The sun shone down on the large and prosperous country of Equestria, warming its citizens and bringing to life the colours of its various landscapes. Atop a regal balcony attatched to a royal castle was none other than Princess Celestia. Her mane flowed in the breeze, gentle and cool enough to balance the heat out.

She was sitting on the balcony, staring out and admiring her country and the ponies inhabiting it. Just by staring down at the towns and cities she could sense the vibrant, joyous atmosphere captivating the countless ponies trotting and jumping about. All was serene in Equestria.

However, despite all of this, she couldn’t fight away a certain negative feeling - a feeling of uselessness. This stemmed from a problem she ever so badly wished she could help to fix, but due to certain interventions and circumstances she and all the Equestrians were shoved roughly to the sidelines. It plagued her greatly.

What was affecting her so badly? A severe, inhumane issue with the country running along one of Equestria’s borders, Sphaunt. The country was inhabited by ghost ponies and was shaped like a large ring, surrounding the small Frutia. Now, maybe the problem isn’t apparent to you quite yet. If you passed through Sphaunt on any given day you would see ponies doing hard work - tilling the fields, building houses and the like. Unfortunately this is where the problem lies.

You see, Frutia used to be massive and brimming with wealth and world-known celebrities. Not for very long however, as Sphaunt soon invaded them and easily won due to their lack of a decent military strength. Frutians were well known to be more passive, which is what’s attracted Sphaunt to attack them in the first place.

Do you now see the problem...of slavery, that is? That is what plagued the solar princess’ mind. Time and time again she’d mutter, “if only we could get rid of that barrier we could help the poor souls...”

~ ~ ~

Shouting and screaming is heard outside of Starroot’s shakily-constricted wooden shack of a house as she groggily yawns, rubbing her eyes. There were plenty of obscenities being exclaimed as a bonus. By her half-awake expression you could tell she had some form of insomnia.

She was covered in dirt head to hoof. It stained her light, pale red coat and her starfruit-shaped, yellow mane. Her tail resembled a tree’s root with a crooked and twisted shape to it. Her eyes were a pretty emerald green.

She trotted out of the small and dismal house. Roaming in the capital of Frutia was enough to see how shitty the situation really was. The roads were reduced to mud and rocks, most of which were sharp and hurt countless hooves. Most houses were either falling apart or already had collapsed or been burnt down. Sphauntian guards patrolled all over the area, constantly belittling or beating on the Frutians who weren’t yet in the slave system.

Every day at least five ponies were taken away to be sold off in Sphaunt. As for Starroot, she knew she could be taken whenever the guards felt like it. As could anyone else. All her friends had already been sold off to some slave owner or another. Loneliness had gotten to her ages ago and she stopped talking to anypony.

There was a part of her that wanted to fight and oppose their enemies. But it seemed completely impossible to her. How could she even hope to do anything? She couldn’t even get to Equestria and if she did, she wouldn’t understand or know their language. It seemed pointless to hope.

That was, until today. Today things would change, whether for better or for worse. See, on this otherwise dismal day, an incident had occurred behind her house. Star gasped upon seeing it - the dead body of a guard, with a dead female and a dead male Frutian right next to him.

‘Holy fuck...’ her mind raced as she processed the scene. Noticing there was a gun dropped from the guard, she quickly covered it up and acted as if she’d been casually walking the entire time. Thankfully she hadn’t been spotted while she was covering the thing up. Maybe there WAS hope now.

Or maybe it was a red herring. That would remain to be seen for quite some time, however. Now instead of sadness and loneliness, she felt passion and severe anger. That single sight had woken up her senses - she was literally wide awake - and opened up a door of hope right before her eyes.

A guard noticed her unusual excitement and remarked, “Must’ve slept. Lazy dipshit.”

Starroot had to resist multiple temptations at that moment. It wasn’t guaranteed to be the right time. Guards never dug things up since there was normally no way in hell a Frutian would get a weapon or self defense object. She answered in a meek voice, “yeah.”

The Sphauntian simply snickered and trotted away. The Frutian mare dashed off to the run-down shop where they were able to get food for fulfilling exercise quotas. She tossed over her receipt.

The receptionist gave her a big smile. She was a slave, so she was required to act like she was perfectly happy. Of course, nopony else knew about this. “Here’s your sandwich and milk! Have a great day!”

Star smiled back as best she could, immediately beginning to munch on the spicy egg salad sandwich as she trotted towards her home.

Now a new dilemma faced the mare. There were so many ways to go about using the facts. She could grab the gun and try killing one guard for his outfit, try killing a bunch of guards, play the stealth game...so many different ways to go about this. Some being much more viable than others.

“One thing I don’t want to do...” she muttered quietly to herself, “is ignore my opportunity.”

Ideas upon ideas raced through her mind, all of them trying to dominate and take control. She couldn’t even tell which one she would go with just yet...or even what all of them were.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! Now, readers, what should she do? Leave suggestions in the comments!