Bittersweet Legacy

The grains of dust moved with each breath as Jay lowered his body, sweat droplets splashing against the uneven floor as he began to push himself back up again. As he raised his body to its apex, his arms began to tremble as more sweat coursed their paths down across his face.

“Wow, how pitiful.”

Jay pushed himself through another, his arms shaking more once he reached his apex, he did his best to ignore Flintlock as she jeered and laughed. He began to lower himself and hesitated as his body was already passed its limits. One arm buckled and before he could regain his form he began to fall before rolling his body over his shoulder of the arm that buckled.

Jay lay on his back breathing a slight wheeze as his lungs struggled to empty and refill.

Berry Rush walked over with a used wet cloth.

Jay took it gratefully and sucked at a corner, he could taste the filth that had collected on the cloth, taste the dirt on his tongue, feel the grinding crunch between his teeth. But it was all they had. Once he had a few drops of liquid he began to wipe his body as he raised himself up.

His arms were beginning to show definition, something he never thought he would see again with radiation sickness weakening him. Though since he woke up in this strange land with strange talking creatures, he found himself growing in strength, but it was slow. Most of his energy was taken by the slave dogs pushing them all to dig.

Speaking of, Jay, heard metal scrapping against stone and the pads of feet making their way down the few stairs.

“You, want you now.”

Jay carefully stood up and moved over taking his selected spot and waiting for more instructions.

“Take and dig in new tunnel. Too many sick.”

With a sigh, Jay followed the dog with a square flat face, grabbing and pulling the bucket of tools behind him.

Jay was led out and through a series of tunnels to a newer smaller tunnel and was pushed inside.

Jay turned and lit a nearby lantern and lifted it before making his way to the end of the tunnel. Setting it down, Jay began by using a shovel to scrape at any loose dirt until there was none left. Once done he shoveled the dirt off to the side before taking a pickaxe and giving it a swing.

He wanted to save what energy he could as his stomach growled, but knew if he tried, then they would strike him.

Jay worked himself into a steady rhythm. They wanted him tired and worn out to be broken. Jay had made only a couple other attempts to escape, all failed as he had been caught and beaten. Now he wanted to work to try and use his mind rather than brute force. The dogs didn’t seem all that intelligent, but they certainly had more strength in body and heightened senses which they used to their advantage.

As he worked things out in his mind, Jay struck at the ground and nearly fell forward as he struck into a small hole that blew out air and dirt into his face.

Jay coughed and coughed, feeling as though something hit the back of his throat.

Before he could catch his breath, Jay fell to his knees.

“Weak! Another sick one.” Came a voice at the entrance of the tunnel.

Jay fell to his side, bits of stomach bile surging up and out of his mouth as he felt weaker before everything went to black.

Jay let out a groan as his eyes fluttered open. He looked around rolling to his side as he tried to breathe.

The others usually kept their distance but something about how they looked at him as if filled with fear said something else kept them away now.

A bowl was slid over near him with a bit of dry bread.

“How are you feeling?” Berry looked at him with concern in her eyes.

Jay let out a wheezing breathe, and motioned to his chest, “it feels a little hard to breath, like something is pushing against my chest, or my lungs.”

Berry let out a small sigh, “Crystal lung.”

“What’s that? A disease?” Jay asked.

“Yes, there are false crystals in the ground, crystals that their external form has hardened like glass, but the inside is nearly hollow and when struck spew out particles of crystal dust. When somepony breathes it in, the dust begins to slice up the lungs, and can even begin reforming causing death.”

Jay laid there for a few seconds thinking over what Berry said. “There’s a time limit, do you know when it is?”

Berry shook her head, “Only a medical professional, or a knowledgeable Unicorn would be able to give you that answer.”

“What about a guess? Or maybe an average if there is no cure?”

Berry was silent as Jay moved to reposition himself to drink what little bit of water he could.

“If you could get proper treatment early on, the crystals could be removed before forming and killing you, but it would take time. But I have seen a few who have gotten crystal lung before you showed up live about a few weeks to a couple of months.”

Another wheeze, “my world, new world, I am destined to die. Well Universe, you seek to royally fuck my life.”

Berry tilted her head uncertain what he was talking about.

“What’s with them? Is this disease contractible?”

“It is.”

“Then you shouldn’t be near me.”

Berry answered Jay by taking an old piece of cloth and dipping it into the water before wiping at his face.

“We need to get out of here.”

“No, no no no no! I am sick and tired of listening to you talk about escape. If we could we would have a long time ago, but these diamond dogs have taken everything from us-“

“They haven’t taken your life.” Jay said, throwing the words at Flintlock.

Flintlock seemed to tsk before grumbling, “What do you know about losing everything?”

“Where I am from, creatures not native to my home began a war we were ill prepared for, but we stood our ground against them, and just because we were able to push them back, they changed the way they played the game. They used one of our weaknesses we were slowly fighting against to destroy nearly my whole race. That war cost us everything, family, friends, comrades in arms. There was a soldier, he was a veteran of a previous war we had among ourselves. He told us as we started to stand for ourselves that as long as we have our own life, as long as we draw breathe, we can always stand up and fight.”

Jay grew silent as his mind flickered for a few seconds to that moment he had forgotten. He held to that, and slowly a face began to form, then two, then several faces were there, all held in shadowed. Jay reached for them but felt a misstep as the memory began to fade.

Even though he felt the fear of loss he was able to grasp at the broken shadows and felt fear, cold and stifling that turned slowly into a growing heat of anger.

Jay looked around himself as he came back to the present. He was standing now glaring towards the others.

“You have your life, it is yours, even if you have been convinced that others have taken it away from you.” Jay felt something hot and wet as the lower part of his vision blurred. He leaned against the wall as it felt he was having trouble breathing.

He looked up when he heard a grunt, and a minotaur stood from a knee.

With a deep breath followed by a snarl, drool fell from his maw. “The child speaks true. We are giving power to others, but our life is ours. It is time we stood and took our lives back.”

The minotaur turned placing his hands against the bars seeming to stretch as if trying to break the bars.

Everyone pulled back as he bellowed, the vibrations of his voice seeming to rock and shake the very stone walls around them all.

There were yelps as the diamond dogs whined at the bellowing sound. The minotaur took a few deep breathes before stretching out his chest and bellowing once again, this time it was as if his very heart was part of his bellowing. Seconds of silence and just as he was ready to destroy his voice, there came bellowing calls of others.

“They hear my call. We minotaur’s shall stand by your side, we have our lives, and will fight.”

Whispers erupted suddenly from the other denizens of the cage.

“No, don’t listen to him. Those voices aren’t saying they will fight, those are voices of those being hurt.” Flintlock screeched at them.

“If you don’t want to fight for your life then you are free to stay here. But I want to keep fighting for my life, for my survival.”

“As do I,” the minotaur added.

Others now began to add their voices, several for fighting, others uncertain with fear.

“Let’s grab what we can, even tools can be used as weapons in the right hands.” Jay said as he helped the minotaur pull against the bars. It took some effort of pushing and pulling to loosen a couple but once they were able to, they had their chance of being free from the cage.

The minotaur had to force his way through and grabbed the tools and started handing them to others.

Just as they were preparing themselves, there came the clatter of sound that was followed quickly by several diamond dogs appearing.

“No! You stay and dig for shinies.”

In response, the minotaur took a shovel and slammed it against the smushed face of the diamond dog knocking it back into the others.

“Forward!” He bellowed and the group surged forward.

Berry turned to Jay as he began to move in the rear.

“You shouldn’t-“

“If I don’t fight for my life, then I am nothing more than a hypocrite.”

The smell of the rain soaking into the earthen ground, and the soft patter of drops falling onto tree leaves would lull others into a sound sleep, but for Skitter as she made her way toward the entryway of the diamond dogs lair, was enough to help her stealth.

She remained back as she had been instructed by her queen, allowing her form to remain part of the shadows and scenery as she waited and watched.

It took some time, and it started faintly, muffled by the amount of earth but she could faintly pick up various sounds of voices and sounds of fighting slowly breaking free of the earthen confines.

She could faintly pick up the scent of blood and shortly diamond dogs of various types began to run, some injured out from the entrance.

She remained vigilant as she waited, slowly her eyes began to glow as her queen began to take control to watch in turn, waiting patiently for her prey.

It took some time for the creatures to spill out to the surface, diamond dogs fighting minotaurs, griffons, ponies and more. There was an obvious victor as more and more dogs fell away running scared and beaten.

Then one creature on two legs different from all the others emerged. However, just as he emerged, he seemed to vanish as the torches that brought forth light blinked out.

Queen Nepidae smiled as her prize appeared before her.