//-------------------------------------------------------// Not Such A Fairytale Life After All -by savac08- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Don't Buck With Gods //-------------------------------------------------------// Don't Buck With Gods Hello to the bronies of the interwebs. This is my first fanfic so all constructive criticism is welcome. Meanie mc mean criticisms are not welcome but i can't really stop you from posting them anyway. Just know that you won't get any cupcakes if you do. But enough typing. Enjoy the chapter. Don't Buck With Gods Kevin was laughing maniacally from across the table. "All in." he shouted while moving all his chips to the centre. "You got what it takes to to take me head on Purple?" Yes my name is Purple. I am 18 years old and in my final year of high school. My parents never wanted me, so they called me whatever was the first thing to come to their minds which happened to be the colour of the paint on the hospital wall. They only kept me so that I could do most of their work and chores when I was old enough. Lazy assholes. I looked at the chips Kevin had bet. 5000 dollars. I looked at my hand. Four eights and a jack of hearts. ‘Fucking idiot.’ I thought. "Call." Kevin looked at me in disbelief for a few seconds and started laughing again, as did his ugly ass friends who followed him around like a dog. I don't know why they do and I don't really care. "Full house. Give me five grand bitch." Kevin ignorantly proclaimed. I flicked my hand on the table "Four of a kind. I'll be taking your money now." I smirked slightly at his dumbfounded expression. "Well, cough it up." I prompted. "Fuck off Purple. I don't have that kind of money." Ok, now I'm irritated. "So you were cocky enough to expect me to pay up but you won't yourself?" I asked, a vein slowly growing on my temple. "If I don't want to pay, I don't have to." He arrogantly stated. ‘Sigh. I hate idiots.’ I stood up and punched him in the stomach. "Now we can forget about the payment." I started to walk away when Kevin shouted back with tears in his eyes "You fucker, my father is going to have you expelled." ‘Pathetic.’ I thought. "What is your daddy going to do? Cry to the Principal?" "My father is the Principal you little shit." Fuck. Why does the universe hate me? "You useless excuse for a son," my mother yelled "How do you get expelled on the first day of school." Considering I was already pissed off, it was a miracle that I hadn't snapped at her already. "It's not my fault the principle's son is shit at poker. He got cocky and bet a couple of thousand dollars and I won. When he didn't pay up I punched him in the stomach as payment. I got expelled because he whined to his 'daddy'" I said the last word in a baby voice which earned me another glare from my mother. ‘Why the hell is she looking at me as if I was the last boss in a game that she couldn't beat?’ "You fought with the principle's son? Fucking hell! Learn to pick your fights better you idiotic prick." My father said entering the room. ‘God my parents are the idiotic pricks, not me.’ I thought. "Why does it matter? You never cared before; why the hell do you care now?" Before I could even make another sound, my back was against the wall and my dad’s fist was closed on my collar. "I care because we had to pay a shit ton of money to enrol you in that school so you could earn more money for us," he spat in my face. The alcohol could clearly be smelt on his breath. "Now it's all gone down the drain. I should kill you now but the Justin Bieber movie is on and I don't want to miss it." With that he let me go and walked out the room. ‘WTF is wrong with him?’ I've asked this question since I was 7. I turned to go to my room but was stopped by my mother. "Where do you think you're going?" she demanded ‘Crap, forgot about her.’ I turned to see her still glaring at me. "Actually, I can't stand the sight of you. Go to your room and stay there until tomorrow. There is no dinner for you tonight." she said. ‘No lecture? Lucky.’ I left the presence of my parents and went to my room. After locking the door I looked around the room wondering what to do for the rest of the night. My eyes land on my laptop and I smile. "That was an easy decision," I whispered "My Little Pony." I had been watching MLP:FIM for a couple of months now, and what can I say, I'm hooked. It helps me to forget that I'm a prisoner in my life with no way out. Suffering in this hell-hole of a world to make the lives of the selfish easier. While watching one of the episodes a beep alerted me to an email. ‘From Unknown?’ I opened it and the only thing inside was Want to go to Equestria. Click the link below What the? I clicked the link and the screen opened up to Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up. It took a few seconds to register what was happening and then it clicked. "That bastard." I pulled out my phone and called my cousin. "Jake you are an asshole." "I know right" he replied with smugness clear in his voice. Jake was the only one to know that I watched MLP because I happened to catch him watching it when I sneaked in his house about a month ago. He has a rep of being the coolest guy in his school, 16 year old smartass, and he was so shocked that I found out that he tried to bribe me not to tell anyone. T'was hilarious. "Did you want something besides pissing me off?" I questioned. "Not really. Do you wanna come over and hang out?" "Probs not the best idea. Got expelled today. Parents are this close to using me as a punching bag." "Dude it's the first day of school. How did you manage to do that?" he asked. I told him what happened with Kevin and how he was the Principal's son. "Dude, that sucks." "Yeah I know." I replied "You know what, screw it. I'm coming over. Have the window open for when I get there. See you in 30." "Sweet. See you then." Jake said then hung up. I grabbed a bag and filled it with what I needed, opened the window and jumped out. ‘Thank god we got a single story house.’ As I was walking down the street, the street lights started to flicker on and off. ‘Okay, this is never a good sign in the middle of the night.’ I keep walking but at a slow pace and I keep looking around cautiously. I heard a noise behind me and I turned around as fast as I could. My heart that was beating like a jack hammer, started to slow down and I turned back around. "Boo" "GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHhhhod!" I looked down to see a child looking up at me. "Don't do that you little squirt." The child rose an eyebrow at me and started to rise several meters until he was 2 meters taller than me. "You're the squirt here boy." He bellowed down. He chuckled when he saw my dumbstruck look and shrunk until he was eye level with me. He just stood there staring at me, eye to eye. He didn't have ordinary eyes either. They were golden. Not yellow or a colour that looks close, they were shining gold. Finding my voice I asked "What are you" "Me," he pointed to himself in faked confusion "Oh, what am I? I am Kronos, Lord of Time. But that doesn't really matter but what does is what I can do for you." Is this guy for real? Is he on drugs or should I be asking if I'm on drugs. "So you're a mythical Greek god?" When I said that his face contorted in pure rage. Shadows started to gather around Kronos and the space around us started to contort and disappear. "I am neither a myth nor a God, I am a Titan." Kronos spat the word 'God' as if it were a disease. "Sorry. Didn't mean to offend." When you piss off a God, or in this case Titan, you apologise no matter how proud you are especially when things start disappearing around you. When it seemed like he calmed down, I steeled my nerves and asked another question. "If you're Kronos then shouldn't you be trapped in Tartarus in millions of pieces, if you don't mind me asking that is?" ‘Taking a leaf from Fluttershy's book never hurts.’ I thought. He looked at me and simply said "I escaped." I just looked at him with confusion on my face. ‘That's it? No story?’ "Anyhoo, that story isn't very interesting and we have a matter to discuss. Do you want to go to Equestria? Land of sunshine, candy and pastel coloured ponies." I stared at him for a few seconds then come to conclusion. "Yep someone definitely drugged me. Don't know how but that is the only thing that explains this situation and you, you funny looking hallucination." Kronos sighed "Stupid mortal. Okay if this is an illusion then it wouldn't hurt to think about it. It's a good deal. You go to Equestria BAM just like that." He slammed his fist into his palm for emphasis. I stopped and thought about it. He does have a point and being a pony would be cool. Also I'll be able to escape this shitty world that is my prison. Processing...done. "Alright Kronos you got a deal." He smiled and was about to say something when I cut him off. "On one condition." That wiped any emotion off his face. "Are you trying to threaten me?" he said darkly. Shocked at the misinterpretation I quickly shook my head. "N-no of course not." I stuttered, totally shitting myself at how scary Kronos had just become. "I only wanted to show you my OC pony so you know what I want to look like." His face didn't change with that answer and remained terrifying. Gulp. Then as quickly as he had changed, he turned back with a devious smirk on his face. "Okay. I'll change you into your preferred physique." "Great" I said with a smile and pulled out my laptop and showed him. Still smirking at me he said "Okay I got it. Hope you don't miss anything in this world because you'll never set foot here again." When he finished that statement, a massive scythe materialized in his hand and he swung it right through me. As my body was split into the many atoms it was made of, I felt my soul zoom off to God knows where. That was when I blacked out. "Ugggghh." ‘Why does my body hurt everywhere? Wait, why does it feel different?.’ I lay on the ground with my eyes still closed, trying to remember what happened. Then it all came back to me. Titan, Kronos, deal, scythe, Equestria, ponies. ‘I'm a pony now?’ I smiled. ‘I'm a freaking pony.’ I opened my eyes and jumped off the ground "Hell yeah." Wait a minute. Ponies don't have claws. I then took a look at my body and realised that I was indeed not a pony but a griffin. Trying to remember when in the world I agreed to be a griffin, I noticed a letter on the ground close to where I woke. I picked it up and read it out loud, "Insignificant mortal, Calling me a squirt and trying to control what I do is a bad move. As punishment you are neither pony nor your age. Enjoy you're new life as a 12 year old griffin, squirt." "That bastard." There we go. Chapter One complete. Tell me what you think and what can be improved in my writing, as I said, I am new at this. //-------------------------------------------------------// Disappointment after Disappointment //-------------------------------------------------------// Disappointment after Disappointment Disappointment after Disappointment "I hate this body." This was starting to piss me off now that I had tripped over my new legs for the sixth time now. ‘Why is it so hard to walk? C'mon Purple concentrate.’ I tried to take some more steps but fell face first in the dirt. "Argh fucking hell." Spitting dirt out of my mouth isn't a nice experience no matter what you say. ‘Maybe I should figure out where I am first, then figure out how to walk.’ Looking around I see that I am in some sort of forestry area. ‘It isn’t like the Everfree forest on the show so I can assume it is a different place.’ I thought. I also couldn't help but notice that there were large patches of grass everywhere that were nearly as tall as me. I smiled at that. 'It's unsafe. Wild Pokemon can jump out of tall grass.' I let out a small chuckle. The first thing I noticed when I looked around was the vibrant and bright colours that attacked me. Some colours were so bright that it was almost blinding. And that brings me back to my useless body. Basically I looked like a small, male Gilda with light purple feathers instead of brown and a darker shade purple on the tips of the feathers on my head. I had also noticed that my eyesight had improved greatly and that my hearing and other senses had also been improved. Okay, that's cool but learning to walk is a priority right now. After a couple of hours of many face plants and trips that would be hilarious to everyone but me, I was finally able to walk without falling over, although very shaky and slowly. I decided to walk in a random direction since I didn't know where I wa and, I got a sudden shiver down my spine which told me that going that way was a big no no. Better being safe than sorry, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Meanwhile several kilometres from where Purple was going to go... "Hydras are coming. Get ready." "For Wethoof" With a roar, the battle for Wethoof had begun. "Hang on a second. I've got wings. I can just fly up and see where I am." I stretched out my wings to get a good feel of them. "I mean, it can't be that much harder than learning to walk. Can it?" I started to flap my wings and I rose of the ground a little. I flapped harder and I was hovering several metres off the ground. A Pinkie worthy smile came over my face and a started to laugh in that crazily happy way. "AHhahahaha, I'm flying, I'm flying, I'm..... ah fuck" My timing in flapping my wings was off and I went spiralling towards the ground. I hit and continued to roll until I was at the edge of a cliff. Teetering on the edge that I didn't even realize that I was on, I lifted my claw to rub my head. Unfortunately, the change in weight caused me to fall off the edge and I was now falling from a five metre drop. "Ah fuck." I said again as I landed head first and passed out. "Ugggggh, I really hope waking up with my body in pain isn't going to become a habit." Lying on the ground trying to ignore the pain, I could feel dry blood in my feathers on the back of my head. As the pain slowly ebbs away, I start to realise that my stomach is rumbling. "Shit what am I going to do for food?" Back home, I was never good at cooking. It was the only thing my parents did themselves because they knew that I couldn't cook. But even if I could how and what was I supposed to make here in the middle of nowhere? There was a rustling in the bush next to me and I don't know what it was, instinct maybe, but I shot my claw out and grabbed whatever was making the noise. I retracted my arm and realised that I had caught a squirrel. "Well what do we have here?" I said to the squirrel which I now realised that it was terrified. "Hey there's no need to be scared." I said trying to soothe the terrified creature. Since it was still trying it's all to escape my grip it was pretty obvious my attempt didn't work. ‘Why is it scared shitless of me?’ I looked into its terrified eyes and I saw myself in the reflection. Seeing myself in the squirrel's eyes, a realisation came to me. Griffin's are predators in this world. This rodent’s scared because it thinks I'm going to eat it. My stomach rumbled again and the thought crossed my mind but discarded the idea. "I am not used to this body enough to eat a living creature raw." I said releasing the squirrel. As I watched it scramble away, my stomach decided to punish me by growling. "Yeah yeah, we'll find something." I continued to walk in the slow, shaky way I do. There is no way I am going to fly again until someone can teach me. Long after the moon had risen and I knew Princess Luna was doing her job, I had almost given up on finding something to eat. I was really starting to regret letting the squirrel go but that thought left when I crashed into a bush covered in some sort of fruit. Not knowing if the fruit was poisonous or not was the problem. "Two possibilities. Eat and I'm no longer hungry or eat and die a slow and agonising death due to poison." Before I could contemplate the pros verse the cons my stomach made the decision for me and I ate the berries. After eating until I was full I lied down on the ground to sleep. "If they were poisonous then I just won't wake up in the morning." With that knowledge, I settled down for a peaceful sleep that I wouldn't get. As soon as I closed my eyes I heard growling coming from all around me as if I was surrounded. I jumped to attention immediately. "Who’s there?" I demanded. My keen hearing picked up voices communicating with each other and then five Diamond Dogs come out of the bushes all surrounding me. "He he, it is male boy." The Diamond Dog in front of me with several vials on his person growled "He pull lot's of gems when he grow." ‘What are these dogs on?’ "Yes, lots of gems." Another dog said. "He can be used to breed new slaves too." ‘Wait, did he say slaves? And what did he mean I can breed more?’ "Quick. Capture him." Knowing I was in a bad situation, I tried to run but because of my poor coordination with my body I face planted again. ‘Dammit. This is not the time to be useless body.’ The next thing I knew there was a loud bang and I found myself trapped in a net. "Good. We got him" The Diamond Dog with the vials, obviously the leader, said. "Shit. SHIT. I gotta get out." Desperately I tried to chew my way out of the net. "Oh no. You can't escape." The leader said and threw a vial at me which exploded into gas on impact. Knowing that breathing in swirly green gas is not good for my health, I tried to hold my breath but it was no use. I inhaled the toxic fumes and my mind started to shut down. With panic and fear still at the forefront of my mind, I was able to say one more thing before passing out for the third time that day, "Fuck you" Once again, I wake up with my body in pain. "For fucks sake. When will I be able to wake up without being in pain?" I looked around and noticed that I was in a cell. ‘Shit what is happening. Am I a slave now? Where am I? Who are these two guys?’ I thought confused. "Kid are you all right?" The griffin shackled to the wall asked with concern in his eyes. He looked old. Not that I knew much about griffin age cycles but I was just going off the fact that his voice sounded old and that his feathers were all grey. "Yeah, I'm fine." I lied "Are you okay. You look like you’re about to die right now, no offense." The old griffin laughed. "Well your pretty much right there. In a few hours, me and this fella over here are about to be fed to a dragon." He pointed to the other griffin who was also shackled to the wall. He looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. "Don't be offended if he doesn't talk to you. About to be sacrificed does that to ya. Also because the Diamond Dogs ripped his tongue out a few years ago." I was in shock. "But isn't this Equestria?" "No boy. If we were in Equestria we wouldn't be slaves." The old griffin said "We're in Gem Fido where the dragons control the Diamond Dogs and the Diamond Dogs control whatever slaves they capture, be it griffins, ponies or even their own kind. Whatever they can enslave so the quota can be kept up. But you should know all this already. It's common knowledge." Quick Purple, come up with an explanation. "Um, I lived in Equestria all my life. My family and I only left to visit relatives. I was captured because my parents left me there so they could escape." ‘Yeah that sounds like something they would do.’ "Ah see. Lived a sheltered life with selfish parents." The old griffin nodded his head. "Okay let me give you a quick run down. Least I can do since I'm about to die." I flinched at how easy he can talk about being sacrificed to a dragon. He noticed this and said "Don't worry about it. I've been a slave in these tunnels for 60 years. It will be a blessing to be free from it." I looked at him with sorrow and pity in my eyes. He ignored it and continued "Basically the deal is this. Us slaves do what the Diamond Dogs want or they kill us and eat us. The Diamond Dogs have slaves to dig up gems for them to eat and to feed to the dragons who terrorize them. If they don't give the dragons what they want then they are killed and eaten. It's a vicious cycle." ‘Wow. This world is almost, if not, as bad as mine.’ I thought. "Wait. Then why are you being sacrificed if the Diamond Dogs can give the dragons gems?" The geezer sighed "I don't know. Maybe because not enough gems were mined or if the Diamond Dogs are being selfish and keeping them for themselves." "What about the Princesses? Can't they help?" I asked. "The Princesses? In Equestria? They couldn't give a shit about us." The griffin shouted, getting angry for the first time. "It's Princess Celestia's fault that we're in this situation anyway. She tore down our government in Dominion 900 years ago because we sided with Nightmare Moon." Well siding with that devil in the first place was stupid’ I thought but since I didn’t know their reason I asked. "Why did we side with Nightmare Moon?" "She promised us that we would be free," he said with a faraway gaze “that we wouldn’t be oppressed by Diamond Dogs anymore. It was too good for us to pass up." Hmm. I've got a lot to think about now. I was about to ask what they do to the slaves when the sound of growling could be heard on the other side of the cell. The old griffin put a claw to his beak signalling me to be quiet. Three Diamond Dogs entered the cell and attached leashes to the two prisoners. The mute griffin was struggling with a desperate look in his eyes and was dragged out. As the geezer passed me he whispered "It was nice knowing you kid." With the cell now empty I was free to weep about everything. My predicament. The situation of this world. The death of the old griffin. I just let it all out. Well, I present to you Chapter Two. Tell me what you think. Good. Bad. I should stop. Tell me. I crave to know. //-------------------------------------------------------// This isn't the Equestria I Knew //-------------------------------------------------------// This isn't the Equestria I Knew This isn't the Equestria I Knew ‘Purple get a hold of yourself.’ I berated myself ‘Stop crying and man up. I’ve got to think this through. If I’m a slave, I need to figure out a way to escape which I can’t do because I don’t know jackshit about this world even if it’s Equestria. Everything is just too different from the show to make my decisions based off it. I need to get more info.’ I started pacing back and forth but tripped, not because of my poor skill in the art but because my legs were shackled. 'How did I not notice this before?' I decide that before I do anything I need to get these restraints off. I bashed them against the wall and the ground but they refused to break. "Fucking chains" I muttered darkly. Giving up on freeing my legs, I looked around the room taking in the cell in more detail. It was like someone made a dent in the cave and put bars at the entrance. The dark and gloomy feel started to affect me since I had been alone for so long. It was an unfriendly feeling. It had been a while now since the geezer and the mute griffin had been taken away and I was wondering if I was just going to be left here. That fear was soon dashed though when the now familiar growls could be heard getting closer. A couple of Diamond Dogs opened the cell and the larger of the two put a leash around my neck. "You start work now." The one that put the leash on me said while the other unlocked my shackles. This one that unlocked me was considerably smaller than the other. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a reason behind this size difference or not but it wasn’t the time to think about it right now. As soon as the last cuff clicked open, I slashed the smaller mutt in the face and leapt at the larger one. Instead of swiping his stomach like I planned, I was punched into the wall. Being about the fifth of the Diamond Dogs size didn’t help me either. "Don't do that again." The one that hit me growled. Without letting me recover, he started to drag me along the ground. As revenge, the dog I hurt kicked me in the side. 'Fuck. That really hurts.' I thought 'Why am I so freaking small?' I tried to stand up since I was still being dragged along the floor, hitting several rocks and debris on the ground, and damaging my body further. I soon found out that it was nearly impossible to stand up while being dragged with such force so I settled for avoiding as much pain as I could. It was difficult to navigate or even remember what turns we went down but the ground steadily declined. As we got deeper and deeper within the cave or tunnel, whatever it is, the temperature dropped. After a long time of being dragged downhill, we reached the desired destination of my captors and my now shivering body was thrown into a large room. "Why the fuck did you throw me asshole?" I shouted at said asshole and that said asshole walked up to me and slapped me in the face. Okay. If it was a normal slap it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but when a paw the size of your face with sharp claws at the end of each appendage hits you, then it fucking hurts. "You will be quiet little birdy." Asshole shouted. His name is now Asshole. The bastard grabbed my leash and dragged me again to a set of shackles, ignoring the fact that I now had a large and deep horizontal cut across my left eye, that were attached to the ground next to a large pile of gems. When I say large, I really mean huge. I stared slightly awed at the 20 metre high pile of precious, glittering stone. I was so distracted that I didn't notice when I was chained next to it. "You will put gems in colour hole." Asshole said to me, pointing at the different coloured holes in the ground around my station. Each hole had a colour that was similar to the colour of individual gems in the pile. With that less than adequate instruction, Asshole left with his companion. "Yeah, fuck you too." I shouted at them when they had left. Quite brave of me right? I turned back to look at the pile and sighed. It was now that I noticed I wasn't the only one in the room. There were several other species trapped in the exact same predicament as me and were obviously all children and young teens as well. The thing is, they weren’t all griffins like me. Although the majority of the slaves were griffins, there were nearly just as much ponies. There was also the odd zebra and even Diamond Dog as well. 'Why the hell do they enslave their own king?’ I asked myself. Some of them were looking at me with shocked looks as if they couldn't believe I would talk back to our captors. Others look like they didn't even care enough to glance at me when I arrived and continue their work instead. The shock soon wore off on and they went back to work. 'They look so sad.' I thought 'Sigh. Might as well do something.' I grabbed a diamond from the pile, 'Okay. Sapphires are blue so I put them in the blue hole.' With that I flicked into the correct hole and continued. 'Red, blue, blue, purple, blue, green, white, blue, blue, blue.....' "AGGH, FUCK THIS IS BORING!" I shouted chucking another sapphire into the blue hole. "Shhh" a voice next to me hissed, "You'll get us all in trouble." I turned to see a griffin shackled to the station next to me. From her voice I could tell she was female. She had pale pink feathers with the same colour in the tips on her hair. I raised an eyebrow at her. "And you are?" She dropped an amethyst in the purple hole next to her and replied "I'm Stephanie. You?" "Purple." She looked at me and my purple feathers in disbelief and I clarified it by saying “My parents don’t like me.” She simply nodded, still a bit sceptical but didn’t push it. It became extremely quiet between us as we continued to sort gems to their respective holes. I decided to try to converse again so I asked “Do you know how long we have to do this?” Stephanie looked back at me and then back at the pile of gems and answered “Until we’ve dropped enough gems down to fill a certain amount of buckets. They won’t even feed us until that is done. That’s why we need to work so we don’t starve to death.” ‘How can they be so cruel?’ I thought disgustedly ‘This feels like a problem that belongs on Earth.’ “So what happens when we do fill up these buckets?” I asked dropping another sapphire. ‘Why am I getting so many sapphires?’ I wondered. “The Diamond Dogs take us to a room higher up in the tunnels so we can sleep and eat without freezing to death when we aren’t working.” She replied “They have this room so far down so we are motivated to keep working so we don’t freeze.” ‘Hmm. Although despicable, I gotta give those mutts some credit. That’s actually smart.’ “So how long have you been here.” I insensitively asked which was rewarded with a glare from Stephanie. I recoiled from the glare and quickly added “If you don’t mind answering that is.” She continued to stare me down for a few more seconds before she turned back to the pile and restarted her sorting. It didn’t look like she was going to respond and I started to regret asking about such a personal question. ‘What was I thinking? Asking her how long she’s been here. It’s like asking how many years had been ripped from her life that she will never get back. Insensitive idiot.’ After a long and awkward silence and many gems being sorted, I decided to apologise. “Um, Stephanie” She didn’t look at me. “I’m sorry if I offended you. I wasn’t thinking when I asked you that question. I don’t expect you to answer and I don’t want you to if you don’t.” Stephanie turned and looked me in the eye. I could tell that she knew I was sincere because she opened her beak to reply. What she was going to say, however, I would never know because about 50 Diamond Dogs entered the room in pairs. Each pair had a dog holding a leash and the other keys. I looked at Stephanie with a confused expression and she mouthed “Relax. It’s okay.” Knowing that didn’t help my nerves from being so severely outnumbered. Each pair leashed a slave and led them out of the room. ‘It’s only been a couple of hours since I’ve been here. Did we fill the buckets already? Either that was quicker than I thought it would be or I was kicked in here after the ‘shift’ started.’ Before I could contemplate the situation any more, a abnormally large Diamond Dog stepped into my field of vision. I looked up and realised I recognised the mutt. Why hello Asshole. He viciously growled when he put the leash around my neck and I think he made it tighter than it needed to be. I glared at him but didn’t give him the satisfaction of complaining. ‘Oh great. Now I’ve made an enemy of a big sadistic dog. My life is starting to look better and better.’ Since I was standing up this time, I didn’t have to endure the pain of being dragged along the ground. Didn’t stop Asshole from trying though. His companion didn’t even mind, at least, that is what I would think if it wasn’t for the terrified glances he shot at Asshole every so often. ‘I could probably use that to my advantage in the future.’ When I was led to a door that all the other slaves had been led to, Asshole picked me up and threw me into the room so hard that I slammed into the wall on the other side. With a deep laugh that sounded between a growl and like he was choking on something, he closed the door and locked us all in. I staggered to my feet and muttered “That bastard. I think I sprained my right legs. At least my cut on my eye has stopped bleeding.” ‘Bet it scars too’ I thought miserably. I looked around to see some of the slaves looking at me with a little concern in their eyes but didn’t do anything to help. I noticed Stephanie was in the corner of the room and limped over to her as fast as my injured body would let me. When I managed to get to her she asked “Are you okay?” “Yeah, I’m fine” I responded “It’ll heal quickly.” She gave me a strange look then lied down on the ground and said “I don’t envy you. If you’ve made an enemy of that Diamond Dog, you’re in trouble.” “How’d you figure that?” I queried. “That Diamond Dog is called Rews. He is the son of the Alpha of this pack. He’s pretty much second in charge. It is also why he is larger than the other dogs. He is an evil puppy” she deadpanned. “Oh,” was all I could say “shit.” ‘Hang on. What’s an Alpha?’ When I asked Stephanie she began to explain. “An Alpha is a bloodline in mutts. I don’t know exact details about what it actually is but it makes the dog that has it larger, stronger and more vicious than those without. The Alpha’s are leaders because it is hard for an ordinary Diamond Dog to defeat.” ‘That gives me some food for thought.’ I thought while looking at all my other fellow slaves. “How old is everyone here? I mean, I’m twelve but I can’t really tell the age of others.” She looked at me and said “Well I’m thirteen and the others range from eight being the youngest to sixteen being the oldest.” Another question down but a new one arose just as quickly when my eyes landed on the two Diamond Dogs that were gathered separate from the group. “What about those two?” “Which two?” “The two Diamond Dogs.” “Oh them.” Stephanie said when she figured out who I was talking about. “Apparently they tried to defeat the Alpha together but lost. Since the Alpha was in a good mood at the time they were given gem sorting duty for the rest of their lives instead of being killed.” “Well at least they can be thankful to be alive.” I put in, then I realised I hadn’t asked an important question. “When do they bring us food?” “It varies.” She replied “Not only the time but what they bring to. They bring us food whenever they feel like and if they’re pissed off then they’ll only bring us meat to torture the ponies and zebras.” “That’s just…. I can’t even comprehend…. Why would they…. Those motherfucking,” As I was about to let out a ton of profanities to slander our captors, the door opened and three Diamond Dogs threw in a large box filled with salad. The box landed on its side, spilling the contents all over the floor. ‘They fucking did that on purpose, those bastards.’ I thought darkly. The dogs left after throwing their slave kin a raw leg of meat each. When I realised what it was I nearly puked. On the outside of each blue leg was a cutie mark of a dragonfly that used to belong to a pony. I looked away before they took a bite and I noticed that all the other ponies and zebras were doing the same. ‘That is so wrong on so many levels.’ Trying to keep myself from being sick, I quickly stood from my position and put the salad back into the box before it could be ruined. Letting out a sigh of relief when I noticed it was still edible I grabbed an equal share for Stephanie and I, taking into consideration not how much I wanted but how many others needed to eat as well. I handed Stephanie her share which she thanked me for and began eating which I was quick to follow. Considering that I never liked veges as a human I was surprised at how much nicer it tasted as a griffin. ‘Maybe my taste buds were improved as well?’ I theorized while I finished off my food. Stephanie was eating her food more scarcely than I was, probably because she has been here longer and knows it is better to make it last longer. Not wanting to be rude I closed my eyes and rested while she was eating. Even when she had finished we didn’t say anything. I used this pleasant silence to think about my situation. ‘I know that this isn’t where I want to be right know, but I am, so I have to find a way to deal with it. I am going to need to find a way to help the slaves escape is very, very poor excuse for hospitality. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I escape on my own and left these people to their fates.’ While I was thinking through some shoddy plans that would never work in the first place, I didn’t realise an argument had broken out between Stephanie and 3 ponies. I was broken out of my trance when I heard her scream and start struggling. When I looked over I couldn’t believe what I saw. Two colts about ten or eleven years old from what I could tell, were holding Stephanie down while the third who was slightly older, maybe 12 or 13, was leaning on top of her with his stallionhood was hanging out. My mind blanked. The situation was so ridiculous that my mind shut down from the mere idiocy of it. But lucky for Stephanie, my mind rebooted and I was angry. I rushed up to the older pony and bucked him right between his legs. He dropped to the ground holding his crotch and the other two charged at me after seeing their leader attacked. As they reached me I grabbed their heads in my claws and smashed them together knocking them out cold. ‘What the hell is wrong with these ponies?’ I thought still thoroughly pissed at them. I grabbed the leader by the throat and whispered into his ear “If you even think about doing that again, I’ll feed you to those two Diamond Dogs.” The pony looked at me with pure fear in his eyes and I tightened my grip on his throat to let him know I was serious and he nodded his head furiously. I let him go and he scampered away to the other side of the room, leaving his unconscious companions behind. I walked back to Stephanie and noticed that she was obviously traumatised by the assault. She had tears running down her face and she was curled up into a shivering ball. I didn’t know how to make her feel better so I did the only thing that made sense. I laid down next to her and embraced her with my wing. She flinched but didn’t move away. I whispered comforting things to her to help her relax but she continued to whimper and cry throughout the night and she didn’t stop even when she went to sleep. I stayed awake for as long as I could to watch over her and to make sure nothing happened. This is my first night in Equestria that I was able to go to sleep under my own power instead of being forced and it is also when I realised that, ‘I don’t think I like being in Equestria anymore.’ Wow. Didn't think I could write that many words in a chapter. New personal best. Anyway, as always, tell me what you think and how it can be improved. Input is always appreciated.