Through Desert Sand and Forest Storm

I stared out the window, watching the sun rise in the distance. Normally this was Daisy's bed, but he'd agreed to switch me for the night, since it was my last night here. Not that I'd had very many, but still. This place had been good to me, and I'd be sad to see it go.

It'd been three days since we'd arrived at the compound, and Sky Lily was coming to pick up her slaves. I'd been told she'd arrive just after dawn, which meant it wouldn't be long now till I left the compound.

It was kind of odd, how I'd only been here for three days, and yet I'd grown rather fond of the place. Perhaps it was just that it was the first permanent thing I'd been too since I'd come to this world. Perhaps it was just how much fun Rise and Sunny were. If I met them back home, we'd have become friends pretty damn quickly. It made me homesick, thinking about it. There, we would've been friends. Here, they were my owners.

I heard the sound of the gates opening. Time to go and meet my new master. I reached under the bed and grabbed a small satchel, one of the few things slaves got to keep. Anything you could fit inside it was yours, and masters couldn't legally take it away, and, according to the older slaves, very few actually did. The only thing I had in my satchel at the moment was a book, given to me by Cloud, that supposedly contained knowledge of a lot of older gods. I say supposedly because I couldn't read the damn thing, and no one else I'd talked to could either. Salheen said she recognized it from some of her previous master's older books, but hadn't been taught it herself. I don't know if Cloud had done that deliberately or not, but either way I'd need to find someone who could read that language. Eventually. Getting free was higher on the list.

I walked out into the courtyard, satchel slung over my back, just before the overseer reached the door. “Oh, you're up, good. Just head out into the main yard, you'll see where you need to be.” I went through the gates, seeing Cloud and Sunny talking to a rather uptight looking teal unicorn with some sort of vine cutie mark. There were a few slaves gathered behind them, so I figured that's where we were supposed to be and joined them.

There were a few I recognized, including Salheen, who I went and stood next to. She seemed like she was over her fear of me, although I generally tried not to make any sudden movements around her. She was a healer, and the last person you want angry at you or scared of you was any sort of healer. That and I'd always felt a bit closer to her than any other of the slaves, but that might just be the fact that I saved her life talking.

“Is this all of it?” the teal unicorn asked.

“All of them, yes,” Sunny said, “and you know Sky would agree with me. Especially the gator.” he looked pointedly at me. “Hey SJ, sleep well?”

“Ish. Got enough to get me through the day.”

“Eh, that'll have to do. Don't want Sky yelling at me for abusing her precious gator,” he joked, then turned back to the other unicorn. “And you can tell her for a fact I didn't. Now, my payment.”

“Isn't it a little hypocritical to act like they're people, and still sell them?” the teal unicorn asked as he levitated a bag towards Sunny.

“I dunno, isn't it a bit hypocritical for a sack of shit dressed like a pony to tell me how to treat people?” Sunny retorted with a smile. The other unicorn gave him a glare and turned towards us, horn glowing. Chains materialized, linking us all together.

“One day, Sunny, my sister will realize exactly how little you're worth,” he spat, before turning away and trotting towards the gate.

“Oh, you have no idea how much I hope she does,” Sunny said. He looked at the group of us, and sighed, his expression suddenly serious. “Don't let him control you. Sky owns you, not him. Now follow him, he's your guide.” With that, he set off towards the main office of the compound while we began walking towards the gate. Waiting on the other side was the biggest unicorn I'd ever laid eyes on. He stood at least twice as tall as any of the other ponies I'd seen, and appeared to be made entirely of muscle. His mane was a dark brown, and he had a blood-red colored mane and tail, with a hoof crushing something for a cutie mark.

“Hold them,” the teal unicorn said as he walked by. The larger one grunted, and lowered his horn towards us. From this angle, I noticed something; rather than the mostly dull point most unicorns had on their horns, his appeared to have been sharpened to a much finer tip.

His horn flashed, and a rather thick chain appeared, one end wrapped around our chain, and the other around his leg. Looking at the two, I decided it would probably be easier to break the chain than the leg, if I had to try and escape.

The unicorn began checking us over, probably figuring which ones would be the most fun to turn into pancakes, and noticed me, apparently for the first time. His eyes locked with mine, and he began growling, a truly terrifying sound that made me think more of wolves than ponies.

“Bruiser!” the teal unicorn yelled, “don't hurt the merchandise.” Bruiser just snorted, then turned and began trotting towards our current caretaker. We nearly had to run to keep up, his strides being longer than most of our bodies.

I felt Salheen push a little closer to me as we walked. I looked over at her, and saw her shivering, her eyes wide with fright. She looked even more terrified than after the raider attack on our way here. I didn't know whether she was scared of Bruiser or the teal unicorn, but either way, showing it like this couldn't end well for her.

“Don't worry,” I whispered, “I won't let anything hurt you.”

She looked over at me. “Promise?”

I smiled. “Promise.” She stopped shivering then, although her eyes still looked scared. It was kind of odd, how she was scared of me but still pushed closer to me for comfort. Better the devil you know, I suppose.

We walked through the streets for about an hour before coming to the wall to the inner city. There, we had to wait while the guards cast identifying spells to make sure that the teal unicorn, whose name appeared to be Water Vines, was really who he said he was. And then a few more spells to make sure he wasn't masking himself somehow. And then the identifying spells again, to make sure he was the exact same person before the 'unmasking' spells. It took about twenty minutes, and I mentally promised myself that, if I ever got back to Earth, I'd never complain about airport security again.

After we passed through the gate (with a few spells cast on Bruiser and us slaves as well, to make sure we weren't hiding any lethal weapons. Like Bruiser's entire body didn't count as one.), it was only a short walk to Sky Lily's estates. Sandstone walls surrounded an area that, back home, would've been about twice the size of an average city block. Inside the walls was pretty much mostly grassy hills, with a few shallow creeks flowing artistically between them. Small clusters of trees dotted some of the hills, and I wondered how exactly she managed to keep this whole place watered in the middle of the desert. I mean, Heto's inner city was closer to the river than the outer city, but still. This was kind of ridiculous.

Sky Lily's manor was located at the center of the estate, with a plot of desert sand extending out from it like a yard would from a normal house, although it was proportionally bigger to fit the size of the house. Egyptian-style, with multiple buildings connected by shaded walkways, it seemed more like the main house of some tropical beach resort than any sort of home.

Sky Lily was waiting at the front steps. The same color as her brother, she had a long mane, and vines of multicolored flowers wrapped loosely through her mane and tail, and over most of her body. When she saw us, she broke into a childlike grin, dancing in place on the front steps.

Most of the slaves appeared to calm down at this, but I saw through her rather quickly. Sunny had talked like she was a long-time customer, and you didn't stay the head of a household for long by acting like a child. And the act just made me wonder what she had to hide from us.

“Hello sister,” Vine said wearily as we approached.

“Hello brother,” she replied happily, then began scanning the group. “Where's my gator?” He pointed at me, and she began hopping Pinkie Pie style through the slaves. “Hello, you,” she said as she got close, “what's your name? Mr. Sunny never told me.”

I gave her my biggest, happiest grin, and replied, in a voice to match, “Stormjaw.” Instant silence. I couldn't even hear anyone breathing.

Her eyes flickered, loosing their happy shine, but only for an instant. “Well, that's a depressing name. I'll have to think up something else to call you while you stay here.” She dispelled the chains from around my legs, and linked Salheen's to the slave on the other side of me. “Come on!” she began hopping away again, back towards her brother and the house.

I looked at Salheen, but didn't dare say anything. Something here was making me really nervous, and I didn't want to attract any attention to her. I walked out of the crowd, following Sky.

Vine smirked at me as I walked by. So I wasn't just paranoid.

I followed Sky through the house before it hit me: I couldn't sense any life. I could sense the group I'd been brought in with, myself, and Sky, but that was it. A huge manor, but no one inside of it?

Another thought struck me then. Sky was a longtime customer. Sunny hadn't seemed fazed by the size of her order. If this was the average size, what happened to all the other slaves?

“Here we are!” Sky brought me out of the manor into a walled in area. There were thirty or forty other sandgators lounging around, with a large table covered in platters of meat. “You must be hungry, after all that walking. Eat up!”

An herbivore, encouraging me to eat meat? Nope. “I'm actually just tired right now. I think I'll take a nap first.”

She looked at me, her eyes dimming a bit. “Really? Not hungry at all?”

“No, I'm a little hungry,” the best lies had a bit of truth to them, “but I'm really tired. You can ask your brother, I told Sunny I didn't get much sleep last night, and the walk here was a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. I'll probably be really hungry when I wake up, though.” With that, I stepped away from her, found a spot near the center of the courtyard that wasn't near any of the other gators, and buried myself in the sand. One thing I'd miss about this world if I ever got back home, I've never had a bed or blanket quite as comfortable as this sand.

“Okay then, if you're sure. Just let me know when you've eaten, and I'll let you go back and play with your friends.” Wait, what? Sky walked into the manor, then closed the door behind her. It gave a heavy thunk as it shut, and I got the feeling it wouldn't be opening from this side.

I lay there for about an hour, to make sure that anyone watching me would think I really was asleep, before I unburied myself. I walked to the nearest sandgator, to try and see why I couldn't sense it.

From this close, I could feel it, but only barely, like a match in the dark, as opposed to the bonfire lives around me usually were. It moved a little as I approached, so I could tell that it really was alive, but something was definitely wrong with it. I wondered if I could sneak Salheen in here, have her take a look.

Next I went to investigate the table of food. As soon as I got near, I could smell something wrong with it. The meat was cooked, and the smell of wrongness was faint enough that I guessed that, when it was freshly cooked, I wouldn't have been able to tell it was anything other than just food.

I needed to convince Sky that I'd eaten some before she'd let me out, that much was clear. I grabbed a small bit and stuck it in my satchel, which, fortunately, had a few pockets inside so I wouldn't get meat all over my book. I then took a whole platter, brought it over to one of the other gators, and buried the meat underneath it. I returned the platter to it's place on the table, then grabbed another one and buried it's meat beneath a different gator.

As the last part of my plan, I found a gator that looked similar to me, put my satchel around it, moved it near the table, stuck some meat in it's mouth, and lay down in it's place. I covered it with some sand as well, to make it seem like he'd eaten right after unburying himself. I had no idea if this would work or not, but, to my eyes at least, all sandgators still looked the same except for a few specific parts. And this one, near as I could tell, looked exactly like me.

It was another hour before Sky came back to check on me. She walked in, and immediately started walking towards the one wearing my satchel.

“Hello, beautiful.” She said as she approached.

“Hello mistress,” the gator replied. Sky paused, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“What's your name?”She asked. Her voice sounded the same, but now there was an older quality to it. She'd dropped the act.

“Dreadslice, mistress.”

“And why are you wearing that satchel, Dreadslice?”

“The new one put it on me, mistress.”

“Did he now?” She smiled again, wider, but more sinister. “You seem smart, Storm. It's been a while since I've had a smart one to play with. I'll let you run around the house, for now, but I wouldn't try to leave, if I were you.” With that, she turned around and walked back into the house, leaving the door open behind her. I retrieved my satchel from Dreadslice, but didn't go into the house quite yet. She'd let me off too easily here, when she probably could've just asked Dreadslice or one of the others to tell her where I was. She was playing a game, and if there was one thing I knew about games, it's that they're always rigged.

Well, that's what the movies said, but she certainly wasn't proving them wrong.

First thing I needed to do was find Salheen. I didn't trust this place, and I didn't trust anybody in it. Sunny had said he'd never heard one of her sandgators complain. As cliché as it sounded, mind control of some sort was probably involved. It worked for Chrysalis, after all.

When I walked through the doors, I heard a chime from within the building, like a clock marking the hour. It chimed twelve times, and every time, a life dropped out of my sense.

Oh.

Fuck.

I heard her voice echo through the halls. “Tick tock, Storm. Move quickly, you haven't got much time.

“Let the games begin.”