Chapter 1: Impressionable Minds
Chapter 1: Impressionable Minds
“YOU TOUCH IT, YOU BUY IT. We take cash or credit.”
They say that every pony has a special talent. Something that makes them belong. Course, finding out what, is another thing entirely.
There's not much to do in a trading camp in the middle of the desert. The most interesting views you can get inside four huge walls amounts to a herd of brahmin, or a bunch of clouds. None are very interesting, and watching either gets boring pretty quickly. Trust me, I've tried.
If you have the caps, you can do some trading, maybe buy something entertaining. The key word here being 'if'. I can't remember the last time I had any money to buy something other than what I needed for food.
No surprise people don't stick around long. Usually they stop by to stock up on food and water and then head off in whichever direction they feel like.
Me? No such luxury.
It wasn't so bad for the first couple of years. I was small, and the camp was large, so I got to exploring everywhere I could. It was fun, for a while. Then I grew up a bit more and the world got all that much smaller. Most days would end up with a good session of brick counting. Almost as exhilarating as watching clouds.
Add to that the fact there was no other foals in the camp, and you might start to see why I wasn't exactly happy with being stuck in the same place year on year. Still, it didn't mean I couldn't get creative.
***
High, very high. Very very high. I looked down at the ground again and shut my eyes. Very very much too high.
The ground stretched out before me, shifting and swirling, threatening to swallow me up. I put my hooves over my eyes and whimpered.
The tower I was sitting on gave a small creak as it moved slightly in the wind. I held to the railings for dear life.
This was a stupid idea in every sense of the word. Any idea involving an extremely high place always had to be a stupid idea. Though considering who had thought up the idea I guess that didn't say a lot about me either.
It was such a simple plan. Get a rope between the tower and the wall, attach self to rope, step off, and slide to freedom. I had been fine until just after step two. That was when I had looked down and saw tiny dots moving around below me. My mind had pretty much refused to cooperate after that.
I slowly opened my eyes. No panicking, that was a good start. Then I tried standing up. The world swam before my eyes and I collapsed to the ground with my hooves over my head. Too high.
I opened my eyes. That was still okay. Instead of standing, I tried crawling slowly towards the edge, my harness clinking in response. It put together hastily with straps of leather and bits of scrap left lying around. Only now did I remind myself how stupid that was.
I looked below me and then immediately wished I hadn't. Below me was the camp, with ant-sized dots moving bustling around. Small herds of tiny brahmin faintly mooing. Ponies talking and yelling.
Then there was me, high above them all, about to do something incredibly stupid. I hoped they wouldn’t notice.
I stood up, determined to make at least one step towards the edge. My head lifted up and my gaze followed to the view over the walls. The horizon stretched out for miles and miles, with small mountains and hills in the distance. Wind swept up huge clouds of dust and sand, making new dunes and erasing evidence of any previous travellers.
The sight gave me the courage I needed. I closed my eyes and ran. The floor fell away beneath my hooves as I fell forward.
The line above me jerked as it took my weight. The tower creaked in protest, and I could feel my harness strain as a slid down the line. At first, it was like a gentle slide, but very quickly, I built up speed. I strained to open my eyes as the wind blew past me and I saw the wall racing towards me very, very quickly.
It grew closer, and closer. Fear took over as my body seized up, unable even to scream. Even so, as the edge of the wall approached, I could see my target getting nearer and nearer. Outside. That was where I was going.
There was an awful twanging sound.
I started falling.
That was probably when the screaming started.
My body unfroze itself and began flailing wildly. Now the ground rushed up to meet me, and it seemed to be moving even faster than the wall. I closed my eyes. Maybe it would just go away.
I felt the wind rushing by me as I tumbled through the air.
There was a loud thump.
After about 5 minutes, I realised I was still breathing.
As I opened one eye, I could also confirm I was still able to see. I also found that my other eye was still working. The dull grey sky was still above me. I reached out with one of my hooves. That was still working too. So did the rest of my limbs.
I looked down at the large pile of hay I was sitting on. I could see brahmin a little ways off mooing to themselves. I lay back down and looked back up to the sky. Then I just broke out laughing.
“I’m not dead!” I shouted, to no one in particular. The feeling of relief at not being dead was amazing, enough to put a stupid grin on my face. I rolled off my pile of hay and immediately stepped in some brahmin dung.
I stopped smiling.
***
“Fifty caps.”
Around the camp, there were ponies of all kinds were milling about. Some were making their way through various stalls and stores, looking through the goods on display, or shouting at each other about prices. Others were sitting around tables or at a bar, eating campfire cooked food, swapping increasingly unbelievable stories in the hope of a free drink. A few were loading up crates and barrel into carts, or saddling up brahmin with even more bags, preparing for a long trek across the wastes.
And right in front of me, a grey earth pony looked down at me with some disapproval.
"Uh, kid. It's just a hammer, nothing special about it."
I looked down at the pieces of clutter scattered around me. Bits of metal, spent spark batteries and scrap cable made up most of my not-so-fantastic inventory. There was also a hammer, which did indeed look pretty normal.
"Ah, but ya see," I said, lifting up the hammer between my hooves. "Could a regular hammer do this?"
I swung the hammer down on a large rock and smashed into it. Cracks formed along the point of impact and then spread rapidly across the entirety of the rock, splitting it in half and revealing a small cache of glittering gems inside.
"Magical gem finding hammer," I said again as the earth pony's eyes widened slightly. "Only fifty caps."
He coughed and looked away, trying very hard to keep a straight face. I was no expert on reading people, but I didn't need to be to tell he was really bad at it.
"Nice tool, I suppose," he said looking back at me. "But it doesn't look too new. Still, I suppose I could take it for thirty caps."
"Forty-five" I said, almost immediately, which also apparently caught him off guard. He drew back slightly, but recovered.
"Thirty-five, no higher."
"Forty."
“Real smart little kid aren’t you?” He proceeded to make a big deal about thinking about it, complete with a hoof under his chin. I mentally rolled my eyes.
"And a couple of pieces of scrap, last offer."
With a triumphant flourish, the pony handed the caps over and walked away, hammer in mouth, leaving me considerably richer than I had been several minutes ago. I took a guess that the amount of smashed rocks around camp would go up quite a bit.
Forty caps wasn’t an awful lot, relatively. But when you're a young colt who hasn't eaten anything in the past few days, forty caps opens up a whole range of delicious food options. Delicious still being relative, of course.
Still, one advantage of being younger was that food portions were also proportionally a lot bigger. A good brahmin steak would probably last a day or two. Provided it didn’t grow legs and run away, which actually happened a lot more than I cared to think about.
I picked up the two halves of the rock that had been the victim to my earlier demonstration. The gems in the centre glittered, and as I reached out and tapped them they made a hollow plastic noise. I took out a tube of Wonderglue and carefully stuck the pieces of rock together again, the cracks fading together.
Another advantage I had found, as I stuffed the 'rock' back in my saddlebags, was that other ponies seemed to think that being young meant were somehow more honest.
I stuck my helmet back on my head, a round metal dome with various straps and clips hanging off the side. It was also far too big for me. The world went dark for a few seconds before I flicked up out of my face. I pulled myself up on my hooves, yawning and stretching as I did so and looked around. There were the stalls, still brimming with business. Brahmin pens took up a bit more of the space and sets of brick buildings, barracks and a saloon made up the rest of it.
All nicely packaged up in a set of concrete walls, complete with a big signed label emblazoned with 'Happy Tails Caravan Camp’ in massive red lettering. One of the biggest and safest trade hubs in the desert for miles.
And it was so boring. Nothing ever happened. Caravans went in and out, goods exchanged hooves, and more and more ponies just came and left.
I took a few steps forward and made my way towards food. My legs disagreed with my plan, and I rolled over onto the floor. I waved my legs feebly in the air. The zip line incident from earlier had been pretty draining. Add that to the hunger, and walking might really be pushing it.
I gave up and laid back on the ground, staring up at the sky. Grey clouds stretched in all directions, as far as I could see, the missing ceiling to an otherwise complete cell. Small holes appeared and disappeared as the clouds swirled slowly around. I pulled my helmet down and closed my eyes. The mess hall was really far away after all. Dinner could probably wait a few more hours or so.
Tap, tap, tap.
Or maybe not.
Someone tapped me on the head again. I groaned and shuffled slightly, attempting to convey 'leave me alone' in as few words as possible.
"Hey, you stay like that any longer and people might start selling you as radigator meat."
The voice came from above,. I lifted up my helmet and the face of a unicorn mare looking down at me blotted out the sky.
"Hello Racket," she said, smiling as she loomed over me.
There weren’t many good things about living in the camp, but the unicorn standing over me was one of them. Her name was Aqua Bloom, she was a caravan merchant, the normal kind who sold things for caps. I had met her, or more accurately, she had found me, as I was testing whether whatever they put in the brahmin troughs was edible.
As it turns out, it was, but unfortunately, it also caused me throw up a lot. Aqua had come over, cleaned me up and sat me in front of a large bowl of cactus mash. She had refused any sort of payment, saying that she just “couldn’t stand to see children suffering”. I had told her I could look after myself, she had just waved a hoof and told me that I could count it as a favour to be repaid. I didn’t think she would ever collect on it. She was the kindest pony I had ever met. She was also staring down at me, expecting a reply
"Hi Aqua," I replied. Or at least I tried to; it sounded a lot closer to 'hmmammhm'. Apparently, the bits of my face that dealt with taking had already taken the opportunity to go to sleep, and they weren't very happy about being woken up.
Either she understood me, or she just thought it was funny, but Aqua giggled at it all the same. My face started to heat up slightly. I coughed and tried looking away.
"Sorry," she said, with her hoof in front of her mouth, still trying to hide a smile. She shook her head, flicking strands of her white mane out of her eyes as she composed herself. "Just wanted to know why you're taking a nap right out here on the dirt. Your dad forget to pay the rent again?" She tried to pass it off as a joke, but it sounded strained.
She looked around the hub, scanning the groups of ponies. "Where is he anyway?"
I opened my mouth, but instead of words, there was just a loud rumbling noise that I was pretty sure came from me. Aqua smiled again as I shifted around.
"Well, I guess I won't be getting anything out of you until we put some food in you.” She grinned and offered a hoof out to me. "Let's get you something to eat, I'm sure your dad would appreciate it."
She caught sight of my expression and added, “Well, maybe.”
She lifted me up, and after a few seconds to make sure I wasn’t going to fall over again, we set off towards mess hall. Or ‘big tent that smelt worse than brahmin crap’, as I called it.
We talked as we trotted along, me about nothing in particular and especially not about zip lines, and her talking about her travels in the wastes. She did most of the talking, and I listened intently, hanging on to every word.
“We used to roll out east,” she said. “Plenty of stuff I could tell you about out there, the Manehattan ruins, the ‘high class’ ponies in Tenpony Tower, there’s even a bunch of ponies still in the Core, some good trade there I can tell you.”
“Still… It wasn’t the best place for a caravan. I heard that the west got off pretty light in comparison. Didn’t see anything there to prove them wrong.” Her smile faded slightly as she went on. “Course, we still have our own problem don’t we? Talk about something going on over the river, and the slavers are getting more active as well…”
I turned to look at her as she trailed off. Her mouth was still smiling, but there was a pained look on her face. For a while, we didn’t say anything. Sometimes she’d talk about it more, but most of the time just the mention of slavers was enough to cause the same sad expression to appear.
The silence let my mind wander and do some thinking. I kind of envied Aqua in a way, being able to travel to so many places, and see so many things. But then again, if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t know anything about outside. I probably would have ended up going crazy too.
She was the one of few in the camp that seemed to actually care about other ponies, and that was saying something. Whenever her caravan passed by, she would come and stop by for a while. I didn’t know what she thought of me, but I just enjoyed being around her, doing simple things like talking or walking together.
Not to mention her long white mane and blue coat, which made her look kinda… Pretty. Aqua turned to find the sight of me desperately trying to shove my entire head into my helmet.
"Get any redder and I could sell as an apple.” She held out a hoof and helped me up again.
“Radigator bait and apples,” I said. “What else are ya plannin’ to sell me as?”
“Oh, I could probably think up a bunch of other things,” she said, giving me an evil look complete with slightly unnerving grin. She managed to hold it for about a second before we both broke out laughing. A couple of ponies stopped and stared at us. I didn't care.
“Y’know,” she went on after we had both calmed down. “It’s too bad I can’t bring you anywhere, I think you’d really like it out there. We even have a little filly and her family coming along for the journey.”
I just nodded. Wasn’t much I could do. The camp and its walls were the only life I had. Beyond that, all I knew of the outside from were stories and whatever tattered books I could get my hooves on. I was stuck in almost every sense of the word. The walls that kept the wastes out, also kept me in. And I was sick to death of it.
The closest I had ever been, apart from that earlier adventure, was just a few steps away from the main gate. The desert stretched out in front of me, hills, rocks and the horizon in the distance. That was just before my dad had grabbed me and dragged me kicking and screaming back to the barracks. After that, he had made sure that the guards knew that I wasn’t even the observation towers were off-limit. He didn’t even give me a reason. Just that it was ‘for my own safety’.
Screw safety. I was getting out whether my dad liked it or not.
Speaking of my dad…
We were walking by the saloon when the door burst open and a group of ponies fell through the doorway, kicking and yelling at each other. A grey blue stallion struggled to the top first and drove his hoof into a unicorn’s stomach. He crumpled to the ground just as a bottle-wielding pony took a swing at where he had been standing. Losing his balance, he got a swift kick in the side. He stood up looking pleased with himself. That probably made the shovel to the back of the head even more surprising.
A grey unicorn at the bottom of the pile had levitated it up again for a second blow when the earth pony, apparently unfazed by the attack, wrenched from his telekinetic grasp and smashed it against the back of his head. He too fell over, joining the other three on the floor.
The grey pony reached down and picked up a straw hat that one of them had been wearing.
"An' that's why," he said, his words slurring together slightly. "Ya don't touch mah hat."
Then he staggered a few steps, threw up and fell over on the ground.
A shining example of ponykind. It almost made my want to laugh.
A minute or two later camp guards came over to disperse the crowd, while the others hauled the unconscious ponies away. The grey stallion with the hat was sitting up and looking around with a dazed expression and a rather contented grin on his face.
Aqua was wrapping some of his wounds with bandages, and trying to get him to drink a healing potion. I was just sitting down and pretending very hard to ignore him.
"Ya look just like mah kid y'know? He's almost looks, exactly like ya."
He wasn't making it easy.
Aqua carefully tied off the last bandages and instead set about trying to shake some sense into him.
"Slate, that is your son."
"Oh. Right." Expressions of puzzlement and confusion flashed across his face, until recognition finally dawned, albeit extremely slowly. "Oh! Hey Racket!" He waved a hoof at me while grinning like a maniac.
"Hi, Dad." That was all I could say. I just hung my head as Aqua tried to force the potion bottle into his mouth again. He dodged and weaved around it, until she just sighed and gave up. For a heavy drinker, he didn't really appreciate drinking very much.
"He'll need a trip to the infirmary, but otherwise he'll be just fine," she said, giving me a weak smile. "Honestly, I'm more surprised he doesn't have concussion right about now".
I looked him over again. Messy dark brown mane and tail and dark blue eyes. It was like looking in a mirror. If that mirror added about forty years. And then changed all the colours around. And then swapped our hats around. Actually, probably not the best analogy.
He did look slightly dazed though, smiling at anything and everything. Now was as good a chance as any. Time for Plan A.
"Hey, dad?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"Wha?" he replied, his eyes drifting until they focused on me. Or partly on me at least. "Oh, hi Racket. Would ya mind telling this unicorn to buzz off?"
"Dad, that's Aqua. You know her."
"Oh, righ'. Hiya!" He gave Aqua a grin and a wave. She sighed and gave a small wave in reply. I just sighed.
"I'm gonna get him something for the bruises, just sit tight and look after him okay?"
I nodded as Aqua walked off. That just left my dad and me.
"Pretty l'il gal ain't she?"
"What?"
"Looks a bit old for you though." He just sat and grinned his manic grin at me.
"Anyway," I said, trying to bring the conversation back to normality. "I just wanted to talk about me getting out of cam-"
"No."
I blinked. His expression had changed from grinning idiot to dead serious in less than a second.
He shook his head. "I've tol' you before, you can't go out there."
"B-But dad, if I stay here, I'll..." Um. My mind grasped at concepts and plucked one out of the muddles mess of ideas in my head. "I'll never get my cutie mark!"
"Too dangerous. 'Sides there's plenty of work to do here, you'll fin' what your talent is in good time."
"I've already tried everything!" Sincerity was easy. Mostly because it was true.
He stared at me for a while, his face still. Eventually he lowered his head, eyes covered by his hat. "Fin' then," he muttered. "What would you do if you got out?"
That was easy. "I would, uhh." My mind drew a blank. "I would..." I trailed off. I had stayed up all of last night, poring over a magazine about talking. But as much as I tried, whatever I had picked up seemed to have suddenly evaporated from my memory.
"Do... Things?" I said eventually, giving him a sheepish grin.
"Things?" He shook his head in response. "Sorry kid, no can do."
Damn it. So much for that.
"It's for ya safety," he said, as he rose to his feet slowly. "The wastes ain't a playground. Maybe when you're older kid, jus' not now."
I just sat there with my head down. I should have guessed nothing I said would change his mind. He just wanted me safe. Tired, hungry and near crazy from boredom, but safe. Screw safety.
After a while, Aqua came back and took him to the infirmary, my dad back to his normal state of slightly crazy drunk. That left me sitting outside with nothing but broken pieces of door for company.
On the bright side, at least I could go get some dinner now.
"Hey, you there," came a gruff voice from behind me.
I turned to see the saloon's owner what's-his-face looking down at me.
That wasn’t actually his name, but he was definitely looking at me, and he definitely didn't look very happy.
"You're Slate's kid right?"
I nodded glumly. Any conversation involving my dad usually didn't end well.
"Yeah, well”, he flipped open a notebook and scanned through it. “He said you'd pick up his tab."
My mouth hung open.
"Five, ten… Yeah, twenty caps for the drinks." His gaze moved to the pieces of wood scattered on the ground.
"That'll be twenty for the door as well."
I didn't bother arguing as I handed over the caps. It wasn't worth it.
***
A few hours later and forty caps lighter, I dragged myself around the camp for the umpteenth time. Light was fading, and some ponies had already packed up for the night. That didn’t include me of course, a bed at the barracks cost at least fifteen caps a night. Not exactly wallet breaking, but when you're broke you're broke.
It felt like I had a dark cloud hanging over my head. I looked up just to make sure. Nope, just regular clouds. Damn.
I managed to reach the cattle pens before I collapsed, stomach growling like a sick brahmin. Hah, despite it all I could still make some jokes. Take that world.
Crawling up to the feeding troughs, I glanced inside, looking for anything remotely edible, violent sickness or not. There was nothing. Not even a chewed up carrot. Well, that was that then. I flopped back on the ground, and closed my eyes. Sleep was marginally more preferable to gnawing hunger.
"You're going to get them all killed!"
Okay, no sleep for me either.
I got up, just in time to see a door slam open and a red unicorn mare dressed in leather armour storm out of the building.
"Spark, be reasonable..." Another unicorn mare appeared at the doorway, grey with a brushed back white mane.
Spark cut her off, rounding on her. "No, Glass, you be reasonable! Your stupid delivery is going to kill them all!"
"It's Miss Looking Glass to you," she said, adjusting a set of glasses perched on her nose. "And just remember that it was your sister who agreed to it." The grey unicorn turned away and shut the door behind her.
"Damn it!" A bucket slammed into a nearby wall as Spark decided to start ripping apart her surroundings. I yelped and jumped behind a trough as signs and posts followed, along with anything not nailed down. By the time she had calmed down, it looked like someone had set off a bomb. Then another one.
I peeked over the edge of the trough and saw her breathing heavily in the centre of the destruction.
She really didn’t seem in the best mood. I tried my best to sneak away. That’s when my stomach decided to rumble loudly.
"Who's that!?" Spark snapped around, levitating a pistol at my hiding place. "You've got five seconds before I start firing, and I'll warn you right now I am pissed off!"
It was a choice between bullets, or a really angry mare. It wasn't much of a choice. I crawled out slowly from behind my hiding place and moved into the soft lamplight. It took her a few steps with her gun still trained on me before she deemed me not a threat. The look of abject terror I had probably helped as well.
"Ugh, you. I could've guessed." She sighed as she holstered the pistol. I felt myself start to breathe again. No one ever seemed happy to see me.
"Word of advice kid, don't sneak up on me." Spark turned around and started to walk off. I tagged along behind her. It wasn't as if I had anything else to do.
Spark was the head of security in camp. That meant she dealt with my dad on a day-to-day basis. I was somewhat of a lesser concern, but since she was also Aqua's sister, I got 'extra special supervision' whenever she was around. Less for protection against me, but rather the amount of trouble I seemed to attract. Considering my day, I didn't really blame her.
"What was all the shouting about?" I asked, moving up alongside her.
"Nothing."
"Nothing? You almost shot me!"
She waved a hoof dismissively. "I meant, nothing a kid like you should be worrying about."
"But she was talking your sis wasn't she?" The look I got back told me I should probably stop prying any further. I gulped and got back to silently walking.
"Oh, what the hell. It's not like you won't hear it from her later. 'Sides I need to vent a bit."
With the cracking of what had been a signpost a few minutes ago underhoof, I agreed with her.
"The annual caravan journey out east is coming up tomorrow. You know about that right?"
I nodded. It was one of the biggest events in the year, fifty or more wagons loaded with supplies heading off on a long trek across the desert. The east was apparently in bad shape, something to do with it being the main target of most of the war bombs. I didn't know much about it, but from what I heard, there had been explosions and fire everywhere. Sounded cool to me.
Spark continued talking. "Yeah, well, standard procedure, we send out part of the camp guard to go along with them, they get there and make it back and everyone is happy. Sometimes we got people who wait a little on personal deliveries just to join up. That's fine, ain't much effort to protect a couple more wagons."
"But Looking Glass, in her infinite freaking wisdom decided to delay all this years deliveries to today. Said it was for efficiency." The way her eyes blazed, I feared she might start destroying things again. Thankfully, she just sighed and continued. "Nah, she just wanted to scrape every last cap she could. So now we've got over twice as many wagons to protect and hardly enough guards. As if we didn't need to be a more attractive target for raiders."
"Maybe I wouldn't have minded. I mean anyone stupid enough to go along with it deserves everything that happens to them. But then Aqua turns up and says she wants to tag along her own wagon."
"Now I've got her life hanging on it, and Glass won't even let my assign anymore guards. Instead she brings in the freaking freelancers. I swear, half of them don't even know which end of a gun the bullets come out of."
"So yeah, I'm not really a happy pony right now." She hung her head and gave a deep sigh. "Oh yeah, and I'm sorry for almost shooting you."
Hardly anyone was around by now, the camp was dark, and the only real light was the soft orange glow given off by the burning oil lamps. We walked behind the back of one of the administrative buildings. It was the quickest way back to the guard barracks. I was almost glad to see night come. At least it would be easier to get some sleep. Hunger problems notwithstanding.
It also meant I didn't notice Spark had stopped walking until I bumped into her. From the way she stood stock still, she had either noticed something wrong, or had suddenly turned into stone. I was inclined to believe the former, if only because I could hear her breathing.
"We're being followed," she whispered to me. "Stick close and follow my lead."
She started walking again. I fought off the urge to look behind me and kept close alongside her.
Fear of the unknown. That's what they say is what you're truly afraid of. I didn't know who 'they' were, but they were at least partly right. My hair prickled, along with the gnawing sense of unease. I sped up my walk.
Suddenly, Spark jumped backwards. There was a sickening cracking sound and then a pony crying out in pain. I turned and saw a grey pony lying on the ground, hooves over a bloodied face. Next to him was a knife, along with Spark, pointing her gun at his head.
"All right knife boy, why the hell are you following us?"
"Fugoff" he replied. It sounded like he'd bitten his tongue. Looking at the knife, I guessed it was probably more than bitten.
All that earned him was a swift kick in the nether regions, eliciting another load cry.
"Ahm herfur th' kid!" he shouted as Spark raised her leg again. The colt pointed at me. She lowered her hoof and turned to me instead.
"Know this guy do you?"
I shook my head. To be fair, I hardly knew any ponies around the camp. Still, he did look familiar...
"He sol me aghahar!"
"Aghahar?"
Aghahar? Ahahar, A hahar... A hammer? Wait...
"Oh right!" I said, raising a hoof. "He's the guy I sold that fake hammer too."
"Ah newit!" the grey pony shouted. "Geth him!" Two ponies jumped out in front of us, one holding a large sledgehammer in his mouth and the other levitating a cattle prod.
Oh. Woops.
"What th-" Spark was cut off as the grey pony smacked the pistol out of her grip. It clattered off somewhere in the darkness as the other two charged at us. He got a hoof to the stomach for his trouble.
"Get down!" Spark shouted at me as she ripped a nearby lamp off the wall with her magic. I didn't hear her. All I noticed were the two ponies charging towards me. My brain screamed at me to move, but my body refused to move. I saw a wall rushing up towards me.
The sledgehammer pony reached her first, and took a swing. Dodging to the right, she brought the lantern round into his head as he threw himself off balance. There was loud crack as the glass smashed against his head. Sledgehammer pony went down with a thud.
I blinked. Everything had gone dark, the lamp not in any condition to be working anymore. A shout came from the dark.
"Hey, kid, you still okay?" came Spark's voice.
Well, if you counted scared stiff as being okay, then yeah sure!
"Hold on..." A light flared in front of me and Spark appeared, slightly in front of me.
"Can't see a damn thing, or the rest of them." She turned her head and the light from her horn swept around. "Gah!"
I watched as Spark leapt into the path of the cattle prod. She fell onto the floor, twitching slightlyThe the unicorn turned to face me, bringing the prod around for a second swing.
Something snapped inside me, breaking whatever paralysis had taken over me.
I started to run, closing the distance between me and the unicorn. He swung the cattle prod round, just as I threw myself at him. I felt the cattle prod brush against my side. The shock travelled across my body, muscles started contracting involuntarily. It didn't matter, I didn't need them anymore.
The look on the unicorns face as I slammed into him, helmet first, must have been quite a sight. Unfortunately for me, all I heard was a loud thud, and then another as I hit the ground.
My mouth tasted dirt. Dirt didn't taste very nice. Why did I taste dirt?
I lifted my head. Oh right, I'm on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Spark getting shakily to her feet. That was good. Then my head throbbed and blackness started to creep into the edges of my vision. That was probably not so good. There was a dull buzzing sound in my ears as I felt myself slipping away.
The last thing I felt was a searing pain across my head, as I sank into darkness.
***
"Blink please.”
I blinked. Light shone into my eyes as a unicorn flashed a small light in front of my face.
“Look left.”
I’d woken up in the infirmary, head still slightly sore. Aqua had been there, as well as Spark, the former fussing about whether I was okay, and the latter seemingly indifferent about it.
“Now right”
After I’d blacked out, Spark had rounded up the ones who had attacked us and managed to get them locked up ‘pending further investigation’. Seeing as how parts of her mane still refused to lay down straight, I was guessing it would probably be a long time coming.
“And blink”
I blinked. The unicorn floated the torch away from my eyes as I rubbed them.
“No signs of concussion, you’ll be thankful to know. Knowing who you’ve got as a father though, I wouldn’t be surprised.” She dismissed me and turned to look at Spark instead. “I don’t suppose I’ll be finding out about how you two got these injuries at all?”
“No.”
The nurse just shook her head and sighed.
“No, I didn’t expect so. Look, I need the beds for the late night drunks. You’re fine, so if you don’t mind…”
That’s how we ended outside. The night had settled, cold air sweeping through the camp, the only light coming from the small number of lamps casting their orange glow. I heard Spark come up next to me and give a small cough.
“You gonna get into any more trouble tonight?” she asked as she sat down next to me. “Or am I gonna have to lock you up to?”
“Dunno,” I said with a grin. “Are you gonna get your mane any more spiky?” I guessed from the look that I got back that she probably wasn’t.
“You just concentrate on not selling people anymore ‘magical’ items, got it?” I nodded as well as I could with her muzzle pressed up against mine. “Good. Well, then, I’m going off to get the guards ready.” She drew away as I managed to start breathing again. I watched her walking away, and then as she turned back towards me.
“Oh, and... Thanks kid,” she said, staring at the ground. Then slightly louder and with a smirk continued, “Nice way to use your head.”
I winced as a flash of pain streaked across my head as she turned away and walked off.
I shivered, partly from the cold, and partly from the sudden loneliness. This was replaced by a sudden warmth as someone put their hooves around me.
“You did well today Racket, or at least, that’s what I heard,” Aqua said as she pulled me closer. I felt my face start to burn. “I need to go get ready for tomorrow, but I promise I’ll see you again soon, okay?” She gave me a small smile. I couldn’t manage to look at her back.
“Yeah... Okay...” I murmured in reply. She smiled at me again, and then walked off towards the rows of wagons.
I watched as she walked away, the warmth fading more quickly that I would have liked. That just left me sitting outside by myself. It seemed to be happening a lot lately.
There wasn’t much I could do apart from head back to the barracks. Today had certainly been Interesting. Ponies trying to kill me was certainly a bad point, not to mention losing all my caps. My dad... Well that was just him being him. Good points were being with Aqua, and also Spark, who probably ended up disliking me less.
My mind rambled on until I reached the large half cylinders that made up the barracks. The doors weren’t an option for me, they charged caps for bed and entry, and I was somehow running low. I moved round to the back of the building instead. A few boxes and barrels, nothing out of the ordinary, but they were my only way inside. I clambered up a pile of boxes and quietly opened a small window, rectangular and flat and just big enough for me to squeeze through.
I squeezed through and climbed down the stack of boxes on the other side. Or at least I should have. Instead, I fell and landed with a thud on the floor. The pain was a good reminder to look where I was going as I shifted the boxes stacked just to the right of the window.
Moving through the darkness, I fumbled around the walls until my hoof hit the light switch. A ceiling lap flickered a few times and then grew slowly, casting a yellow glow on the room. A stack of shelves on my left held various pieces of scrap machinery and a row of old looking books, while bits of metal and tools lay cluttered on the floor. There was a mattress curled up in the corner, complete with a rather patchy blanket and pillow. Home sweet cupboard.
It wasn't much but it was mine. Well mostly mine, at least no one knew I was here. The only door had rusted shut long ago, leaving a hidden, if not completely comfortable living space. It was small, but some small paintings of deserts and landscapes helped it feel bigger. It was a comforting place.
I shucked off my saddlebags and tipped the contents onto the floor. The amount of clutter on the floor grew quite substantially. I moved the clutter into somewhat similar piles and then stretched out on the mattress. It felt good to lie down after what happened today. I curled up and pulled the blanket over me, sleep was very welcome.
***
Bzzt, Bzzt.
Ugh, hold on.
Bzzt, Bzzt.
Alarm, right, gotta turn that off.
Bzzt, bz- click.
Silence. Much better. Now... Why's it still dark?
I tugged off the blanket and stood up. It was indeed still dark outside.
"Stupid clock!” I shouted at the inanimate object. A hand popped off as I moved it in my hooves. I guessed it didn't help that it was held together with duct tape.
I just sighed. Well, since I was up I figured I should get something done. I shifted the piles of junk on the floor. List, list... Ah, here we go. Number one, get caps. Yeah that didn't really go so well. Next point, get food. Not going to happen too soon. Third point, collect materials.
I looked around at the piles of clutter around me. At least there wasn't a shortage of that. Some piles seemed to have actually grown while I was asleep.
The last thing on the list said, 'read second note'. After searching on the floor for a few more minutes, I found it tacked onto the wall instead.
"Find weapon?" I read out loud. Why would I need that? I racked my brain for answers. The rest of the list was pretty incomprehensible, probably due to lack of decent writing tools. The only reason I could think of needing to get a weapon would be...
My thoughts drifted to my earlier escape attempt, and also to the journey over to the east. That was happening today wasn't it?
Something sparked inside my brain. Oh, right! I couldn't believe I had forgotten, though staring around at how many notes I had made, I suspected that I probably had done.
I spun to look at the window. The first signs of light were beginning to creep through the darkness. I was going to have to work quickly.
A few minutes of gathering provided me with a set of junk that was in a somewhat usable condition. A rusted paint gun in the corner grabbed my eye. I gripped it and waved it around a bit. It seemed fairly stable and the mechanisms were all there, now all it needed was a few additions. I grabbed a screwdriver in my mouth and got to work.
***
I clambered out of the window a couple of minutes later, saddlebags in tow. The plan was very simple, get on a wagon, hide, and I'd finally be out of here within the hour. I’d packed my bags, though not with as many supplies as I had hoped. Honestly, I was more concerned about getting out.
I crept around, peeking around buildings, making my way towards the wagon area. It was early dawn, but there were still a number of ponies getting prepared for the trip.
And some guards it seemed, Spark must not have given the whole 'stay behind' speech much thought. I moved to the holding pens just next to the wagons where there were still some cattle, asleep thankfully.
"Moo, I say."
Okay, mostly asleep then. I turned around to find a two-headed creature staring down at me. Well, half-staring, the other head seemed more preoccupied with chewing on something.
"Don’t see many ponies out this time of morning, how're you doing?" the head that was focused on me said.
"Shh!" I replied, trying to focus on the movements of the camp guards.
"Well that's mighty rude now ain't it? Ain't that just rude Herbert?" The other head, presumably named Herbert continued chewing, apparently oblivious to the conversation.
"Just shush, I'm trying to be quiet!"
"Hey, who's out there?" The voice had come from one of the guards over by the wagons. I yelped and tried to hide behind one of the feeding troughs.
"Young people today, no manners at all." The brahmin continued unabated. "I mean when I was just a calf, ponies used to greet me with at least a hello and they didn't just load me up with bags without asking, and...
"Shh, you're gonna blow my cover!" The head continued its rant, ignoring my attempts to make it be quiet. As I peeked out from behind my hiding place, I saw a couple of unicorn guards getting closer, horns glowing in the faint morning light.
"... And they make us walk for so long without a break, it's not as if we don't get tired, and some of them even use muzzles! Can you even imagine the indignity…"
The brahmin seemed to be completely ignoring me now. As much as it was annoying, I surprised myself when I pulled out my modified paint gun and pulled the trigger. There was a small twanging sound and a dart flew through the air and sailed over the Brahmin. Another twang and the second dart hit it on the side.
"And another thing, I really don't... See why... Oo-er..."
It collapsed on the ground in a sprawl, heads flopping to both sides. At least one of them was snoring faintly as the sleeping draught did its work. The good news was that meant my new dart gun worked. The bad news was that I was I only had a couple of darts left and I hadn't even left yet. That, and the guards were still getting closer.
I held my breath as the guard came right up next to my hiding spot. Faint light swept around the pens, and then again.
"Nothing here, just the cattle," said one voice.
"Yeah? Then what do you think spooked 'em?" said another.
"How the hell am I supposed to know? Look let's just get back before the boss chews us out for leaving our post."
The light swept around for the final time, and then faded. The sound of hooves walking away was accompanied by the return of my breathing. Crisis averted, for now at least, but I still needed to get over to the wagons.
I looked around again, trying to take in all the details. The large wall and gate was to my left, while the rest of the camp stretched out back to the right. The holding area was directly opposite from where I was, with a dirt trail in between them, but it was being patrolled by several guards. Failing sudden powers of invisibility that meant the direct route was out of the question.
Ponies were still loading crates and barrels onto wagons. I also noticed a small pile of Sunrise Sarsaparilla crates, stacked up the wall next to me. I moved up next to them and prized open the lid. The top crate was empty, save for a few bottles. There was an obvious plan here. Still, my stomach was doing somersaults at the mere thought of it.
The outside is so near, a little voice in my head said. It’s right there, just climb inside.
I couldn’t. Or maybe I could. It was the only way. But I might get noticed. But maybe that didn’t matter.
I must have spent ages, just standing there, hoof holding the lid of that crate. I could have probably spent ages more, if the sound of hoof steps getting nearer hadn't caused me to stop arguing with myself.
I leapt inside and brought the lid back down over me. It was dark, cramped. I hardly had enough room to move my legs. My heart was pounding, partially from fear, but mostly from the feeling of the crate pushing into me. My breathing quickened. The sides of the crate seemed to shrink.
Then came something worse than being stuck in a small space. Being stuck in a small space and being thrown around. Something that I suspected the pony that lifted me didn't know. There was a minute of shaking and floating, followed by a sharp throw and a thump.
Then I was alone. Muffled sounds still floated in through the wooden panels, along with bumps of items being loaded, but they all felt so distant. The waiting was agonising, I didn't dare open the lid of the crate for fear of being found, but any longer and I would probably scream.
Then there was a bump, and then a creak of a wheel as it turned underneath. The relatively smooth ride continued for a while, and then gave way to harsher ground, rattling the crates and making me all too aware of the panels still around me.
Carefully, I lifted myself up, the crates lid creaking in response. From the crack in the box, I could see the dirt being kicked up behind the wagon, and the massive gate of the camp behind us.
Gradually, the image shrunk before me, leaving me with a view of the world around me. Desert stretched out for miles around, mountains and cliffs towered off into the distance, and the clouds seemed even higher than before.
It was amazing. There were no other words for the world beyond the walls.
The shock of the outside was quickly replaced by a sudden sense of tiredness. Not sleeping for more than an hour can apparently do that to you. I clambered out of the crate and sprawled out over whatever space was left and closed my eyes.
I’d made it. A smile crept across my face, before the darkness of sleep washed over me.
Footnote:
New Trait: Claustrophobia – You have a fear of enclosed spaced. Being indoors causes you to work less effectively, but you excel in wide-open spaces.
