Sympathy For The Devil

3/24/2058

South Palomino Desert, Outside Faith…

4:12am…

“W-What?” I stammer for a response after the perfectly logical request. I'm not sure why I asked for a reason as to why he asked me my name, I guess I just wasn't expecting it.

“Your name, what’s your name?” He asked again, this time, his head shifted upwards and his orange eyes squinted and stared right into my eye sockets. It was as if he was burning a hole into my head, melting my mind into mush for him to then easily pull information out of. And unfortunately, it was working. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t even exist at this point. He wanted answers, and god help me if I didn’t answer

“Azalea, Azalea Gaura,” I spoke back, a stutter staining the passing sentence. He didn’t even look away when his pencil started to move around on the page, his upper and lower jaw, working it quickly.

“Mhmm,” He nodded, still staring at me, “How old are you?”

“18,” I blurted out without a second thought in mind. The sooner this is over, the sooner he tells me why he’s here, and why I’m alive, I hope. Slowly his left eyebrow raised, changing the scowl on his face,

“A little short to be 18 years old, but I suppose it's possible,” He continued to write on the page.

“And, that town down there… What is its name?” He asked nodding down and over his left shoulder. I couldn’t see what he was motioning toward, but I assumed he meant Faith.

“Faith, the town's name is Faith,”

“Is that so?” He asked his eyebrow slowly lowering back to rest above his eyes. I nodded timidly. He shook his head slowly as he began to look me over, then he quickly glanced back at his notepad, his nose scrunching up as he whittled away at the paper. He was eyeing me up, those Garnet like eyes looking me over once and awhile before shifting back to the page. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead, maybe due to the stress of the situation, but I made myself believe it was because of the fire, and not my hulking captor, eyeing me up for, only god knows why.

“So tell me Azalea, did you live alone in Faith, or did you live with somepony?” He finally spoke, his gravely voice cutting the crackling of the roaring fire. I shook my head.

“No, I lived with my mother and father, but mostly my mom, my father, he left us when I was really young,” I wasn't sure why I was opening up to him like this, part of me told me to run away as fast as I could, but every time his eyes stared into mine, it shut that part out almost instantly. It wasn't that I thought of him romantically, but I knew if I ran, if I turned tail and left my seat, I'd be dead before I left the light of the fire.

“Well, I'm sorry to hear about your father, but your mother, can you please describe what she looks like please?” He asked the pencil stopping on the page. Without hesitation I spoke.

“She had a dark blue mane, a greyish white coat, and light purple eyes. And she’s just slightly taller than me.” The stallion's eyes squinted after I ceased talking. His eyes darted left to right quickly, then a quick few quick nods came to him, as if he remembered something, then in between the pencil a small grin came.

“Right then… Thank you…” He said as his pencil stopped moving around on the page. He leaned down to his left side and he laid the pencil down slowly onto the log, moving it with his hoof, making it parallel to him. He then with a steady hoof, laid the book on the ground and slid it over towards me. The page he had been writing on had some how managed to stay open despite the winds acting against it. Once the book slid in front of me I look down at it, my chest aching a bit as I leaned down to view it.

In perfect hoof writing was my name, age, place of birth, and family members listed off on the paper, with a lines space in between each category. And below it all was the sketch of a pony. It was a rough outline, yet, it seemed so detailed, every hair in place her face neatly squared up with her shoulders, the proportions were on point. And it only took me about a few seconds to realize, that pony he drew, was me.

Of course it being but a sketch, it lacked my tan coat, my dirty blonde hair, and my light blue eyes. Yet even though it was black and white, I could feel the colors in it’s structure. He even got the beginning of my chest wrappings, just before the bottom of the page cut him off.

Needless to say I was quite impressed. He didn’t seem like the artistic type.

“Do you think anything needs to be changed,” He spoke, his voice felt as if it was right in my ear. I turned to my right, and there he stood, his muzzle just creeping over my shoulder as his inquisitive eyes looked down at the page. They then shifted up to meet my gaze, an eyebrow cocking upwards. I shook my head no, then a slight grin appeared on his face as he moved around me and slid the book back over to where he was sitting, the book closing as it reached the log. Slowly he turned and trotted back to his seat, but as he moved he spoke.

“Miss Guara, let me be the first to tell you how lucky you are to be alive right now,” His head turned back towards me as he snaked around the fire, “You are quite literally an anomaly, by every means of the definition,” He finally reached the log, he stood atop of it before sitting down quite properly like, his back straightened upwards, his hoofs in front of him.

“I don't understand, what do you mean?” I asked as I watched him tie an elastic band around the book and push it off to the side of his right hoof.

“I mean, you are one of the luckiest ponies in Equestria right now, hell, maybe even the world. And for you to be sitting here in front of me, in the state that you're in, I might as well count my lucky stars because I’m sure I just ran out of them,” He said shaking his head, not in disappointment, but in disbelief, a smile creeping back onto his face. I looked down at the bandages wrapped around my chest and fore hoofs, my body still aching and sore from the battle.

“Well, when I meant your current state, what I meant to say, you're not dead, unlike those, poor, unfortunate ponies they now lie in droves in that ditch, that I had to step over to get to you,” His ears slowly droop downwards. His eyes, they don’t stare at me anymore, instead they stare into the fire, he watched the flames dance around in the night sky, and I watched him as he spoke,

“I can’t stress this enough, I am sorry for what happened to you and your town, the Griffons are known for their brutality when it comes to stomping those type of encampments. That Freedom Town was probably the only place you knew out here, and now,” He stopped, for a long pause his eyes the moved away from the fire and to the ground,

“It’s gone… and nothing I can say will ever bring those ponies back,” His words cut me deep. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to make me feel better, or shot me down even more. But alls I could think about was leaving mother behind in our hut, the look of her face before I turned my back on her, the tears in her eyes. That final snapshot of what was, now burned into my mind.

I could feel tears of my own forming in my eyes, my eyelids heavy, my lips quivering. My head fell forward as the tears fell from my eyes, they moved slowly down my face, then hitting the ground, making small craters in the sand. The world around me seemed thick and dense, at any moment I could sink into the ground and be swallowed by the sand, killing me too.

“But…” His words cut the tears from my eyes, the air around me opened up again. I turned up wards to see him face to face again.

“I do have information about your mother, she is alive, but she’s being held by the Griffons and is on her way to being processed,” My eyes widened, the tears fell away, everything came flooding back, I nearly jumped from my seat.

“W-wait, what?!” I said with utmost urgency, “How could you know that? That's impossible! You’re… You’re lying!” The world's flew from my mouth, I knew he was lying, he was trying to soften me up turn me into his little play thing. How dare he say such things! But even now that my voice had raised and I felt as if I could easily strangle him to death, he still just stared at me, he seemed unfazed at my outburst, his eyes didn’t even move, he still kept his gaze, his permanent scowling gaze.

“Trust me, I saw her, the way you described her while I was sketching you matches the description of one of the four ponies that the griffons held at gunpoint, escorting out of the town, back over the hills into the desert sands,” He continued to stare me down, his sleek physique and proper sitting stance still very much prominent in the way he spoke.

“I’ve lived out here in the sand for a very long time, I’ve seen these kinds of towns fall before, the buildings razed to the ground, ponies bled dry from musket fire, left dieing in the streets, foals crying over there parents dead bodies, only to be dragged away from them by the claws of those, monsters. And who are the Griffons responsible for committing these acts against you, and these towns?” There was a slight pause as if he thought I knew the answer, a cool breeze moving past the two of us, just before he spoke again.

“A small detachment of Griffon soldiers, called Marauder Company. They are responsible for destroying small encampments of free Equestrian citizens, wherever they may appear. And, it would seem, that if they found yours, there hunting around the surrounding hills searching for more Freedom Towns, killing or capturing as many Ponies, or Griffon defectors, they can get their grubby, yellow claws on…” He looked over towards the fire again.

“Which, i’f you didn’t catch my drift… Does not bode well, for and me, specially if we work alone,” He stopped speaking for a moment, more wind passed between us. The fire still crackling away.

“So, given the circumstances, and our current predicament, I’m going to make you an offer,” Suddenly his head fell to the right of him, the sound of rusling could be heard, then his head came back a bit faster, an object he now held in his mouth, came flying over towards me. The thing he tossed to me made a loud thud in the ground, the sand a dirt, being being out of its way. He then spoke,

“Work for me, and I will get your parents back, refuse… and you’ll die alone… in the desert,”