Where once upon a time the criss-crossing intersections of Manehattan were flooded by ponies at any time of the day and filled with light no matter how dark the sky above might’ve been, now both the streets themselves and the lights were dead. A small herds-worth of hooves struck stone, shattering the deathly still veil that hung oppressively over the once lively metropolis. They weren’t the heavy steps of adults, no, they were the light and uneven galloping of foals.
If anypony were to care to look out of their window and discern shapes from the blackness, they could see about four blobs running hastily across the road and to a storefront. However, distinguishing the little forms from the inky blackness that surrounded them would prove to be nigh impossible.
Even one of the foals could barely see one of her compatriots in front of her. It didn’t help that the sprawling concrete and steel jungle was far from her native habitat of a small hamlet with thatched-roof cottages and a single schoolhouse.
“Slow down, I can’t see anything!” She pleaded with the others ahead of her. The urge to focus some of the power into her horn to light up the night grew stronger as she tried not to trip over her own hooves.
“It’s cool, we’re here.” The leader at the head of the little pack of ponies, a snow white unicorn colt with a brown mane, spoke in hushed tones as they approached the storefront. “You all keep a lookout while I get this open.” The other three ponies all nodded and turned their backs to the colt messing with the door.
“You’re Dinky, right?” A filly, the dark blue coat nearly fading into the night that surrounded them, whispered out. “First night with us?” Just like the pony at the door, Dinky herself and the other foal that was with them, the speaker was a unicorn as well. Unicorns sticking together was definitely not an uncommon sight these days.
“Yeah.” Dinky looked down at her soft purple hooves, about the only things she could see at the moment. “It’s...my first time around other ponies since I left the shelter.” The little unicorn quickly raised her gaze from her hooves to the street beyond and attempted to keep a lookout for anypony else.
“Did they kick you out or did you leave?” The other filly asked. “Caramel and I left.” Even with limited vision, Dinky could hear the dark blue unicorn’s chest puff out with a certain amount of pride. “We couldn’t stand being treated like prisoners anymore!”
“I got kicked out.” Dinky mumbled and let out a heavy sigh. “I guess the ponies from the west coast came in and they were running out of room. That was like two weeks ago now.” Two long hard weeks of being alone...well, truly alone. She had been by herself since Ponyville, but she had still been around ponies. After leaving the shelter, she was truly alone.
“Okay I got it open! Cobalt, stop talking and let’s get this done!” The colt who had been fiddling with the door, Caramel, called back to the group. That made the three on lookout turn around and gallop into the newly opened door and into the darkened interior. Once all four of the foals were through the doors, they were closed by a touch of magic.
Caramel’s horn was encased in a soft golden glow that illuminated the space around them. Shelves adorned with hammers, nails, and various other hardware surrounded the group and the smell of sawdust flooded Dinky’s nose. The little unicorn raised an eyebrow and looked at Cobalt.
“I thought we were getting food.” She stated to the group as she stepped closer to one of the shelves that flanked her just to make sure she was seeing everything right. “Why are we in a tool store?”
“Because—” Caramel sighed and rolled his chocolate brown eyes. “—the place where they ration the food is behind this store. It’s guarded so getting in there from the front is hard.” The colt strode through the store to the back wall, where he came to a vent that looked big enough for somepony small to fit through. “They share a vent system so all we have to do is crawl through it and get the food that way. Cherry, watch the door and tell us if somepony is coming while I get this vent cover off.”
The other foal with the group, apparently named Cherry, trotted over to the front door to be their lookout as Caramel worked. Dinky was happy to sit and take a breath, maybe it would stop her heart from hammering against her ribs for a few minutes.
“Running around isn’t easy on an empty stomach, huh?” Cobalt sat next to Dinky with a little smile. No matter how hard she tried, Dinky couldn’t tear her eyes from the fangs that poked out from the other filly’s mouth. Even the sight of them made her self-conscious and she made sure that the smile she shot back at her comrade was tight lipped and quick.
Every unicorn around seemed to have some sort of deformity now. A lot still had fangs and that was it, but some had it a lot worse. She had seen some with their horns still long and sharp, others whose muzzles were elongated and filled with sharp teeth, even some who had those long spindly legs still. Scars from a collective pain that would never fade.
“So where are you from?” Cobalt asked, dragging the conversation along all by herself. “Caramel and I are from Fillydelphia and Cherry is from Appleloosa. We ran away from the shelter together like two months ago and we’ve been helping others ever since.”
“P-ponyville.” Dinky muttered quietly.
“Oh.” Cobalt responded. “So that means you were there when—”
“Yeah. When it started. When it ended…” Dinky trailed off, a shiver ran up her spine accompanying the memories that prodded her mind. It was bad enough that it followed her when she tried to sleep, she didn’t need any of that barraging her now.
“Your parents? Did some of the survivors there get them? The Elements of Harmony were there and I heard they killed a lot of unicorns.” Cobalt sneered a little at the mention of such an act and shook her head. “Poor unicorns…” She added with a shake of her head.
“No. My mom was a pegasus, she…” The words caught in her throat and the tears began to well her in her eyes. A reassuring hoof rested on her back and it was enough to calm her for now. Dinky had cried too much over her mom, it was something she would never get over but she had to focus on staying alive for now. “I-I never knew my dad...so…”
“I’m sorry about your mom.” Cobalt concluded with a small nod. “Our mom and dad were murdered by some earth ponies in an apartment building. They used some kind of trap in a stairwell…” Cobalt sighed. “They act like we knew what we were doing. Like we could stop ourselves.”
“Do you remember everything?” Dinky had to ask the question. It had been one she had been holding back since everything ended, since she turned back to normal. “Do-do you remember...enjoying it a little? Not wanting to stop?”
“I—”Cobalt’s eyes met Dinky’s for a split-second before they looked to the floor instead. The dark blue filly chewed on her lip and shook her head before looking at Dinky again. “—yeah I remember it all even when I don’t want to.”
“Okay it’s time to get started.” Dinky would’ve offered Cobalt some comfort, but instead she was cut off by Caramel speaking up from the wall. “C’mon, I wanna get this done as quickly as possible!”
Both fillies rose to their hooves and trotted over to where Caramel was sitting at the back wall. The vent cover was off and pushed to the side, a screwdriver and four screws beside it. The rectangular hole that was now exposed was pitch black, only a little bit of metal reflecting the light of Caramel’s horn.
“It’s a straight shot to the other shop. I’ve already been through and loosened the screws on the other cover.” The colt stood and brushed the mane out of his face, exposing his determined eyes. “There are two guards hanging around outside, so we can’t make any noise and no magic either! We can’t draw any attention!”
“And we’re looking for canned stuff.” Cobalt added with a nod. “Stuff that can’t go bad. They usually have boxes of the stuff so if we each grab one box each we should be good.”
Dinky nodded and shifted on her hooves nervously. Doing stuff like this was new to her. Never in her life had she stolen something, not even accidentally. Is this what she had been reduced to? A thief stealing from a place that was handing out food to the needy? It was eating away at her before she had even done anything.
There were a few uneasy moments before Caramel ducked into the opening and crawled into the dark. Cobalt was quick to follow her brother, leaving only Dinky. With a deep breath the lone unicorn ducked into the darkness.
The hard armor pressed against her legs as she crawled through the vent, the sharp sound of metal popping beneath the weight of three little ponies. Before all of this, it would’ve been a tight fit, but months of limited food had withered away any bulk she once had. Now she could pretty comfortably move along the narrow passage with her thin sides barely touching the walls.
In the pitch black of the vent, she didn’t see that Cobalt had stopped until it was too late. Dinky ran face first into Cobalt’s flank, which drew a little squeak from the filly in front as a horn poked into her hip. Dinky apologized quietly and waited in the dark, the only sound was the breathing of the three foals and the quiet creaking of a screwdriver loosening screws up ahead.
More thoughts of the past drifted into her head, memories she had done her best to forget. The taste of warm blood in her mouth and the hate that filled her heart came rushing back. The voice that sieged her mind for a solid month could still be heard from time to time when she saw a pegasus or earth pony, always telling her that it was ‘us or them’. That same voice that seemed to drive all of the unicorns mad, that caused all of this, was still there in the deepest and darkest parts of her waking mind.
The sound of something metal clanging as carefully as it could against tile dragged Dinky from the past and back to the present. The filly in front of her began to move and Dinky followed as closely as she could until she was out of the vent and into the makeshift storehouse the royal guard was using.
There was a single light on overhead, dim nighttime lighting used so the guards posted outside could still see inside. It revealed that the building being used to house rations for this section of the city used to be some sort of grocery store. Not a big one, mind you, but one for the little neighborhood it was situated in. A few aisles, a section with freezers and a counter with a single cash register.
Lining the shelves were boxes and boxes of goods, same with the coolers that lined one wall. Knowing that they were all full of food made each of the little unicorns’ stomach growl. This much food in one place was like seeing a bank vault filled with stacks of gold left unguarded.
“Sweet Celestia…” Cobalt muttered as she walked over to one of the boxes and peered inside, before reaching in and producing a can. “Mmm green beans. Add some garlic powder, onion powder, some salt and pepper…” She trailed off and mumbled under her breath. “...just like dad used to make…” They weren’t hulking boxes of goods either, they stood maybe half the height of Dinky and just about as wide. It looked like the one Cobalt was at contained two rows of cans inside. Three boxes of that would be enough for a few weeks.
“No time to reminisce!” Caramel hissed as he came over and dropped two loaves of bread in the box that his sister was inspecting. He tossed two more to Dinky. “Find a box with something other than beans and let’s get going.”
Dinky only nodded and slipped down one of the aisles, looking in boxes as she went. When she got to the end of the row of shelves, she spied the two guards standing outside of the door. Both pegasi, one dark gray and the other white and in shining gold armor. They looked bored and not particularly interested in their jobs, which was at least good for the foals inside.
Quickly turning back around, she found a box full of an assortment of canned soup on one of the bottom shelves. She had to stop herself from drooling a bit as she thought about a nice bowl of hot soup, something she hadn’t had in months. Without wasting another moment, she tossed her loaves of bread inside and slid it onto the floor before pushing it towards the back of the shop.
Both Caramel and Cobalt had their boxes down next to the vent. Caramel was visibly sweating as he pushed his box into the vent and angled it so it would get easily pushed to its destination. Once his was in, next they managed to get Cobalt’s and finally Dinky’s. She supposed that they would just push it as one long train using magic and get it out on the other side with the same magic.
“This is going great!” Cobalt whispered excitedly as she turned to Dinky. “I kinda thought this would be a lot harder.” The light purple filly was shaken vigorously by her partner with excitement. “No more hunger for like a month! C’mon be happy!”
“I am happy!” Dinky let her smile loose as she suppressed a small giggle. “Just, y’know, we still gotta get this stuff back home. I wanna wait until we’re safe before celebrating.” When they were safe in the abandoned house they called home, then they could all sit down and eat and celebrate together. Not now.
“Okay okay.” Cobalt took a few deep breaths and calmed herself down. “Even getting this far is exciting, though. No more begging or waiting. No more going hungry. It’ll be like the old days again.”
“Will it?” Dinky asked.
Cobalt pursed her lips and turned away from the other filly, opting instead to look at her brother. Her jet black tail twitched and her hooves shuffled against the tiles. Instead of trying to apologize, Dinky decided just to keep her mouth shut for now.
Soon enough, Caramel crawled into the vent and began the arduous process of pushing the train of boxes down the metal chute. Just like on the way in, Cobalt soon followed her brother and left Dinky to bring up the rear. With a sigh, the little unicorn crawled into the vent to follow her compatriots.
They were about halfway through when the pitch black metal corridor was illuminated by a golden light from Caramel’s horn up ahead. It was dim, but it was enough to let Dinky see the two ponies ahead of her. It also let her get a true feeling of how cramped the space was for the first time. Four metal walls all around her, all creaking and bending with their weight. Seeing the tight corridor around her made the air grow heavier, it made her breath harder and harder to draw in.
Why was it that now that she could see the walls it felt like they were closing in?
“Hey let me go!” Caramel’s plaintiff pleas echoed through the metal shaft as his golden light disappeared from sight. “Where’s Cherry?! What’d you do to him?!” There was the unmistakable sound of small hooves hitting metal and the grunting of stallions. “Let me go!”
“Go back! Go back!” Cobalt hissed as quietly as she could. “Guards got Caramel, we have to go back!” A source of light wasn’t needed to see the panic on the filly’s face as it was evident in her wavering voice. “We-we can hide back there and wait it out until morning!”
Dinky began to shuffle backwards, back the way they came. Caramel’s protests and curses were still audible as the two fillies awkwardly moved in reverse towards what they hoped would be safety. There wasn’t even enough room to turn her head around as she peddled towards the exit.
“Got another one!” A raspy male voice shouted from behind her as something clamped around her tail. Dinky’s hooves scratched against the metal shaft of the vent fruitlessly as she was unceremoniously dragged out of the vent. The little filly was foisted into the air by her tail and left to dangle, only catching sight of two pegasi in guard armor. The same two that were once standing outside. “There’s a third in the vent, I’ll get her out. Take that one to the wagon outside.” The one not holding the little unicorn by the tail was the one talking and his voice was filled with no small amount of venom.
Dinky’s world shifted and moved as she was carried out of the food repository by her tail and dropped onto the rough pavement below. Her head struck the surface and sent her vision swimming for a moment before it settled and revealed just how much trouble she was in. The stars settled overhead as did four royal guards, all pegasi, standing over her.
She was against a carriage of some sort. Wrought iron bars covered the windows and openings and it was decorated with the colors of the guard. She had heard it called a paddy wagon by some ponies on the street.
They had been caught red-hoofed, alright. Now they were going to be locked up for it.
Standing up and beside one of the guards was Cherry, their lookout. One of the guards dropped a little pouch of bits onto his back and nodded. The other colt besides Caramel had a sad smile on his face and his light red mane was covering his eyes.
“Good colt, you did a good job telling us about your friends.” The guard who had produced the pouch praised the foal. “Now run along and don’t let us catch you out on these streets again. Am I clear?” Cherry nodded before sprinting off, not bothering to look back at the ponies he betrayed.
“Cherry, get back here!” Two guards rounded the street corner, both carrying Caramel between them. “You rat! How could you?!” He struggled in the tight grip of the pegasi carrying him, freeing one of his forelegs and kicking at the other guard until he was dropped. The ball of brown and white fury shot a few blasts of golden magic at the fleeing shape of Cherry before the guards got a handle on him again. Then the little colt turned his head and fired a volley right at one of the guards attempting to restrain him.
“You little fuckin’ monster.” The guard who had been struck growled out as he threw Caramel to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of the colt’s lungs. “You know what we do to monsters who attack ponies around here?” The other guard placed a gold-plated hoof on Caramel’s chest to keep him pinned down. The guard who had been hit by the magic raised his hoof, then brought it down with enough force to make Dinky cringe.
The armored hoof struck at the base of Caramel’s horn and snapped it like a twig. The crack of the horn was followed by a cacophonous boom and a shower of sparks that would be more at home at a fireworks display. The spectacle all but drowned out the screams of pain coming from Caramel.
Dinky’s golden eyes were wide with terror, transfixed on the now hornless unicorn that was dragged over and dumped onto the ground beside her. She reached a shaky hoof and placed it on Caramel’s side as he whimpered and wept, his own hooves on his head.
“I don’t wanna take these things to the pen.” The same guard who had just irrevocably broken the unicorn crying on the ground spoke as he kicked Caramel’s horn away. “Dawn, didn’t you say something about some guy offering to take unicorn foals off of your hooves the other day for extra rations?”
“U-uh yes, sir.” An unsightly yellow pegasus stallion with a green mane stood up straight as he was addressed. “I’m not sure what exactly they’re going to do with them, sir…”
“Mhm.” The commanding guard grumbled as he knelt in front of Dinky. The scent of warm metal wafted up from his pockmarked armor and as his hot breath washed over her face, the smell of alcohol joined it. “You kill anypony when you turned feral, little monster?” Dinky never met his eyes, nor did she respond. “Yeah you did, didn’t you? Earth pony?” Again, she refused to meet his gaze. “Pegasus?” That got her to close her eyes and pull her hooves closer to her body. “Yeah…” He stood up and turned to the yellow pegasus behind him. “Whatever they’re going to do to them is what these things deserve. Put ‘em in the wagon and pass ‘em off to your friend.”
“Caramel? CARAMEL!” Cobalt shrieked as she was carried out by another guard from the food storage building. The filly squirmed and wriggled until she slipped free and sprinted over to her prone brother. “No no no, your horn. What happened to your horn?” She took his head in her hooves and ran one through his mane. The pair of siblings openly wept at the new wound and at the brutality of the guards.
Dinky’s gaze turned from her two friends to the guards overhead. Her mouth hung open and worked to form words, but nothing would come out. All of them had their eyes narrowed as they looked down on the thieving foals, equal parts fire and venom pouring out of their expressions.
“Take ‘em away. Don’t be gentle with this little pegasus-killer, either.” The leader of the cadre of guards spoke again. He turned to walk away and Dawn approached her. His eyes were much less intense than the leader’s, but she could still feel a heated hatred washing over her from them.
“I’m sorry.” She wanted to say it but the words died in her throat.
A metal-clad hoof came down on Dinky’s head and the world went dark.
“Nnn—” Dinky groaned as her eyes flitted open. A soft morning light streamed through the barred windows of the wagon she was in and wind rushed by outside. She blinked a few times and pushed herself to her hooves, a blinding pain in her skull causing her to waver for a moment before she could catch herself. “C-cobalt? Caramel?”
“Yeah, over here…” Sitting in the far corner was Cobalt with her brother’s head in her lap. Caramel was out cold, the jagged remnant of his horn pushing against his sister’s belly. “You were out for a few hours.” As Cobalt spoke, she ran her hoof through Caramel’s dark brown mane.
“Where are we…?” Dinky stood on her hind legs and craned her neck to get a look out of one of the windows. The only thing she could see was clouds passing them by and the sight of the ground far far below. “We’re flying?”
“Yeah, that guard met with some pegasi in uptown Manehattan. They gave him some ration coupons and took the wagon we’re in… We’ve been flying for a while.” Cobalt’s enthusiasm had evaporated like a puddle in the summer heat and left only the residue of pain and worry in its place.
It was the early morning, the rising sun hanging just above the horizon as it greeted the remnants of Equestria below. Dead grass and gnarled trees dotted the landscape below, scorched husks left behind after the month-long day that accompanied the unicorns’ madness. The rising sun was behind them, which meant they were heading west. It was a good start, but didn’t narrow their destination down at all. Manehattan was on the east coast, so everything was west of it.
“I heard some pegasi have been building some stuff where Canterlot used to be. Do you think they’re sending us there?” Dinky’s mind was trying to focus on where they were going rather than what was going to happen when they got there.
“We passed Canterlot earlier. Flew right over it.” Cobalt mumbled, her eyes never leaving Caramel.
A small bit of disappointment welled up in Dinky’s heart. She had seen the glassed mountaintop from a distance before, but never up close. It was something she wanted to do, but now it seemed like something she would never accomplish.
“So...you killed a pegasus…?”
The question alone was enough to knock the disappointed filly onto her rump and suck the air from her lungs. Dinky had assumed that Cobalt hadn’t been close enough to hear that, hope had matched that assumption. Now both were unfounded.
“Did you know them?”
Dinky nodded and raised her hooves to look at them. When she closed her eyes, she could still feel the warm lifeblood coating them, sticking to her fur. When she concentrated, she could feel sinew grinding between her teeth and the bitter taste of raw meat sliding down her throat. When she slept, she could still see the horrified golden eyes looking up at her as she fired a bolt of magic into the pegasus’ chest.
“I’m sorry, Dinky.” She would’ve responded to Cobalt, bitter and hurt words bubbling in her throat, but the other filly kept talking. “I’m sorry Caramel and I roped you into this. We should’ve handled it ourselves.”
“It’s okay.” Dinky swallowed the bile-coated words she had wanted to say and instead opted to be softer. “Not like you could’ve known Cherry would betray us. Plus I knew we were doing something bad and I still did it, so it’s on me too.”
“We were just trying to survive. How is that bad?” Caramel grumbled out as he rolled over to face Dinky. Dark bags hung under his eyes and contrasted with his snow white coat, exacerbating the colt’s tiredness.
“We were still stealing. That food is given to hungry ponies just like us.” Dinky twiddled her hooves and cast them to the metal floor of the paddy wagon. “I know we needed food, but it was still wrong.”
“We’re the hungry ponies it should go to!” Caramel sat up and glared at the filly across the way. “They were the ones who wouldn’t give it to us! ‘You need a ration coupon.’ they say but they only give them to adults! What else are we supposed to do, Dinky? No orphanages or homes are accepting unicorns anymore. What else—”
“Pipe down back there!” A gruff voice sounded from the front of the wagon, most likely from one of the ponies pulling it. “Thankfully we’re almost there… I don’t wanna be around these things any longer than I need to be.” That urged Dinky back to her hooves and right back to looking out of the window.
Sure enough, now they were over a structure made of a mix of clouds and solid materials. Signs filled with now-dead neon lights covered buildings and billboards were plastered with ads for attractions and casinos. Ponies could be seen milling around down below, mostly pegasi from what Dinky could see.
“I think we’re in Las Pegasus?” She relayed to her fellow captives as she tried to get a better look at things. She had never been to Las Pegasus before, but she had seen pictures and heard what it looked like, and the scene on the ground seemed to match those depictions at least. It was the safest bet she had.
“Las Pegasus? Where all of the Cloudsdale refugees moved to? Why are they bringing us here?” Cobalt queried as both she and her brother rose to their hooves and moved to one of the barred windows closer to them.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” Caramel responded with a sigh. “Wait a minute, what’s that?”
The question beckoned Dinky over to the siblings’ window to catch a glimpse. What she saw was a giant walled off complex with a casino standing in the center. Where once the name of the building had been, now instead there was a symbol. A cloud made out of metal painted white with a neon yellow lightning bolt shooting from beneath it. Three smokestacks of red blue and green neon lights rose from above the cloud and it was flanked by two metal wings. While the lights in the rest of the city had been shut off with the coming sun, this sign stood defiant and shining.
Anything above the sign was shrouded in a haze of clouds that seemed to be swirling around the structure. There was no way to tell how tall it was as the clouds seemed to go as high as the sky itself. Wind whipped their carriage and shook them around as they came dangerously close to the turbulent shroud.
“Isn’t that the weather pony symbol?” Dinky asked. She had seen it a few times in her life, once when the pegasi of Ponyville caused the hurricane that resupplied Cloudsdale with water.
“The Cloudsdale Weather Corporation.” Cobalt corrected. “They moved out here because… y’know…”
“How can they be the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation if Cloudsdale doesn’t exist anymore?” Caramel mumbled as he kept his eyes fixed on the factory. “I think we’re going down there, but why?” His words proved prophetic as the wagon began to descend towards the courtyard.
“Maybe they’re going to use us as workers?” Dinky offered with a shrug and a sigh. “Pick little ponies with no parents off of the street that they don’t have to pay…” It made enough sense to her, and considering how small the pegasus population was after The Event it made even more sense.
A dreadful silence filled the wagon as it made its way towards the walled off building. Along with the roaring wind that kept the clouds surrounding the building moving, there was also a deep thrum emanating from the building itself. It sounded as if the structure itself was growling as the three foals came in for a landing.
The carriage landed with a thump against the surface below. There was a murmur between ponies outside and a solid minute of silence before the door opened. All three of the foals huddled towards the back and kept wary eyes on the sun soaked figure on the other side.
“C’mon you three, get out of there.” A turquoise mare motioned for them to come forwards with a wing, an annoyed look splayed across her face. Her two-tone amber mane was swept back, two stray pieces dangling in front of her equally amber eyes. “Trust me, you don’t want me to come in there to get you.”
Dinky looked at the other two, who looked at each other and nodded. Caramel, despite being the one who had already lost the most, was the first to step forward. He trotted bravely towards the exit with the two fillies following close behind.
“Good.” The mare spoke as they hopped down onto the surface below. Like most of Las Pegasus, it was a walkway that normal ponies could walk on surrounded by the cloud structures that pegasi liked. “Looks like you were already dealt with, huh?” She asked with a chuckle as she flicked the shattered base of Caramel’s horn. “I’m not going to have a problem with you two, right? I won’t hesitate to make you like your friend here.”
Dinky could tell this mare wasn’t lying. From a distance she looked lithe and quick, but up close it was a different story. Tight lean muscles were visible through her coat as she shifted around, the sign of an athlete. This mare was built almost like Rainbow Dash, a giant spring that could coil and release explosively in an instant if she wanted to.
Cobalt and Dinky both shook their heads.
“Good. Now c’mon, we’re already running late for orientation.” She gave a light kick to each of the foals, pushing them towards the door to the building. “Why did they have to stick me with pickup duty…” The mare grumbled to herself as they walked.
“Orientation for what?” Caramel, still at the front of the group, asked with the same annoyance that the mare showed. “We have a right to know what we’re doing here. If you’re going to use us as slaves for the rest of our lives then I think you’ve got another thing coming!” The little colt growled out defiantly.
“Rights?” The mare let loose a cynical chuckle. “Kid, you don’t have any rights. You’re here and going inside and you’ll be here for the rest of your lives. You don’t get a choice in all of this and your kind doesn’t deserve one after what you did to us.”
Two pegasi at the entrance opened the door to let the group in. As soon as they set the first hoof inside, they started shivering. It was unnaturally cold in the building, cold enough that they saw the mare behind them fluff her wings up to shield herself from the chill.
“Straight ahead.” The mare commanded. “Up the stairs there’s a door labeled ‘Theater’, that’s where we’re going.”
The main room they were in used to be a massive area for gambling. Along the edges of the walls there were slot machines and different kinds of tables piled up and pushed out of the way. Where once these objects of ill repute had been now sat massive machines and a maze of pipes. The pipes themselves snaked across the floor and up the walls until they disappeared in haphazard holes that had been punched in the ceiling. Ponies rushed around the gigantic space, dumping barrels of liquid into vats and monitoring panels on the machines.
The ponies working in the space were all pegasi, but they weren’t all adults. Everypony here had a cutie mark, but a number of them were still foals, maybe a few years older than Dinky herself. The staff she could see numbered about twenty in total if she counted properly, about a quarter of them fillies and colts. So that confirmed that they were using foal labor… but where were other types of ponies?
As they marched through the myriad of industrial equipment, they were met with looks of pure disgust from the pegasi working. The two fillies wilted under the harsh gazes leveled at them, while Caramel marched defiantly forward. Along with the looks, some of the younger ponies lobbed insults at them. ‘Bonehead’, ‘Monster’, and ‘Killer’ being the favorites. Even as they walked up the steps, the jeers and looks persisted. It wasn’t until they were fully out of view of the first floor that it all abated.
In front of them was an ostentatious red door that had ‘Theater’ above it in flashing lights. The mare behind them sped up and overtook Caramel, just in time to open the door and motion them inside. Once they had entered, the door was closed behind them and the soft click that came from it let them all know they were locked in here now.
The room in front of them was as advertised: a theater. A stage with velvet red curtains dominated an entire wall, a podium set front and center with a burgundy stallion standing behind it. The sloped floor that had once housed rows upon rows of seats for patrons was now bare, the chairs ripped up and disposed of somewhere else. However, while the seats may have been gone, the audience was not.
Dozens of foals dotted the big empty space, all of them unicorns and sticking together in small groups and cliques. Along the walls and on the balconies above sat even more pegasi, mostly stallions and all of them in black garb. All eyes were fixed on Dinky and her friends for the moment.
“Lightning Dust, how nice of you to finally join us.” The burgundy stallion at the podium raised his voice to address the mare that had been leading the group here. “I thought you were supposed to be a fast pony.” He didn’t exude any sarcasm or bite with the remark, only uncomfortable sincerity. Both his mane and the small beard that jutted from his chin looked sharp and spiked, both mostly jet black but marred with streaks of white. “We can finally get started.”
“Sorry, Director Atmosphere.” The mare nodded and backed towards the door. “The delivery ponies were taking their sweet time. You know how it goes.” She didn’t seem too sorry, in fact she seemed pretty aloof about the whole thing. “But we’re all here now.”
“Yes, yes we are.” Atmosphere responded.
The stallion stood up straighter, allowing Dinky to see that he was wearing a long white lab coat. He produced a small pair of square spectacles from a pocket and donned them, looking down at his paper. The pony at the podium took a few deep breaths, closed his eyes, then looked out at the crowd of foals before him.
“Welcome, mules.” Atmosphere’s voice boomed out, powerful and commanding as it bounced around the theater and drew the rapt attention of everypony in attendance. “You degenerates and monsters are probably wondering why you’re here, hmm?” A chorus of noises in the affirmative answered him. “Well first, introductions are in order. I’m Doctor Atmosphere, Director of Operations for the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation.”
“We need to find a way out of here.” Caramel hissed at Dinky and Cobalt. “I really don’t like the look of this.” All three eyes shot back to steal a glance towards Lightning Dust. While she looked disinterested in the whole affair, her eyes were still flitting between groups of foals.
“I have the distinct honor—” Atmosphere continued. “-of overseeing weather production for all of Equestria. Any rain cloud you have ever seen, any flash of lightning or rumble of thunder, it came at the behest of myself.” A hint of pride inched in on the words, enough to disrupt the even tone the stallion had been keeping. “We offered uninterrupted service for the area surrounding Cloudsdale, and later the entirety of Equestria, for over sixteen-hundred years...until The Event.” The even tone the Director had been keeping completely fell apart, replaced instead with a snarl and a glare as dark as the night that had just receded.
Dinky’s heart began to race. Anytime ponies started to talk about The Event around her, they always seemed to get mad. She had seen what happened to unicorns when that kind of hate was stirred up in pegasi and earth ponies on the streets of Manehattan, and earlier when a guard was blasted by an angry foal.
They were in danger.
“I-I agree with Caramel.” Dinky sputtered out and nodded. She spun around on her hooves, looking for any exit other than the one that Lightning Dust was guarding. There was nothing. She could see a door up on one of the balconies by a guard, but there was no visible way up there.
“Long ago—” Atmosphere’s level tone returned as he moved away from talking about The Event. “—we were entrusted with the sacred duty of creating rainbows for the world when Princess Celestia could not any longer!” The pride no longer crept into the words, but consumed them as he spoke. “We devised a way to create them from natural materials, a grueling and taxing process that was discontinued when we realized that we could harvest Spectra from the blood of ponies. For decades now, blood drives have supplied this great nation with the beauty of rainbows it so requires. Until now.”
The guards that had been lining the walls now started to move inwards, pushing any foals they encountered towards the center of the room. Terrified screams and wails echoed around the acoustically inclined space as the unicorns were herded into place.
Caramel and Dinky both sprinted towards the door that their escort was blocking, uncaring about their odds. Both foals were met with hooves to their chests that sent them tumbling backwards and right into Cobalt. A satisfied grin erupted across Lightning Dust’s face as she advanced on them, a glint in her eyes that Dinky had seen in the eyes of every unicorn during The Event accompanying it.
“How screwed are we?” Dinky asked Caramel.
“Very.” Lightning Dust answered.
“Your madness and disease spread across Equestria!” Atmosphere spoke like a preacher at a pulpit addressing his flock. “It infected even the princesses, who destroyed Clousdale. Thousands of years of pegasus innovation and culture, shattered and dissolved in fifteen minutes because of you!” An accusatory burgundy hoof pointed at the coalescing foals. “Left with nothing, we came here to begin our work anew! I was the one who discovered the ability to extract Spectra from blood, I was the one who weakened The Flock to the point that it could not defend itself! Now, I am the one who must correct it!”
The curtain behind Atmosphere opened, revealing a great machine towering at three times the stallion’s own height. The main section was a featureless cube, gleaming in the spotlight. A number of tubes jutted out from the sides and down into the stage below, all waiting to be filled. A hopper, rusted around the edges and dull beneath the hot light of the stage, sat atop the cube. Scaffolding was erected behind it, with a few ponies standing up on it and holding long dangling chains above the open maw of the machine.
“From the wreckage of our home we recovered this, only known to us as the Pegasus Device. Before I shunned it, before I hid it away in the basement of the weather factory, it provided us all with rainbows.” The stallion’s voice softened as he stepped away to place a hoof on the machine. “Before your time we had mandatory flight tests for each and every pegasus colt and filly. Those who passed were welcomed into the open wings of The Flock, but those who failed came here.”
Atmosphere pressed a button near the base of the Pegasus Device and it roared to life. The gnashing of metal teeth drowned out everything else in the room as old gears began to grind once more. The crying and screaming had stopped, now the growling stomach of the beast was the only sound in the room. The foals watched on in terror, while the pegasi all looked on in awe at the starving monster on stage.
“The weak and useless were fed to the Device!” Atmosphere bellowed out over the sound of the machine. “The Flock was made strong through the weeding out of Failures! Now The Flock stands depleted and weak and unable to supply the increased demand for rainbows! Now we see a chance to not only reintroduce the ideals that once made the pegasi a force to rival the alicorns themselves but to also exact revenge on those that wronged us!” Once more, a hoof was jutted towards the cowering foals on the floor. “You turned feral and killed our kind! You reduced the world to ash and ruins, and now you will atone for your sins by helping us restore what we once were!” The stallion’s hoof slammed down on the podium in righteous fury before it leveled itself right at Caramel. “Put rings on them all and bring me the hornless one!”
The pegasi moved as one, each one of the guards seizing a foal before the little ponies could even react. Dinky was wrapped up in the turquoise wings of Lightning Dust and held tight as a solid black ring was forced on her horn. She struggled and squirmed, but a hungry little filly was no match for a fully grown and obviously well-fed mare.
“NOO! CARAMEL!” Cobalt shrieked, tears pouring from her eyes as her brother was picked up and carried towards the stage. The dark blue filly thrashed about in the grip of the guard holding her, wailing all the while.
Caramel, on the other hoof, never let his eyes leave Atmosphere. Tears were falling, yes, but they were hot and angry tears. He was brought within a few feet of the Director, who leaned down and spoke inaudibly to the little unicorn. Caramel said nothing back and instead spit right in the pegasus’ face. The stallion wiped his face and motioned towards the Pegasus Device.
The stallion carrying Caramel spread his wings and lifted off, ascending towards the scaffolding overhead. Once he was at the level that the ponies with the chains were on, he was deposited on the scaffolding and the guard hovered nearby. Thick and mighty chains were wrapped around the little foal slowly, then they were pulled taut by the two attending pegasi. Even over the din of the Pegasus Device, the sound of cracking bones was audible.
Finally Caramel’s tough-pony act fell and he began to whimper. Through broken ribs he wheezed and whimpered and wept as he was lifted into the air. The colt couldn’t even squirm in the tight grip of the iron snakes that were coiled around him, his hind legs could only dangle and wiggle harmlessly beneath him. His eyes met Cobalt’s, tears flowing freely from both ponies as he was lowered towards the hungry mechanical maw below.
“Please no…” Cobalt whimpered, her eyes unable to look away.
Caramel let loose a piercing cry as his hooves met the grinding gears below. A spray of crimson shot up, staining his pristine white coat as he screamed in agony. It seemed like the serpents that had been constraining him knew that as soon as he was in the grip of the Device he could not flee, so they let him go and let the machine pull him down. It wasn’t a quick process, no, it was a grind that everypony had to watch. As the colt’s bones and body were ground to dust and paste, the tubes coming from the sides of the machine began to fill slowly. A little of each color of the rainbow trickled down below the stage, the last bits of the pony once known as Caramel.
There was some screaming and fighting from the foals, but the majority was frozen in abject horror at what they had just witnessed. Cobalt had stopped fighting her captor and instead just hollered and wailed her brother’s name repeatedly. Dinky wasn’t even crying, her mouth was just hung agape and she couldn’t move.
She couldn’t even think.
“The purple filly.” Atmosphere commanded softly.
Dinky began to move, still held tightly by Lightning Dust as they made their way up to the stage. The filly was still frozen even as they approached the stallion on the stage, the architect of her demise. Why fight? What could she do? In a room full of adults with her magic suppressed, what could she even try to do? Plus, she had taken a life. It’s only fair that hers was taken as well.
“Did you kill any pegasi, monster?” Atmosphere was knelt in front of her, his hot breath washing over her face. “This is your last chance to speak and atone for anypony you wronged.” There was no anger there, only pity and disgust.
Dinky nodded.
“Who was it, what was her name?”
Dinky closed her eyes and watched it all play out again in her head. She could feel that rage building in her mind as that terrible voice pummeled her brain and told her to kill. She could feel her teeth morph into fangs and her body deform all over again. She could see the terrified look in the golden eyes of the grey pony before her. The wall-eyed gaze of the mare stayed frozen like that forever as a blast of Dinky’s own magic ripped through her chest.
“M-my mom… her name was Muffins…” The admittance jarred enough emotions loose to send Dinky into a crying fit, her head hanging down. “I-I couldn’t control myself. I didn’t want to hurt my mommy, I’m sorry. I-I just… I…” She could find no more words.
“You will pay for this, and in this act you will make Equestria a better place.” Atmosphere murmured to the filly, his voice filled to the brim with disappointment. “You will not be forgiven for what you and your kind have done, but you will be forgotten for it. May your name and image be forever lost in the depths of the Pegasus Device. Praise The Flock.”
Dinky couldn’t feel too sad for her own death, because he was right. She was guilty and deserved this final punishment.
