Into Ashes: Act II

Day…?

My eyes open full for the first time, but I am hardly any stronger or more energetic than before. My head is still foggy, full of gaps and holes to the recent events. My legs, still sore. Pins and needles stabbing them as I wake.

My vision clears just enough to make out my surroundings. I lay in a small stone alcove carved into cave walls, trapped behind jail bars.

Where the hell am I? Where’s all my stuff?

Just beyond the bars is a large circular room. Other cells similar to mine line the round wall. Sunlight pours in through a gaping hole in the ceiling. Two identical orange Unicorns stand guard at a door. The only visual difference between them are the icons on their flanks. One is of a sword, the other of a shield. They both wield spears fashioned from wooden poles and tipped with the pointed legs of salvaged drone parts. One of the spears, is not just a regular drone appendage, but is the leg bearing the powerful electric stun weapon from a JN88. It's core battery is crudely strapped to the bottom of the pole, and the power cable running between the ends. They both stand vigilant, occasionally muttering a short phrase between themselves but not loud enough for me to hear.

What the hell is going on here.

I lift my head and try to push myself off the ground. My whole body shivers as my weakened muscles come to. The moment I bring my chest from the cold floor, the guards spot me. “It’s time." I hear one say in a deep, growling voice. "Go and let Ivory know he has awakened, and bring the bucket.” The other guard leaves and closes the door behind him. The one with the stun spear continues to stand guard at the door, watching me with an angered glare. I crawl over to the jail bars to try and lift myself.

Some short time later, just as I’m lifting off my knees and to my feet, the other guard returns with a bucket full of water. They come towards my cell. The water sloshes in the bucket, and the stun spear hums to life. I continue to pull myself up, still disoriented and barely having the strength for it.

The moment the guards reach my cell, the stun spear is shoved between the bars and into my chest, sending an untold voltage surging through my body. Every muscle in my body locks up, paralyzed from the powerful current. The shocking lasts for only, but I feel its surge seem to never end. I fall to the floor, and the water in the bucket is thrown over me. The freezing wave sobers me from paralysis to almost full awareness.

“Wake up Human.” one of them says. “It’s time for your questioning.” I lay on the floor, still too weak to do anything.

They both grab me beneath the armpits and drag me out of the cell, zero concern for being kind or gentle in any sort of way. They drag me out of the door and down a dark, musty hallway. The smell of rotting plant fibers and wet stone fills my nose. We pass by several doors, hallways, all with sparsely placed lights strung up along the ceiling. I look into one of the open rooms we pass. Several Equine are inside, all glaring at me as I’m drug by. Some of them shield their children from the sight of me.

What. Is this.

At the end of the long hall, the guards stop at an opened metal door. Inside, a large vacant room with nothing but a lone chair seated in the middle. The room is poorly lit, faintly illuminated by a single red lamp attached to the ceiling. They drag me inside. I’m thrown chest first into the chair. The guards pick me up, spin me around, throw me back into the chair and bind my hands behind my back, my feet to the wooden legs.

In from the doorway comes another Equine. Female, unicorn, coat of white and mane of light gray. Her mane, fluffed and combed backwards. Her eyes of a burning, acidic yellow. She seals the door behind her.

“I hope you enjoyed your little nap… HUMAN.” she says. I can almost see the disgust dripping from her mouth at the end of every word.

“Who the hell are you-” I ask in an exhausted, feeling like I'm not breathing. “Where the hell am I-?"

“I’ll be asking the questions here, not you!” She strikes me across the face. “You speak only when spoken to! Got it!?”

She motions the guard with the stun spear to come to her side. “This can go one of two ways, human, the hard way or the even harder way.”

I have no idea why they’ve brought me in here or what’s about to happen. The one thing I know is, this bitch isn’t fooling around.

“Both ways will involve you telling me everything I want to know, and a lot of electric shocks. I suggest you answer my questions accordingly! It’ll save you a lot of trouble.”

The stun spear buzzes loudly into action, glowing bright blue against the dark red background. Their devilish grinning faces illuminate in it’s light.

“Now then, first question.” She presses a hoof against my chest and sends the other hurling right into my face. “Where are the rest of you hiding!”

I struggle to remain in touch with my bearings. This mare hits a lot harder than I anticipated. But I remain as stoic as I can as a show of defiance.

“I don’t know - what you’re - talking about.”

She punches me in the face again.

“Try again! I know it’s hard for you to rat out on your friend, but you WILL tell me! Where are they!”

She winds up for another punch and holds it.

“I’m alone! - There’s no one else!”

“Don’t lie to me! Where there’s one of you there’s always more around. Don’t think that I’m a fool, I know you’re hiding them! You monsters are never alone!”

She readies her hoof for another strike.

“How many more of you are there!”

“Wouldn’t - you - like to know.”

She backs away, staring at me discontentedly. “Zap him.” she says, rolling her eyes. Without hesitation, the guard smiles and jams the spear right into my chest again. I yell out, all the air is thrusted from my lungs and all my muscles constrict in one, agonizing jolt. He lets off after a few seconds.

“I told you. Like I said we could make this hard or even harder. That was only 60,000 volts. Next time you smart off, it’ll be 70.”

The guard backs away and the mare shoves her face in front of mine. “Now, how, many, more, are there..”

“I told you, there’s none! I’m the - I’m the only --- AAGGGHH!” The guard zaps me again.

“Lies! But I admit I respect your want to keep your friends safe. But we will find them, and we will kill them!”

“Just one - of my friends - could kill, all of y --- AAGGHH!”

“Quit speaking out of turn you bastard! You’re only here to answer my questions and tell me what I want to know. Back talk again and I’ll bump it up to 80,000!”

The spear thunders loudly as the guard flashes it threateningly.

"Won’t tell me where your friends are willingly? That’s too bad. You know what, Thunderhoof? Turn it up to 85. I think we just need to force it out of him.” Her use of the word “friends” sends flashes of Fluttershy through my head.

“What did - you do - with Fluttershy. - Where is she..”

She uppercuts me right in the jaw, followed by another powerful sack right to the side of my head. I and the chair fall over to the side. The guards set me back up like a domino, just to be knocked over again and again at their will.

“Don’t EVER mention that name! She’s caused us enough trouble and you bring her back!”

“Where - IS SHE?”

A solid punch to the forehead again sends me falling groundwards. And again, the guards lift me back up and set me back down. They zap me. My body starts to feel like it's burning, on fire. My organs feel as they’re boiling from the heat of the current.

“How many times do I have to SAY IT! Speak when spoken to! Now where are they!”

“I told you! I’m the only one! Everyone else left - a long time ago.”

“Then why are you still here? What are you monsters planning now!”

“There is - no plan!” I struggle to breathe, lungs cooked and on fire, burning with every constricted breath. “I’m telling you - There’s none of us left!”

“We’ll just see about that. I’ll save that one for next time. On to the next question.”

She gets in my face again.

“What did you do with the Elements of Harmony!”

“The - Elements of - what?”

Again, she plows her hoof into my across my face. I’m really starting to get tired of this. I don’t know what she’s even talking about and yet she keeps drilling into me! I’m fed up with all these accusations! If only I had my strength, I could tear her apart in an instant!

“Don’t play dumb! I can tell by the patches on your uniform that you were part of the attack on Canterlot. You destroyed the royal castle and scattered our only hopes in defeating you! Now where, are they!”

“--- Up yours.”

“Oh my poor, delicate little human. Why must you make things so hard on yourself?” She yanks the spear from the guard and shoves it to my chest, letting loose with 90,000 volts. The current burns through my eyes. I'm blinded for the entirety of the shock. I feel as if my soul, screaming in its own torturous hell is trying to pull itself free of my searing body. She doesn’t stop either. She just holds it to my chest mercilessly, unrelenting. Only when the water that was dumped on me begins to boil away to steam does she finally stop. Even after she stops, I convulse uncontrollably in the chair. A bloody foam starts to ooze out of my mouth and drips on my lap.

Exhausted, barely alive, burning from the inside out.. She still presses on with the interrogation.

“That was for all the lives you stole from us! If no one wanted to keep you alive I would have had my way with you already. You are a bold one though, aren’t you? But you know you’re defeated. Look how helpless you are against us. And no one can save you. Why don’t you just give up? Make things easier on yourself? All you have to do is tell me what you did with the Elements! It’s that easy!”

Barely able to speak, I still force myself to show that I won’t talk. Knownledge or not, this will go on until I am left as a husk to rot. Air wheezes in and out of my throat, barely getting enough through, feeling like I'm being choked.

“You’ll have - to ask - someone else. That wasn’t - what my unit, was tasked with.”

Knowing I won’t be able to take another shock, she turns the spear to the blunt side and brutally prods me in the chest. Hard enough that again, all the air is thrust out, along with a spoil of red ooze spilling to my lap. The chair falls backwards once more. The guards set me upright again. Thwak! Thwak! She whips me across the face and in my gut like the spear is a baseball bat. Thwak!

“Just wait! - until! - I get my strength back! - First thing I’m doing - is coming for you!”

“Hm-hm, cute. But that won’t be happening. We’ll be doing this every chance we get until we get everything we can from you. Nice try though, I was almost scared for a second. Now back to my questions! I know that once you destroyed the royal palace, you collected the elements and scattered them across Equestria so we couldn’t find them! Tell me, now, what you did with them, and you can go free! For today.”

The moment she gets close enough to me, I spit all the bloody mess in my mouth right in her face. She recoils violently, shocked and utterly disgusted. She stands still, wide-eyed, taken aback by my gross audacity. I look her in the eyes and grin smugly.

“Thunderhoof?... Go get the branding iron.” She says this calmly but still in shock. The other guard comes up nervously with a rag and wipes my spit from her face. Thunderhoof soon returns with a metal rod, the end of it glowing a bright red-orange, heated just below the point of melting.

“You’ve done it. You’ve really done it Human. I’ve never had to use this on someone before. Congratulations. As a reward, you can be the first one I try it on! And can you guess where this little rod is going?”

My grin disappears as I have a pretty good idea of what she’ll do as payback for the spit.

“Hold his head back and keep his mouth open. Yes, that’s right human. It’s going right in your mouth to DRY UP ALL THAT NASTY SPIT OF YOURS! Then we’ll see how you feel about doing something stupid like that again!”

She grabs the rod from Thunderhoof. Both guards rush behind me and yank my head back and jam my mouth wide open. I squirm as much as I can, but their tight hold is stronger than what I can muster. I try to shout “No!” but it all ends up coming out as a croaked, soupy gargle.

She approaches with a manic look in her eyes. She will enjoy this, and I will suffer every last agonizing bit of it! I try to break free but I can’t! She waves the rod back in forth in front of my eyes, just above my face. I can already feel my skin beginning to singe and she hasn’t even touched me yet. The searing heat from it's red glow slams against my entire face. I desperately try to squirm my way out, but the harder I try, the more the stranglehold of the guards clamps down around my head! She holds the rod just at the tip of my lips. My jaw is slightly freed from their grip. “Nnno!” I managed to yell out. The guards jam my mouth back open.

“YEESS! This is your last chance to tell me what you know about the Elements! WHERE ARE THEY!”

The guards release my jaw. “Please - don’t! I don’t know anything about them! I swear!”

“Wrong answer!” I see the fire in her eyes flash with enjoyment and she readies to shove the burning rod into my mouth!

“That’s enough!” A female voice rings out from the entrance to the chamber. A mare stands silhouetted against the blinding light that pours through the now open door. “You’ve gone too far this time Ivory. My orders were to see what he knows, not burn him so he can never speak again!”

“I - But you told me - I thought you -- Sigh Yes ma’am..”

“Now drop that iron and take him to the infirmary! He’s had enough for today.”

“... Yes ma’am.”

The unknown Equine leaves the doorway and trots off. The moment she disappears behind the wall, Ivory turns back to me with those fiery eyes. She drops the iron rod. It hisses and flames spark up as it bounces and rolls away on the floor. “Lucky break, Human.” She jumps up and spins around, landing only her front hooves. She gets one last shot square at my face with a potent buck from both of her hind legs. I fly backwards and slam my head to the ground, knocked clean out.

• - - -

Darkness… Voices, muffled. Nothing but the feeling of cool air lightly passing over me. And the smell of wet stone… I can’t move. I try to lift my arms and legs but I have no energy. It feels like.. Something is holding them down as well.

I hear two voices, exchanging words with one another but I can’t make any sense of what they’re saying. Still no sight or vision. Not sure if I’m being kept in total darkness, blind, or just too weak to open my eyes. I try to wiggle my fingers. I can feel them. They’re there, but just barely. Toes… Also there, but I have no better control over them than the rest of my body. My whole body is numb to my control.

Suddenly I feel a pressure weigh down against the bottom of my wrist. And then, another pressure, this one against the side of my neck. Even more suddenly a flash of a shadowy figure passes through my mind like a bolt of lightning. For the brief moment that it existed, it reminded me of the same figure I saw as I was being dragged away by.. Fluttershy. A black mare with a mane that glitters in the darkness like the stars of the darkest night sky. But that’s all I see. It’s gone just as quickly as it came.

The pressure on my neck and wrist goes away, and a voice creeps in with the leaving pressure. Female… Talking to a male… I, I think I can hear them.

“...... working on him for three days now. He’s lost a lot of blood, I don’t know how he’s managing to pull through.”

“IIII’ve been sayin it. The Humans aren’t any kind of fragile like we are. What would kill me and you would probably be just a bruise or a scratch to one of them. And after what Ivory put him through? They can’t be natural… I mean just look at this, here’s another one!”

I feel a quick pinch pull out of my left leg.

“How many is this now?”

“67.”

“67! 67 pieces of shrapnel in his lower body and he’s still walking around.”

“We never stood a chance. Elements of Harmony be damned. The magic the humans use is far beyond what even our most powerful --”

“Now now Primrose, we mustn't lose hope. As long as there’s still magic in the world there’s somepony to carry on our torch. Check his pulse again.”

“What for? I just checked it.”

“Just check it again. I want to be sure.”

I feel the same pressures from earlier press down again.

“Yep, still beating. I don’t know how but..”

“We’ll give him a few more days to recover. Once he’s stable again we can lock him back up.”

“And if he wakes up before then?”

“Easy! Just give him another round of sedation and he’ll be out cold in no time.”

“Ugh, we’ve used so much on him already. We only have so many of those things left.”

“That’s fine, we can always make more.”

“But you know that doesn’t work as well.”

“That’s also fine. So long as we can keep him under, everything is fine. If we slip up, and he wakes up, there’s no telling how much damage he could cause. How many do we have left?”

“6 boxes worth.”

“Thaaaat’s plenty.”

“Yeah, but we’ve already used two-and-a-half boxes just to keep him under and we can barely manage that. The more we use on him, the more used to it his body is going to get. I’m really starting to worry. Why does she even want to keep him around so much? What could we possibly use him for? How do we know he’ll even cooperate?”

“Always pessimism with you Primrose, always pessimism! What she wants is what we are here to get for her. As our wise and knowledgeable leader who rescued us all and gave us homes, it’s what we owe. I’m sure in her right mind she knows what she’s doing.”

“I sure hope you’re right."

I start to get a slight amount of feeling back in my fingers. I.. I think I can feel myself starting to move them, though hardly at all.

“I’m sure she does. Has she ever steered us wrong before?”

“Yeees? Remember what happened the last time a group went out? She trusted Fluttershy to go with them and.. Well you know what happened.”

“Yes, you are right. That was a very dark time...”

“And all the sleepless nights we spent working?”

“Yes, I remember those too. But how could we have known Fluttershy would do that? --”

I gain enough control back over my fingers in my left hand to make a weak fist.

“-- Unforeseeable circumstances happen to the best of us. I’m sure both of us can recall many atimes where we have faltered from misfortune as well. And even now, with as little options as we have, why not hope this works? It’s the only hope we have left.”

“Because hope is a dangerous tool?”

“Pessimism Primrose! We just have to keep our heads held high and hope for this to --”

“Yeah, and what if it doesn’t work? Backfires? What if it fails so badly we can’t recover from it?”

“Sigh What choices do we have? We’re all slowly dying anyway. But tis better to have tried and failed in the darkest hour than to have never tried at all. This is most certainly one of those times. Why not keep trying when we have a chance, however small? The rewards far outweigh the consequences of failure.”

“We lost our chances when the Elements of Harmony disappeared!”

“You give up on yourself too easily! The Heroic 6 would never abandon us, so why should we abandon each other? Sigh… May they rest in peace..”

“Yes.. May they rest.. Except Fluttershy.”

“Except Fluttershy?”

“Except Fluttershy.”

“Sigh, Except Fluttershy..”

“But even if she - OH MY GOSH!” A metal pan loudly slaps and rattles on the floor. “Doctor Still Hooves, look!”

“What?”

“His hand is moving!”

“What!”

“His hand is moving, look! He’s waking up!”

“Oh dear. Quick Primrose! Get me eight needles from that box!”

I don’t feel any of the shots being injected. What I do feel is a gradual loss of control over my fingers. I keep trying to move them but I progressively lose their favor. The voices slowly fade back to a muffle.

“Was that eight of them?”

“Yeah!? I don’t know! I wasn’t counting!”

“Well his fingers have stopped moving. That was too close Primrose. --”

“How much longer do we have to keep this up!”

“We go until we succeed or until we fail. They’re all counting on us to..”

The voices fade away into nothing, and I feel myself slipping from the grasp of my conscience. Just at the moment I black out, that mysterious shadowed figure flashes through my mind once more..