joke. I had to sigh at the obvious reference. While I usually didn’t pay attention to the plot lines, I had definitely picked up on the memes that he spouted so frequently.

As we walked towards the front doors ribbing each other in a good natured fashion, we were stopped by a luggage rack rushing in front of us, an employee of the hotel chasing after it. I wondered how it had picked up such speed when I noticed that there was now someone in front of us. Creepy. It was like he had popped out of the floor while the cart was in front of us.

Shrugging to each other we continued on, but he grabbed my right shoulder rather forcefully. I was taken aback as he stared into my face and began speaking in a rough voice. “I heard you and your friend talking over there. What would you say to going to Equestria?”

I stared back at the man and took in his features a bit more. He looked haggard. Like he had just broken out of prison a week ago and hadn’t shaved since. The stubble growing from his face gave it a very unpleasant look. He wasn’t dressed too good either. He was wearing what looked like a really old hunting outfit that hadn’t been washed in days, maybe longer. It didn’t fit him very well and was quite baggy. The jacket was open, showing he had a dirty green shirt on underneath.

I pushed my glasses up my nose a bit before answering. Oh, right. I was wearing glasses because I have an interesting problem with my eyesight. Rather than being nearsighted or farsighted like most people with glasses, I had a condition called amblyopia, also known as lazy eye. My right eye was practically worthless without a lens over it. So I literally had no depth perception. To top it off, my left eye had better than perfect vision. Imagine being able to read a fine print book from across the room (or from a normal distance too) with one eye but having to hold it an inch from your face to barely make out the letters with the other. It was really annoying.

However, I had lived my whole life with it, so I didn’t really know what it felt like to have depth perception. I made do and gauged how far away things were by their relative size to the stuff surrounding them. It also made my gliding idea for later that day significantly more dangerous. Small annoyances were not really a concern to me though. I had a great life.

This weirdo was asking something completely ridiculous. Tray had already gone through the door, not realizing I was still standing there. “Look man, I don’t care about that show. My buddy loves it, but I’m more into flying. That’s my passion.”

I tried to brush his hand off, but he tightened his grip on me significantly. Smiling toothily, he spoke again, “Flying, you say? What if going to Equestria meant you would get wings?” His face was uncomfortably close to mine, and I could smell his breath. It was bad, like sulfur water. And his teeth were crooked and yellow. This guy really needed an orthodontist, or maybe just to replace those teeth with dentures.

“Heh, I’d almost give my left eye for wings. Almost.” Answering his question didn’t seem like it would hurt. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some gliding to do.” I wrenched my shoulder out of his grip and sprinted out the door, where Tray was just turning around having realized I wasn’t there. That weird guy had seriously creeped me out, and I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

As we left, I could have sworn I heard the door open and a voice mutter, “I can work with that.”

Eventually we were finally at the starting point for the jump and I was suited up. We had only just made it due to the local taxi driver being completely unintelligible and taking us the wrong way. We had been able to hitch a ride with a chicken farmer (who thankfully spoke understandable, if broken, English) in his noisy pickup truck. That was really annoying, but not much else.

As I grinned wildly and scanned the landscape around me Tray was reading through the rules for the course out loud again. I was supposed to stay as close to the red balloons as possible while completely avoiding the blue ones. This was going to be fun.

When he finished reading, he put the pamphlet away and slapped me on the back. “Have fun buddy. I’ll be watching from here to make sure you don’t hurt yourself. You don’t want to try your luck too much.”

He and I laughed at our little joke. Truth be told, I had extremely good luck. I had never lost a game of chance and always made it out of danger unscathed. I had crashed once while skydiving because my parachute had ripped in half, but I landed in a very large bale of hay instead of splattering all over the ground. I suspected that if I played the lottery I would win on my first try.

Turing to face him still laughing I said, “You know me Tray. I don’t gamble unless the odds are in my favor.” He chuckled a bit more, and I straightened my flight goggles. I had those on because glasses aren’t very practical when you’re angle is such that they’ll easily fall off your head.

“I’ll see you at the bottom.” He said. I finished adjusting my flight goggles. With that I took a running leap off the cliff, not knowing that would be the last I would see of my best friend and almost the last I would see of my perfect little world.

As soon as I had achieved a proper gliding position, I sang one of my favorite pieces of music: I Believe I Can Fly. I really just knew the chorus though. I had trouble remembering the rest of the song.

After singing it a few times I noticed that the sky was getting considerably darker. Risking a loss in lift, I did a quick turn over. It wasn’t quite the barrel roll I had hoped for, but I caught a glance of the dark clouds that were now rumbling over me.

Huh. I thought to myself. There wasn’t anything about cloudy skies in the forecast this morning. I continued soaring through the sky, but I was doing something horribly wrong without realizing it. I was getting distracted. The clouds were rather thick, and it started to bother me, especially when I heard one of them thunder menacingly overhead.

I was starting to have trouble focusing on the course. In fact, the clouds actually seemed to be blocking out most of the sky above me. Even though it was midday, I was actually starting to have trouble seeing. The colors underneath me were getting rather dim. If this kept up I could crash in a very unpleasant manner.

I didn’t realize that I had completely gone off the course by this point. I was merely following what looked like balloon shapes. Grumbling, I figured I would have to pull my parachute early and activate my emergency distress beacon. They’d probably find me pretty fast, but I hated to end my fun early. I decided to wait just a little bit longer.

Suddenly there was a flash of light in front of me. A lightning bolt struck ground, and I was unfortunately going at just the right speed to hit it. The only thing I became aware of right then was pain.

Most people figure that when you die, all your pain goes away. You see a bright light and some family member who has already passed on is there to show you the way. While my experience was missing a couple of those things, my first cognizant thought was the assumption that I had died.

Groaning, I opened my eyes. They hurt quite a bit, and I couldn’t see anything. Everything was dark. I rubbed my face with my hands as best I could. They didn’t feel quite right either. I tried looking around, but there was still nothing to be seen.

“Am I in limbo?” I asked out loud. It was one of the ideas I had heard of. Darkness with nowhere to go. It couldn’t be Heaven since I could tell I was lying on my stomach on what seemed to be a cold hard floor. Definitely it wasn’t Hell due to the lack of fire and brimstone.

I figured poking around couldn’t hurt things. I got ready to stand up, but everything seemed off all of a sudden. My limbs weren’t the right size. I started feeling my arms first to see what was wrong. They felt…rough. Like someone had taken sheets of sandpaper and layered it over my arms like paper-mache. That was certainly different.

As I continued feeling down the length of my left arm, my hands reached each other. The roughness continued, but my fingers felt enlarged. They were slightly thicker and a fair amount longer. My fingernails felt quite sharp as well. They almost felt like claws.

I decided to try moving the other extremities of my body and found a few more muscle contractions than I should have. Besides my arms and legs I appeared to have a much longer spine now as well as something sticking out of my back. I could feel the muscles moving around slightly as I shifted.

At this point I was very confused. I exerted control over my elongated spine and felt it swipe to the left. I shivered at the strange new feeling. I could feel the floor behind me with it. The sensation was like that of a phantom limb almost. Only, this was real.

It was returning its findings to my brain. It looked like the surface I was on was fairly smooth. Also it seemed that this limb was fairly long. I could only really describe it as a tail. That was bizarre. Since when do dead people get tails? I thought to myself.

Ever more confused, I moved on to the things coming out of my back. I could feel a slight draft of air running across them, but it wasn't enough to determine their shape. I pushed myself up into a sitting position for greater mobility, which felt weird in and of itself.

I tried tensing my back muscles to see if that would work. Sadly, whatever had sprouted from my back didn't even twitch. I reached a hand backwards to feel one of the odd protrusions. As I did I was able to experience a sensation similar to that of touching an arm of my own, but it wasn't quite right. I tried imagining that I had two extra arms sticking out of my back and attempted to move one of them as such.

Surprisingly, that actually worked. It flexed kind of like an arm, and I could definitely feel it waving against the air. I tried folding it like an elbow. That worked too. Huh. I thought. What is this? I tried manipulating it a bit more, but it seemed to be limited to waving and folding. There weren't even any fingers one it. So much for an extra arm.

I brought the “arm” in front of me and explored it a bit more with my hands. I still couldn't see it, but I was starting to get used to the darkness. The “arm” had a rough long ridge running along the top which ended in a sharp claw-like nail. It also turned out to be quite a bit larger than I had thought. There was a thin, leathery texture hanging down from the ridge that was also sensitive.

I folded the “arm” a bit and found that the leather crumpled together around thin “fingers” that were laced through it. Unfolding it I felt around the overall shape. “Verily the elephant is like a fan, said the blind man.” I quoted an old poem to the best of my knowledge. Heh. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but the closest thing I could think of was a large fan coming out of my back. Two of them.

Wait.

Buffering...

buffering...

download complete.

Only one thing fan-like came out of any living thing's back like that. Wings. I had wings. I HAD WINGS! I waved, no flapped them softly through the air together. I could feel the fluid currents flowing around me. If I was dreaming, I didn't want to wake up. This was amazing! I folded them against my back only to unfurl them right away again. I could hardly contain my excitement. Wings. That meant flying, unhindered and without any form of artificial aid. This was almost too good to be true.

That last thought brought everything to a jarring halt. If something ever seems too good to be true, chances are that it is. If there was anything I had learned in life, it was that. I was lucky enough to have avoided getting my identity stolen several years ago when I had first tried to order something online. The scam should have been obvious, but thankfully my parents had stopped me from hitting the send button in time.

I silently sat there pondering, arms and wings hanging limply to the ground. It was then that I heard what sounded like an echo of sorts in the distance. I couldn't tell how far away, but it sounded like running water. This made me also realize that I was somewhat thirsty. Not parched, but enough that the idea of liquid refreshment sounded very tantalizing.

Attempting to stand up, I found that having additional limbs makes it very difficult to balance if you're not used to them. I found myself falling on my sides a few times following that experiment. Since I still wanted a drink, I opted to go on all fours which turned out to be very easy. Well, it's just a right old mix of the good and the bad here, isn't it? I thought to myself. What in the world is going on?

I had a little difficulty going forward mainly because it was dark enough that I still couldn't see anything. The floor turned out to be less than even, and I had to be cautious in order to avoid bumping into anything. It was slow going, that's for sure. Eventually, I reached the source of the water without hitting any walls. There's luck for you. I could only tell that I had really reached it because as I was feeling ahead with my hands I dipped them in it.

Kneeling on the ground I slowly reached into it with my cupped hands and brought some out. It didn't smell too bad, but I wasn't sure that it was sanitary. So, I took a small sip just to test it out. It tasted just fine too. Throwing caution to the wind, I quickly brought more water up to my face several times and drank as much as I could. I could only be patient for so long.

Having sated my thirst, I sat up and listened to my surroundings. Perhaps I could find some light. Stuff usually grew around water, and most of the time there was light to help it along as well. I couldn't hear much besides the water next to me. I dipped my hand in to see which way it was flowing. Determining that the water went left, I decided to go right. That's usually the safer direction to go.

I continued along this route for what I guessed to be about half an hour before there was any real change. The bank didn't exactly stay straight, but that wasn't really anything major. Eventually I was able to hear crickets. Hmm. I mused. It must be nighttime. A pitch black night. I guess that explains why it's so dark. By this point I had come to the conclusion that I had definitely not died, or at the very least was currently alive. Just because you die doesn't mean you can't come back to life somehow, albeit this was a pretty strange somehow.

I also started feeling grass underneath my hands and feet. It was the soft and spongy kind. I realized that wherever I was, I was now outside. As long as it didn't rain, this was a definite improvement from before of having absolutely no idea. It seemed peaceful too. If I was in the jungle, I couldn't hear any animals being eaten. I considered that to be a good sign.

I still didn't have any clue as to what was going on though. So, I figured I could take a nap and wake up when it was light again. Then I could actually get a good look at my surroundings. I settled down in the grass and got comfortable. I was actually able to curl my tail up to my face. This seemed like a good position. With that, I returned to my slumber.

2. Blind Meetings

I found myself standing on a cliff overlooking a large forest. As I gazed around, I noticed it was exactly where I had jumped from. Not only that, but I was also in my gliding suit still. “Weird.” I said, “Was that real? Hey Tray,” I turned to face him. “did I zone out or some-” Tray wasn't there. “thing...”

Where Tray had been standing before was the creepy man we had met in the hotel. He just stood there breathing weird and smelling awful. I stared for a moment before blurting out, “What the heck are you doing here?!” He leaned over into my personal space, looking me up and down like I was some recently shot game. I put my hands up a bit and backed away, “Woah man. Dude, as much as I enjoy your company, I'd rather you stopped doing that.”

He just shuffled towards me in his dirty fatigues. “Such an interesting mortal.” He said manically, “You're going to be so much fun to watch.” He reached up and grabbed the straps on my parachute, pulling my face uncomfortably close to his. From his mouth came the stench of a dog's morning breath. A dog that had recently eaten a skunk. A skunk that had been road kill. “You will dance for my amusement!” He was almost snarling, and his eyes didn't look too even.

Needless to say, I was more than a little unnerved by this man and his proximity to my face. I tried shoving him away from me, but he was holding on too tight for that. “Get out of my FACE!” I screamed at him. This guy needed to go to a mental hospital. “What the heck is wrong with you?!” He brought his eyes right in front of mine and touched our foreheads together. It turned out that his was covered in grime and sweat.

Though I was absolutely disgusted, I suddenly found myself unable to move. His stench invading my nostrils and the feel of his greasy skin made me want to puke. I was already gagging. I realized that I was immobilized because he had wrapped himself around me entirely. When did that happen?! I wondered in a panic.

“You are my ticket to the happy fun times. Heh. Now I don't need the others to tell me when I can cut loose! Heheheheh.” He was giggling uncontrollably by that point. I was beyond creeped out by this point, I was terrified. I tried squirming out of his grasp, but it was no use. He had a very tight hold of me. I was only thinking of getting away from this crazy guy.

“What do I have to do to get you to leave me alone?!” I screamed at him. This at least seemed to get his attention. He stopped laughing and let go of me, dropping to the ground. The look that he gave me then had only a trace of the insanity I had seen before. For some reason this was even more frightening than the mad cackling. He sat there sprawled out on the ground stroking his chin thoughtfully. His body language and eyes did not work together at all. It reminded me of a character from the manga Death Note. Now there was a disturbing thought.

He looked up at me. “Why, all you have to do is play a game.” He sprung to his feet in one fluid motion contradicting his earlier stumbling. “Play my game, and you will never have to see me again.” He smirked. “I’m sure that’s all you want right now.” The smirk broke into a grin. “Though I’m still going to be changing things up a bit for you. Here’s a riddle to help you out.” He spread his arms wide and began chanting.

“You are in the land
So many have dreamed of.
By my hand
The sight was taken.
Find your food and you will see
With vision of three-sixty.
Don’t be alarmed
At the lost orbs of light
Just replace them
With faceted might.”

He spun around dramatically and stopped with a finger against my chest. “Now, I believe you have an adventure to get to.” He pushed me back with the finger. “Have fun. I know I will.” I realized that he had just pushed me off the cliff. As I fell backwards he began laughing manically again and waved at me enthusiastically.

That was the last I saw of him, though I was mostly focused on the fact that I was falling and my limbs not working again. As I fell to the ground another thought sprung to mind. Aren’t games supposed to be fun for the players? This is a pretty lousy game then. I reached the ground, and everything went black again.

I could hear birds chirping as I woke up groggily. Sitting up, it took a little bit for me to orient myself. “Ugh,” I mumbled as I rubbed my face, “I hate dieing in my dreams.” I suddenly realized that my face and hands felt very different from what I was used to. Then in a flash the previous day all came rushing back to me. My eyes popped open in amazement.

That led to another discovery. It was still dark. I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes in confusion. That can't be right. I thought to myself. I tried to look around again. Still no dice. Why is it still dark? I waved my hand in front of my face. I think I can feel the sunlight right now. It should be daytime. I brought my hand as close to my eyes as I could to try to see it, but there was nothing but darkness. I felt about my face some more to try and figure this out.

As I reached my eyes I found something I had not noticed before. Having closed my eyelids I pushed against them slightly. They gave with little resistance, as if there was nothing behind them. Tentatively, I opened them and brought a knuckle gently towards my right eye.

Now, I'm not always a queezy person, but just about anyone in their right mind would be nervous about directly touching their eyeball. I've done it before by accident. It's really uncomfortable. If you do it with any kind of cloth it dries out your eye immediately, and you have to blink a whole lot or get eye drops in order to moisten it again. So, I was pretty nervous about this.

I became much more worried when the knuckle didn't encounter anything but air. I put it in just a bit farther. Maybe my eyes are just recessed for some reason. Then my finger brushed against the side of my eye socket. It was...a rather large socket. The touch horrified me as I realized what I had refused to admit to myself was a worry.

My eyes were gone.

I began shivering and sweating fearfully. This isn't supposed to happen. I clenched my arms around myself. You don't just lose your eyes. They're always there. I began rocking back and forth as it hit me full on. I felt like I was about to explode. My gut convulsed, and I collapsed back onto the ground retching uncontrollably.

This was probably the most traumatic thing I had ever experienced up to that point. Can you imagine how unnerving it is to touch any empty eye socket, let alone your own? It's an extremely uncomfortable experience.

A mixture of water and bile emptied itself from my body. As its acrid scent reached my nose my retching increased painfully. My stomach heaved as struggled to rid itself of all its contents. Soon another smell rose up with a great deal of heat. It smelled like burning grass, but in a good way. Thankfully it overpowered the stench of bile. The heat felt...good. It was actually comforting.

Slowly, the convulsions came to a halt. I was relieved when it was over. I always felt better after I finish puking for any reason. That might seem strange, but I'm pretty sure it's because of the radical difference between the pain of heaving your guts out and simply being ill. You don't actually feel better, but the comparison is enough to trick you into thinking otherwise. I relaxed a little bit, and the strange new warmth began to spread around me a bit. I was still quite worried, but the warmth was helping me to think in a more logical and less panicky manner. I didn't know why though, or even where it was coming from. I needed the strange comfort, so I decided to think about that later.

Okay, so I've apparently lost my eyes entirely. I have no idea where I am, or even what I am physically. I sat up and ran a hand over the top of my head. I could feel flexible pieces of the same substance my wings were made out of sticking up. They seemed to be fins or spikes of some kind. I need to set some priorities here. I began to form a list of things I needed to do in my head.

Figure out where I was
Figure out what I was
Figure out the rules of this game
Survive.
….

Those became my priorities for the time being. I figured I would add to them as I progressed along from where I currently was. I pushed myself up and tried walking on two legs again. With my current numbness to pain (since any then was far less than that caused by retching) I was able to with little trouble. I took a few steps, but stumbled over a large rock I couldn't see and fell again.

“Well,” I announced to myself, “looks like I'll be going on all fours for now.” I picked a direction at random and started heading in it. I figured that since there was nobody near me I might as well move on. Maybe I could find someone to give me a little help.

As I trundled along the birds eventually faded into the background. I had to move fairly slowly due to obvious reasons. Feeling out each step took time. I certainly didn't want to walk off a cliff or something. That could only end in pain. I found that the ground had spots of grass, but mostly it was dirt. I guess I found a pretty big patch of grass. Most of these are really small. I thought to myself.

I kept going for a long time. Exactly how long I wasn't sure. There wasn't much of anything to help me determine how much time had passed. It began to be very tiring. Combine that with how much energy I had expended when I found out my eyes were gone, and you get a very exhausted person. It was then that I began to hear some voices off to my right.

“I still say we should check it out.” That one sounded feminine and young with a petulant tone.

“I've told you once, and I'll tell you again. No. We're hiding for a reason.” A frustrated voice replied, “A fire means that somepony or something is near, and we don't want to meet them.” This voice sounded older, but it was also feminine.

“Oh come on!” The younger voice whined, “It's been over a week since we got away. They can't still be following us. Let's go see what caused it.” I slowly moved closer to hear more of the conversation.

“NO!” I heard something stomp on the ground in emphasis. “We need to keep going. Once we're back to civilization we'll be home free, but until then we are not going out of our way for anything.” The older voice sighed, “If your father was here he wouldn't have any trouble getting you to listen to reason.”

As I continued forward my hand fell upon a bunch of leaves. They must be hiding in a bush or something. I concluded. The rustling caused both voices to fall silent. I must have startled them. I let out a sigh myself. Well, no time like the present. “Excuse me.” I spoke up, “Do either of you know where we are? I seem to have gotten lost.” Silence.

“Seriously? I know you're there. Come on, I have no intention of hurting you or anything. Don't worry.” I heard some rustling from the direction of the two voices I had heard. Plus there was some muttering between them. I didn't catch everything, but I got the distinct feeling that the younger one wanted to come out. The older one was much more cautious.

“I'm...” I began to call out again, but I stopped as I considered my name. If I was in some sort of game, could I give myself a new one? I considered my new appendages, plus some random sounds, before coming up with something to match. “I'm Siktral.” It might have sounded weird, but I enjoyed making up words. It was how I came up with a lot of my character names in video games.

Suddenly I heard a bounding noise and was hit by what felt like a small cloth-covered brick. “Oof!” I exclaimed, falling backwards. “What the heck?” I moaned after rubbing my chest where the projectile had hit me.

“Wow.” said the younger voice. It was right next to me now. “I've never seen a dragon like you before.” I felt something prodding me in the face. “Why do you look like that?”

Well, that's one mystery solved. I'm a dragon. While it was nice to know that, it certainly raised a lot more questions. I still didn't know where I was. Also, if I was a dragon then I couldn't be certain what these two people were either. Maybe they were dragons?

Before I could respond, however, the old voice was yelling, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?! We have no idea who-” The voice had been getting closer, but she stopped with a sudden gasp. It seemed that she was surprised by my appearance as well. I wondered what it was that made me different. I certainly didn't have any point of reference to use for this.

After sitting back up I flared out my wings a bit since they had gotten a little crimped from the fall. I heard an “Eep!” from the young voice. “Well,” I began, “now that you can see I'm not going to hurt you, could you tell me where I am? I'm somewhat lost.” My eyes were closed since I didn't want to freak out whoever was there with a gruesome sight. I was also still rubbing my chest a little. I guessed that part of me was a little more sensitive than my back.

As the older voice began stuttering, the younger one appeared to be more receptive to the idea of conversing with me. “I'm not sure,” she said perkily, “but we're going back to Equestria. It's south.” She was either a child or a simpleton with that attitude. The term Equestria struck a cord in my memory, but I wasn't completely sure what it was from.

I also considered what it meant that I was a dragon. I decided to give more appropriate names to portions of my anatomy mentally as I raised a claw to my chin thoughtfully. I couldn't properly converse with these people without knowing what they were. I could ask. I really hope they don't get offended by it. “So, what are you?” I asked, “I can't exactly tell without seeing you.”

That seemed to break the older one out of her shock. “Well, you could just open your eyes.” She humphed. I thought I heard her mutter “freak” somewhere in there, but I decided to ignore it. As impolite as she was being, I didn't want to run off my only current source of information.

I turned my head in her direction and kept as unreadable an expression as I could manage on my face. “That wouldn't help.” I replied carefully. I really needed to be conscientious here. People tend to fear that which they don't understand, and there are two general responses to something feared: fight or flight. I didn't want to have to deal with either. If they ran off I would be left with no source of information. If they attacked me I was probably going to lose. Being blind is a pretty big handicap. I wasn't even completely sure that I was 'looking' her in the face.

“What?” she asked, “Why not?” I really, really needed to be careful. It came to mind that there was another thing that can cause someone to attack you: weakness. Some people were just jerks. I now had the task of not appearing weak while at the same time not appearing overly dangerous. Still, there can be an attack from not seeming useful. I needed to make myself appealing as a resource. Hopefully not an expendable one.

Ugh, I thought to myself, I'm thinking way too much about this. I don't really have many options: Outright lie, partial lie, or truth. I figured I would go with the truth on this one. At least some of it without revealing all the details. “I'm blind.” I stated. I readied myself for an attack just in case. At this point I was now being poked by the smaller person as they circled me. It felt weird in both fact and feeling, but she seemed innocent enough. I was more worried about the older one.

She seemed to balk at this. “Oh.” She said quietly, “I-I'm sorry. I didn't know.” I looked like I was getting the sympathy card to play. This was a good thing. I relaxed somewhat. There was silence. She tried talking again, “So, um, why are you here?” I heard what sounded like a foot scuffing the ground. She was uncomfortable, but more in the sense of embarrassment for committing a social faux pas than out of fear.

I thought about that before answering truthfully, “I've been roped into playing a game.” It was completely true while maintaining a safety from being extremely vague. I knew it would confuse her, but I had decided now that she probably wouldn't attack just because she didn't understand me anymore. I attempted a smile, not knowing at all what it looked like.

“Huh?” I was right. She was now very confused. I had figured that would happen, though I had kind of hoped she might know what was going on. The next question was predictable and expected. “What game would you be playing out here?”

“I have absolutely no idea.” I replied, smiling even wider. I held up a hand. “And before you ask, no, I don't even know the rules. I just got dumped here and told to play it.” At this point the younger girl jumped on my back a wrapped her … arms … around my neck. That felt even weirder than when she had been poking me. I could feel the rest of her body on my neck. She was definitely very small compared to me, and her limbs seemed to end in a stiff material. I wasn't sure yet, but I got the distinct feeling from it that she was a quadruped of some kind.

I shook myself from my thoughts. “So,” I asked again, “what are you two?” While I had gained a little bit of knowledge from the conversation, I still didn't know what species they were. I figured just about anything was possible since I was a dragon. Even with that in mind, I really wasn't prepared for her answer.

“Oh, right. We're ponies.” She responded nonchalantly.

My reaction to that was given in a flat, unamused monotone. It was more of a statement than question: “What.”

3. Names and Voices

“You heard me” said the older girl, “We're ponies.” To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had been expecting something a bit more mystical. Talking horses wouldn't be too bad, but ponies?! I thought to myself. This just lost a ton of its adventurous feeling.

While I remained sitting there in surprise for a moment, the little one snuggled against the back of my neck saying, “You're nice. I like you!” Before long I could feel her forelegs relax and heard her breathing assume the pattern of sleep. I now had a snoring filly on my back. Thankfully, even though it was different, it wasn't overly uncomfortable.

“Okay...” I said, “I wasn't really expecting that, but I guess I'll have to go with it.” Having finally gotten over my shock at meeting a talking version of an animal usually just owned by children on a ranch or something, I decided to just press forward. After all, I wasn't in a reasonable form either. I reached behind myself and shifted the sleeping pony on my back a little bit so as to be more comfortable. “So then, what are your names?” I asked.

The older pony was silent for a bit before answering, “Call me Silver Rain. That's my cousin… Stardancer.” I could guess that she was probably gesturing towards the younger pony, but I still couldn't see it. I could also sense from her hesitance in telling me their names that she likely wasn't being honest with me. Fair enough, I thought, There's not a whole lot of reason to trust me yet. We've only just met. I’ll just accept it for now.

I sighed. “Alright then.” I turned my head back as if to look at Stardancer. “She seems pretty tired. How long have ya’ll been traveling?” I asked. “I kind of overheard you talking about an escape or something like that.” In my mind I was thinking, Please oh please don’t be convicts. I didn’t want to deal with being on the wrong side of the law off the bat by helping criminals. Unless of course the law turned out to be some form of corrupt government that needed a revolution. I still didn’t know where I was, but I was trying to fit it into what little knowledge I knew about Dungeons and Dragons. That had been Tray’s obsession before he found…wait a minute.

I wasn’t able to finish that train of thought due to Silver Rain answering my question. “Well,” I heard her scuffing the ground nervously again. “We’ve been running mostly for a couple of days now.” She did sound pretty tired herself. I realized I could hear some strain in her voice as well. “We’re just trying to get home. We…escaped from diamond dogs that were using us as slaves.” Oh junk. I thought, Slavery is never a pretty thing. I hate that concept. There's a reason it's illegal in civilized countries.

As she continued on, her voice was starting to crack. “We were just at a family gathering in the woods. Our moms are…were…sisters.” She started sniffling. “So, when the diamond dogs attacked us we had no idea what to do.” She was talking in a rush by that point. “They just came out of nowhere, and now our mothers are gone because they fed them to a dragon, and my father was just barely able to distract them long enough for us to get out.” She paused to take a breath. “I’m scared.” She was finished talking, but now she began crying. It was heart rending.

Well, it looks like dragons aren’t very nice creatures here. Just my luck to be one. I thought to myself remorsefully. I sighed again. It seemed that I was going to be sighing a lot around here. “Look,” I said. I hoped she was looking at me. “It’s going to be alright. You’ll get home. I promise.” I heard her sobbing die down a bit.

I said this knowing that I really had no idea if that was true. I just wanted to calm her down. I tried to reach out to her with one of my arms and missed. This whole blindness thing is really starting to get on my nerves. I guess it didn't matter since she threw herself on my arm and clung to it. “It's just so hard.” she exclaimed, “It feels like we've been running for so long...and I'm just so tired of it.” Her face rested against my shoulder, and I could feel her tears streaming down it now. “Please help us.”

I raised my unhindered arm and began stroking her hair, though I guess it would be called a mane with her. I made shushing noises and did my best to comfort her. As I did so a thought sprung to mind. I voiced it without much consideration, “Why do you trust me?” She made a questioning noise, and I elaborated. “Your captors fed your mother to a dragon. I'm a dragon too. What makes me different?”

Her response surprised me. Though, to be honest, anything that she said would have probably surprised me as an answer my question. I wasn't sure what to expect. “You're a white dragon,” Her voice was much calmer now. It was actually relaxed. I did a small success dance in my head for that. “but you have pink on the inside of your wings. It's...nice.” She sighed, and her breathing slowed down to a regular pattern. I guess she fell asleep. While she answered I didn't stop brushing my claws through her mane.

What she had said did give me a fair amount to think about. It seemed I was a white and pink dragon, but that sounded awfully strange. I tried to think about a reason for that being possible. Eventually it came to me. I could really only think of one way for that to be possible if it was an unusual thing. I'd met a person or two in the past that had very pale skin, white hair, and pink eyes at least. These people were some I had seen in passing at high school. Albinos. Huh. I'm an albino dragon. That's a new one. I don't think I've ever even heard of that in video games or anything.

I picked Silver Rain up in my arms and stood. I was getting a little more used to my new body, though blindness was a bit more tedious. I used my tail to help balance myself in a more bipedal position. I shifted my wings a bit to secure Stardancer on my back. I certainly didn't want her falling off now. I pondered for a bit about what I should do now.

Clearly I was on a different world. That much was obvious. At the time I also felt that I ought to protect these two ponies I had run into. As I cradled Silver Rain in my arms I took the liberty of finding out a bit more from her shape. I figured that as long as I didn’t do anything inappropriate it would be okay. I brushed one of my hands along her back, making a rough estimate as to her physique. She definitely felt like a horse, just slightly different proportions. I had never actually seen a pony in real life before since horses were more common where I was from. However, the description seemed to fit the bill. I patted my hand gently along the side of her head to discover that the mane wasn’t quite right. It seemed more like a human hairstyle than a simple head of horse hair. It was following that evaluation that I discovered something even more surprising.

I found that there was a sharp protrusion coming from the center of what I guessed to be her forehead. Is that…a horn? I wondered. I settled my hand on it to find that it was in fact a horn. Not only had I encountered talking ponies, but this one at least appeared to be a unicorn pony. Now that was weird. I would have been less unsettled by this if she had been more like a horse than a pony. Finding out that I was a dragon was very weird, but with that as a premise I could easily deal with meeting unicorns. I just was having trouble wrapping my mind around said unicorns being ponies.

With Silver Rain’s evident mythicalness in mind, I reached the same had over my back and felt around Stardancer’s head. Sure enough, she also had a horn. So, I’ve got a pair of unicorns here with me. I wonder which mythology I should go with to gauge their actions. I figured that they were probably magic in some way or another, but I wasn’t sure how exactly. One thing was sure however. They were both clearly very tired. I carefully made my way towards the foliage that I figured they had been hiding in and worked my way into it. I swept my tail around, finding that we were in a very small clearing. There was barely enough room for us. It was probably more spacious for them. If they needed to rest then I would let them, but I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to wait out in the open if there was the possibility of danger.

I settled down again and began to quietly sing one of my favorite tunes as I rocked the two of them back and forth. It was an older song, but my sister had sung a variation of it for some school event. During the weeks leading up to it she had practiced quite a bit. The tune was stuck in my head for the rest of my life. It helped that our family listened mostly to our parents' music growing up. I didn't care much for the newer stuff.

Before I knew it there was a buildup behind my eyelids, and soon tears were streaming down my face. The song had always reminded me of home, and I often would sing or hum it to help myself calm down. Now it just made me homesick. Having initially thought that I was dead had distracted me from the fact that I probably wasn't going home anytime soon. I quietly sobbed as I continued the song in my head, imagining that I could hear it like I was listening to it from a CD.

Eventually I suppressed my sorrow to a degree and listened to my surroundings some more. There wasn't much I could discern aside from the wind rustling a few leaves. As I strained, hoping to hear more, I noticed that there was a slight undercurrent of noise that seemed to be coming from the ground. I gently laid Silver Rain on the dirt to my left and put my ear to the ground. I was sure that there was something down there. I wasn't sure what it was though. It sounded like a rhythmic pounding of sorts.

Curious, I dug my hands into the soft earth. It was quite easy. The dirt was slightly moist and came up easily. As I formed a small hole I placed the excavated dirt off to my right. Continuing I found that the noise was actually diminishing. This was very odd. As it grew more and more faint I found it very difficult to stay focused on which direction to dig towards. Eventually it ended all together, but I continued just a little bit more out of annoyance. Well, this was fairly pointless. Too bad I don't have some digging skill to level up or something. That would make this less frustrating. Ugh! This is so aggravating! “Why am I even here!?” I slammed my fist into the dirt. There was no answer.

I figured that I had probably imagined the noise entirely. It felt like that had been some pointless suspense at my expense. I sighed and wondered what I was going to do next. There wasn't much I could do except wait for the two unicorn ponies I was with to wake up. I still wasn't tired, so I knew right away that I was going to get bored. I had run out of logical scenarios to run in my head. There was no point to just sitting there thinking anymore.

Knowing that I really needed something to do so I wouldn't go stir crazy I twisted around and lifted Stardancer off of my back. I placed her next to her cousin on the ground and arranged them such that she was using Silver Rain as a pillow. I figured that would be good for when they woke up. I stood up and spread my wings. I desperately needed something to do so that I wouldn't start thinking about overly stupid things. Granted that what I was about to attempt wasn't the most intelligent thing, but at least it was something.

I started by flexing my wings and getting a feel for them. They were fairly large, and I could tell that there were some pretty strong muscles in them. If I felt them it didn't quite make sense since the wings seemed far to thin to justify the evident muscle mass. Then again, I wasn't sure what the laws of nature were here. It obviously wasn't earth, but it could just be another planet in the same universe. It could even be in the same galaxy. On the other hand, it could be another dimension or reality. That would completely throw physics up in the air.

I worked my way up to flapping them to see how much it would affect the air around me. The softest flaps stirred up a nice breeze that I could feel against my body, but they didn't generate any lift. I gradually increased the speed and effort that I put into my wings. Slowly I felt my feet leaving the ground, my tail still hanging down on it. I was pretty excited about it since flying had always been a dream of mine.

As soon as I was completely off of the ground, I realized something I hadn't considered. This is what made my experiment idiotic beyond belief. I could fly, but I was still blind. Therefore, I had absolutely no idea as to how high I would be. Never before had I been frightened when in the air. Gliding and free-falling were all wonderful, but without being able to see the ground it turned out to be absolutely terrifying.

Quite unfortunately this sensation led to me panicking. If I had been thinking rationally, I would have simply stopped flapping my wings and dropped to the ground which was still very close. Instead I began to flap harder. I felt a couple of branches brush my side as I rose up in the air, which at least let me know that there were trees around here and not just a bunch of bushes. I wasn't too pleased with my situation to say the least.

After rising very high in the air (I never did figure out exactly how high) I eventually calmed down, relatively speaking, and stopped flying. The only reason for me being able to halt my increase in altitude was grabbing what felt like a spongy mass and clinging to it. I clambered on top of it as I tried to stop myself from hyperventilating. I slowly calmed my breathing and was able to relax. Then I started hearing it again.

That strange pounding was up here too! Only this time it didn't seem to be coming from underneath me. I was laying flat on the mass and tried to figure out where its new location was. I bent my head around searching for it. I finally settled on a placement for it. It seemed to actually be coming out of my chest. I checked for confirmation by pressing one of my hands there. So I just thought it was something else earlier? Apparently this was my heartbeat. If I was calm enough and there was little enough sound around me I could actually hear it without the use of a stethoscope.

I sighed. It was quite quiet up here. There actually wasn't very much noise at all besides my heartbeat. I pondered this for a bit. If I could hear my own heartbeat then that could mean a couple of things. One was that my body passed sounds through itself fairly easily while maintaining a regular hearing capacity for outside noises. The other was that I just had really good hearing. I wasn't sure which one was correct. I hadn't done anything yet that would help me determine that answer.

If I had realized that the noise was my heartbeat the first time I wouldn't have gotten bored tried flying like that. I had to facepalm when I realized that. “Great. Just great. Now, where am I?” I felt around the spongy mass to try and get a feel for where this was in correlation to my surroundings. I found that it was relatively circular and didn't seem to connect to anything. It was also just barely big enough for me to lay down on. The nice thing was that it was remarkably soft. I also found that if I tugged on the edges I could get them to separate from the whole and later rejoin them. That was pretty weird.

A thought came to mind, and I felt around underneath the mass. As I suspected, it really was just hanging in the air with nothing to support it. Definitely different physics here. I formulated a plan in my mind and did my best to implement it. Clutching the mass I began to beat against the air with my wings. This was different from before because I was using strong upbeats with weak downbeats. I was fortunate enough to find myself brushing against some branches again after a while.

Though I was surprised that they passed through whatever I was on so readily, I was far more relieved to reach the ground again. It took a long time to get there. Once my tail, which was hanging over the edge, felt the dirt mound I had made I rolled off the sponge-thing and landed with a slight “Oompf.” I was lucky that my ascent and descent had been fairly vertical. Angles would have been far more difficult to correct.

I stood up on the ground and swept my tail around to make sure things were still about the same. The clearing was all there. However, Silver Rain and Stardancer were not. I was able to feel a slight depression in the ground that led to my hole. What? Were they dragged into it? I didn't make it that deep. I poked my tail down into it. It was significantly deeper than it had been previously. “Oh that's just great.” I muttered sarcastically. If they had been dragged in then they would probably need saving somehow. Without much further thought I jumped down into the hole.

Author's Note

Ya’ll is used here without an accent. Don’t think Siktral sounds like Applejack, he just has a bit of usage from the dialect found in the South. His “accent” would probably be closer to what is found in the cities of Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. Also, I've never played a game with an albino dragon in it. So, Siktral's new form is not a reference to anything really.

4. Captured Pain

I knew that I didn't have any idea where I was going, but something just told me I needed to get down there and rescue them, somehow. I wasn't even sure that they needed rescuing. For all I knew, they could have dug the hole themselves. There were many possibilities there, but only one of them felt right even though several were logical. Something came from the ground and kidnapped them. Or would that be ponynapped? Hmm.

I mused on that for a bit as I slid down the hole. It was fairly steep, but still slanted enough for me to not be free-falling. Eventually the hole began to level out into a regular tunnel. When my sliding came to an end I reached out with my limbs to determine the dimensions of my surroundings. I found that I was encompassed by dirt all around me. The tunnel was not as wide as my wingspan, but it was close. From top to bottom it was big enough for me to be comfortable. I could stand up straight easily enough, and I could touch the ceiling if I reached my arm above my head a little bit.

That was good to know, but I didn't think that I could rely on it being the same the whole way. So, I crouched down on all fours, giving myself the ability to feel the ground ahead of me. I didn't want to fall down a deeper hole unexpectedly. I sniffed the air a bit to get a feel for it as well. It reminded me of rich garden soil. While not a gardener myself, I had helped my mother with weeding a fair amount growing up.

That seemed fairly strange to be honest. Normally the soil wouldn't smell quite this rich as far down as I probably was. I concluded that I was sufficiently aware of what was around me to continue, or, at least as aware as I could be. I moved forward, adopting a pattern of feeling ahead with my hands similar to what I had done earlier before meeting the two ponies, only faster.

I was feeling a couple of conflicting emotions. I wanted to be cautious because of my blindness, but I also felt that time was somehow very important. I didn't want to run into anyone hostile unprepared. It took me a bit to realize that since I was underground, sight wouldn't really help me there anyways. This encouraged me to go a little bit faster.

I came to point where the tunnel widened a bit and seemed to open up somehow. The second thing I noticed after that was a sound. There appeared to be a crackling noise coming from the sides. That was certainly different from the repetitive sounds of my claws and tail shuffling forward. As I felt around the walls I found that I was actually in what appeared to be a room. The floor and walls were also much harder than in the tunnel. I must be in a more established section of whatever this place is.

I knew that the tunnel would lead somewhere, but I had hoped that it would be an above ground somewhere. I didn't quite like the idea of being overly constrained with my movement if something dangerous occurred. I felt towards the crackling noise and found what appeared to be something metal stuck into the wall with a slot for a wooden stick. I realized the sound must be coming from torches. Curious, I reached for the ceiling again and found that it had relatively small holes in it. Well, at least I don't have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning.

I thought for a bit about that. Clearly, whatever had made this place was intelligent, or at least sentient, if it could use fire like this. It also needed light to see. I, however, was blind. I didn't need these things. If whatever was here was hostile, I could handicap them by removing their sight advantage over me. With that in mind I plucked the torch I had found out of it's bracket and plunged it into the dirt. The slight sizzling told me it was still moist enough to extinguish the thing. This was good.

I moved around the room and repeated the process until I couldn't hear any more torches in the immediate vicinity. Having plunged the room into darkness – hopefully – I felt around some more. I found that there were three tunnels branching out of there in addition to the one I had come in from. I listened at each in hopes of finding Silver Rain and her cousin. Unfortunately there wasn't much to go with.

I could tell that there were clearly torches in each tunnel, but there were only slight variations in the background sounds coming from them. I determined that the middle path had slightly more noise coming from its depths. Huh. I guess I just have really good hearing. I'll find out that for sure once I know just how far away the sources of the noises are. I crept into it and moved onwards, but only for a moment.

I paused as I thought about the torches in here. I might as well extinguish them too. I knew about what height they should be by that point, so I commenced with that plan using my tail. It allowed me to continue onwards without having to slow down very much. I just hoped that there wasn't any luminescent moss or something similar as a backup around here. That would make this action rather pointless.

I soon got used to the rhythmic sounds of my claws dragging slightly through the dirt and the flames around me hissing to an end. It was becoming very useful to have a tail this capable. I definitely needed it. As my wings brushed lightly against the walls I came to a branch off to my left. I paused for a moment to lean towards it. It led somewhere, but the majority of the sounds were still ahead of me. I could only make out the familiar crackling of torches in the offshoot. I resumed my journey.

I quickly found that there were several branches off to the sides as I continued. The tunnel I was in seemed fairly level though. Every now and then one of the side tunnels would have sounds in addition to their torches. I paused at these ones before moving on. They weren't what I was looking for. One had the sound of several creatures snoring loudly, so I guessed that it was where the beds were. Another had merely the sound of eating. I could tell that there wasn't any talking. I guess they're not much for dinner conversations here.

As I doused another torch I began to wonder if I would ever find the unicorns. I didn't even have much of a plan for what I would do once I found them. If they were being held captive and guarded I would be at a loss. I certainly didn't know how to fight. I stopped as I reached yet another branch. I held a claw in front of my face even though I couldn't see it. I considered my current abilities. If worse came to worse I felt that I might be able fight, but it would be dangerous. I had weapons I had never used before in any way.

I listened to my right – where the side tunnel was – and considered the fact that not only was this tunnel flat, it also seemed to be rather straight. I guess efficiency is important for them. Not many things are more efficient than a straight line when you need to get somewhere. This tunnel's particular sonic ambiance suddenly piqued my interest. I could hear someone crying in there. It was faintly familiar to me. That sounds like Silver Rain!

I changed my direction and hurried down there. I was so focused on getting there that I forgot to keep extinguishing torches along my sides. As I scrabbled forward the sound of my breathing was suddenly overwhelmed by a noise that seemed to be a combination of barking and laughter. This spurred me forward into a four-legged run with my wings still brushing against the walls around me.

Suddenly my wings encountered air on both sides. Without the slight resistance they had been pushing against they flared out slightly. I knew I was in the room. Fortunately it seemed that the laughing characters I had heard had their backs to me, as they didn't react to my entrance. I was also glad that despite my haste I hadn't made much noise. What I had made was easily drowned out by the laughter and sobbing ahead of me.

In addition to the sounds, I could clearly smell the room. It held an atrocious scent. Gagging, I quickly probed my surroundings on the sides with my wings and found what I guessed to be a pile of wooden crates off to my right. I dove behind them as I heard Silver Rain's crying evolve into words, “W-why are you d-doing this to us?”

My breath caught in my throat as I heard the sound of a whip and the pony's cry of pain. Her captors screamed at her in a menacing, though not very intelligent manner, “Stupid pony shut-up! Pony belong to Diamond Dogs now!”

Despite their anger, her sobs grew in volume. I worriedly thought about what I could do. Since I was blind and the self-proclaimed Diamond Dogs seemed to want her alive, I figured I could just wait for now. When they left she would be bruised, but I could get her out of there. It wouldn't be too hard then. Nonetheless, it hurt me to think that I would help her more by not doing anything at the time.

I heard their feet shuffle across the floor as they neared my hiding place. I stiffened, hoping they didn't look behind the crates. They stopped in front of the pile and instead opened up one of the boxes. Silver Rain gasped out, “Stardancer!” A whip cracked, and she cried out in pain.

The stakes had suddenly been raised. Both girls were in here, and the Diamond Dogs had the younger one in their hands. I was trying to think about what to do when one of them spoke again, “Small pony too little for work. Useless. Big pony be quiet or small pony suffer.” That was not good.

“Please don't hurt her!” Silver cried out. Unfortunately, it seemed that speaking at all was exactly the wrong thing to do. These creature knew about incentives, but they didn't care for pleading at all. They growled loudly back at her, and I heard what I guessed was the sound of their claws rattling against the bars of her cage.

“Big pony not listen. No second chance. Little pony suffer.” Though I couldn't see what they did then, it still shook me to the core. The sounds were enough. With Silver Rain crying out for mercy, they began to tear into a fortunately unconscious child.

I knew I needed to do something. I tried to think of how I could save her. I thought about jumping over the crates I was hiding behind and attacking the cruel beings on the other side that way, but I stopped because I was afraid that I might hurt her by accident from not seeing where she was. I considered tearing straight through the wooden boxes, but I couldn't be sure of their location. I only had my hearing to guide me.

I heard the sickening sound of bones cracking. My mind raced as I tried to think of a way to stop this awful thing. I considered letting out a bellowing roar in hopes that it would scare the Diamond Dogs away, but they might be brave enough that it wouldn't make a difference. I didn't know what criteria they used for their guards here. They might just attack me and kill me. I didn't even know what they looked like. I could assume they resembled dogs somehow with a monicker like that, but how big were they?

There was a sickening snap followed by something clattering across the surface of the crates in front of me. I tensed as it fell on my head and bounced onto the floor. They just laughed. I guessed that they had tossed it behind them. Fearfully I reached down and felt around for it. As my fingers closed around the object I realized what it was. It was Stardancer's horn.

Another wrenching sound and a thump on the ground told me that my hesitation had led to the death of Stardancer. The realization hit me like a fist in the gut. I could have stopped it, but I sat there and cowered behind a bunch of crates. The empty eye-sockets on my face welled up with tears of frustration and guilt. I was confused and didn’t know what to do.

Cupping the horn in my hands, all thoughts fled from my mind. Perhaps I could have done something to stop this from happening, but I was too lost to know what would have worked at the time. The shock of what had just happened consumed my mind until I was completely unaware of what was going on around me. I stroked the horn, committing its form to memory. I couldn’t see it, but I somehow felt that I needed to remember it.

I was startled out of my musings by the sound of an wet slap. I don’t know quite what happened, but it seemed that the Diamond Dogs threw something at Silver Rain that knocked her senseless. They gruffly told her to be silent, so she must have yelled at them or something for them to be so upset again. Then the screaming started.

“You monsters! You aren’t anything more than beasts! What is wrong with you?! I-”

Silver Rain was cut off by one of the Diamond Dogs who must have been grabbing her throat. She made a gurgling noise as the beast screamed back, “You be silent pony! Obey or suffer like little pony! Then you be dead pony.”

A new emotion welled up inside of me. It wasn’t the fear and uncertainty from before. Rather it could only be described as rage. I felt something similar in my chest to when I had found that my eyes were missing. Only this time there wasn’t any choking. I felt warmth in my throat growing.

I would have jumped over those crates immediately, but I was stopped by the sound of another blast. Silver Rain was screaming in rage herself. One of the Diamond Dogs crashed into the other side of the boxes from me with a thud. There was a click, and the other one responded by throwing something else at her which let out a muffled explosion. It then made a noise similar to the one made when you cook on a stove and the pot boils over.

I heard a body crumple to the floor. My claws dug into the ground in frustration and anger. Even if I did jump in and fight, I had no way of knowing what other weapons they had. If they could subdue her so easily, I probably would only be a little more trouble for them. I wanted to do something, but again I felt trapped and unable to attack. I wasn’t uncertain anymore though. There was just no point in attacking when it was clear I would still probably lose.

The Diamond Dog who had been blasted by Silver Rain’s magic stood up from the crates and stomped over to her loudly. “You suffer now! No moving or magic from you anymore!” I heard a whining noise that I assumed was her. They must have completely immobilized her with whatever they had used. There followed the sound of a fist hitting hide. I hadn't been sure, but this told me at least that they weren't quadrupeds like the ponies. It also told me that I needed to do something to stop them.

Again I readied myself to burst through, hoping to surprise them fast enough to prevent them from using on me whatever they used on Silver Rain. Again I paused when the other Diamond Dog shouted for his companion to stop. “We punish, but we try breaking spirit first. Could still use stupid pony in mines. We come back later.” The angrier Diamond Dog grumbled acquiescence, but I was pretty sure I heard him kick the unicorn again spitefully. They left without saying anything else.

I couldn't take it anymore. The warm feeling inside me began burning, and I let it out. A whooshing sound escaped my mouth, and I soon heard the sound of wood crackling in a fire in front of me. Realization struck me. What?! I can breathe fire! I punched the burning wood, and it crumbled before me. I figured, and was right thankfully, that if I could breathe fire I was probably fireproof on the outside as well.

The bad guys were gone, so it wasn't too hard to reach Silver Rain. I could hear her heartbeat as I held her. It sped up when I picked her up, so I could tell she was still awake. I couldn't think of much to say, but I was able to squeeze out an apology for what had happened. “I shouldn't have left you girls alone on the ground.” She responded with a whining noise from her throat since her vocal cords weren't working apparently.

As I turned to leave the awful room with her in my arms, I stumbled across a body on the ground. I realized immediately whose it was since her horn was still in my closed hand. I quietly knelt down and felt it with my wings. The wounds on the body were plentiful. Gashes were all over it. I wasn't sure, but I thought there were some degrading pictures carved into Stardancer's hide as well. Strangled sobs escaped from the throat of the pony in my arms.

I didn't want to leave this here to be desecrated any further, but it would be difficult to maneuver around carrying both of them. I came to a quick conclusion of a way to give her body a true rest from these horrors. “Silver Rain, where I come from there is a method of burial that can ensure someone's body isn't touched anymore by evil.” I figured I could embellish a little. I had never done this before. “We take the body and burn it. The smell wont be nice, but those Diamond Dogs wont be able to do anything bad with it anymore.”

I set Silver Rain down and picked up Stardancer's body, being careful to not injure the one still alive by stepping on her or something. I carried Stardancer's corpse to the burning crates and laid it down on them. I then let loose the fire from my chest again. The stench of burning flesh reached my nostrils, but didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I didn't have time to consider that since I wasn't sure how long the Diamond Dogs would be gone.

I scooped Silver Rain back up into my arms and hurried forwards. Having my wings outstretched turned out to be a good thing again since the exit was actually a little to my right. Correcting my direction, I left the area. I just hope we are able to get out of here as easily as I got in. Plans to use my new-found talent with fire ran through my head just in case we encountered any more enemies. We continued forwards, my ears attuned to my surroundings as well as Stardancer's heartbeat.

Author's Note

Yeah, sorry it took so long to finish this chapter. Truth is, I've been going to College the whole time I've been a brony. My cousin, who went by Ace2401, introduced FiM to me just before I started my Spring Term. Let me know what you think I could have done better here.

Edit: Just changed a couple of words.