Omega

Omega

Chapter 3: Necessities

“Good morning, sir.”

Robber Baron turned around, pulling the cup of tea from his lips as he greeted the newcomer. “Ah, good morning.”

Pen Knife bowed ceremoniously, the fire in the hearth casting his flickering shadow over the varied collection of priceless furniture in the room. Sofas made from fabrics that only a select few Equestrians even knew existed, paintings of vistas thousands of miles away, and display cases containing strange technologies Equestria had not yet discovered decorated the room. It could be said with certainty that, out of every room in all of Equestria, Robber Baron’s personal lounge was more exotic and foreign than any other. The only thing in it that could be called Equestrian was the very pony who owned it.

Baron took a final sip of his tea. He set the cup down regretfully, wishing he could’ve had just a few moments longer to enjoy the taste. But alas, such is the life of the richest pony in Equestria. He smirked.

“Okay then, Pen, what’ve you got for me?” he asked. Rising from his seat, he walked past the visiting unicorn and began out the door.

Pen Knife followed behind. “Would you like the items in need of your attention first, sir? Or the general reports?”

Baron mulled over the decision briefly as he walked. “General reports.”

The aide nodded, levitating a sheaf of papers out of the folder on his back. “Very well then, sir.” He cleared his throat. “The shipyards report that the prototype chassis was recently finished, and they will be sending it out for test runs shortly.”

Baron smiled, ignoring the sights of the city as he walked past a window. They had gotten old after the first decade. “Excellent. How long until it will be ready for shipping?”

“A few months, sir.”

“Good. Carry on.”

Pen Knife adjusted his glasses. “Reports show that our recent gem deal with the Jackal is proving to be extremely lucrative. Besides the increase in gold flow, the Jackal himself is also quite pleased with the trade.”

“Good. Invest half of the new income into public relations. Take a third and put it towards the politicians. Save the rest.”

“Very well, sir.” The conversation stalled momentarily as Pen scribbled something on the clipboard floating by his side. “Also, sir, it seems that the rebels raided one of our warehouses last night.”

Robber Baron arched a brow. “What did they take?”

“Moonstone, sir.”

Baron came to an abrupt halt, nearly causing Pen Knife to bump into him. He twisted his neck, a dangerous look in his eyes as he turned to face the other pony. “How much?”

“A whole shipment, sir.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. “An entire shipment?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have we reacquired it yet?”

“No, sir.”

“You know how I hate wasting money, Pen.”

“Yes, sir.”

Baron returned his eyes forwards, looking down upon his city. There was an entire shipment of moonstone hiding down there, out of its rightful place. And it was expensive. It required contacts amongst the Moon Princess’s highest lieutenants, a daring smuggler to pull it out from under her nose, and a skilled moonsmith to put to use without her knowledge. Such a theft was a massive financial loss.

And if there was anything that the Baron hated in this world, it was an investment that didn’t return.

“Arrange an execution, Pen. Do we have any rebel prisoners?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Two of them, and their families. If you can’t find a family, pick another one,” Baron said.

He walked away without another word. The only sound was the scribbling of pen upon clipboard.

Nobody steals from Robber Baron.

“You’ve ruined my life.”

“There are some acts which cannot be forgiven.”

“This is all your fault!”

My eyes shot open as I was jolted awake, second-hoof sunlight dripping in through the curtained hole in the wall trying to impersonate a window. I heard a dulled wooden knocking, followed by shouting, somewhere in the hall outside my door. I lay in bed for a few more moments, my mind blissfully blank.

A sharp knock brought me back to the present. I rolled over in the bed, just in time to see my precariously balanced door slam into the floor.

I squinted up at the muscular indigo earth pony that stepped over it. His lip curled as he caught sight of me.

“You!” he shouted. “Up! Foundry duty starts early, and I won’t have my shift late for some sulking piece of first-day shit!”

I returned my gaze to the window, blearily trying to evaluate what time it was. I was so tired. Everything was happening so fast.

The bed shook with the impact of a sudden kick from the stallion, knocking both me and the mattress down to the ground.

“Up!”

Buck you.

I remained on the ground, silently resisting.

“Ugh, not this shit again,” I heard him mutter. I felt a sharp pressure on my neck as he pulled me up with his mouth. My hooves scrabbled over the floor as I fought to regain my balance.

“Work starts at dawn, six days a week! You will return to your lodging at sunset! You will call me Boss! You will report to Foundry Two every damned morning or I will personally drag you out into the street and whip your flank! Now go!” He punctuated the order with a heavy stomp.

To my embarrassment, the stomp startled me into stumbling forwards. I glared at him as I walked out into the hall, meeting his stern gaze with as much defiance as I could muster.

Several other ponies were making their way up the hall, towards the staircase. They all looked just as exhausted as I was. Their coats were dull and their eyes empty, in a way that I had never seen before amongst the happy, pastel-colored ponies of Equestria.

Boss shoved me from behind, sending me stumbling forwards. I caught myself on the opposite wall and, resisting the urge to turn and try to tackle the larger pony, fell in with the others.

I was swept downstairs and out into the street by the ponies around me, where we all joined a large crowd gathering in front of the building. Squinting upwards, I got my first look at my new home. It was a plain construct: a brick-and-mortar building with curtained holes marking each room. A simple white “12R” was painted on it, just above the door.

“Move!”

The crowd lurched forwards, spurred onwards by the command. Together we shuffled forth through the streets of the Inner City. The simple residential buildings around us were soon replaced with the architecture of industry: steel mills, ironworks, foundries, and manufacturing plants. Smaller groups of ponies broke off from the main crowd as we passed them, filtering into their respective workplaces.

I looked up, and was treated to a sight unlike any I had seen before. A dozen massive skydocks towered above me, each behemoth connected to its neighbors by sturdy steel bridges. The sky was almost completely blocked out by the fleet of trade ships floating above the city; what little light reached the Inner City itself was forced to slip between the ships, putting the district under a state of perpetual twilight.

As I returned my gaze forwards, I noticed guard towers built around the path. Each one held a pair of ponies within, their faces hidden by grim, dark suits of armor. I shivered as one of them gazed down on me. There was something inexplicably… unnatural about them.

“Halt!”

I almost bumped into the mare in front of me as the crowd shuffled to a stop. Glancing around, I suddenly realized that most of the crowd we had begun with was gone; only about thirty ponies remained.

Before us was a large brick-and-mortar building. A pair of tall smokestacks poked out of its roof, identifying it to be of industrial purpose. I stood up to my full height, straining to see the words painted on its front over the shoulders of the pony in front of me.

“Foundry Two,” I read aloud.

The line advanced quickly, and I soon found myself standing before Boss, frowning at me through the glass of the booth he occupied.

“Name?”

“Dissero.”

He made a fierce scribble upon something out of my view. “Race?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Can’t he figure it out himself? “Unicorn…”

Another scribble. “Previous occupation?”

“Merchant.”

One last, vigorous scribble. I began to doubt the legibility of his writing. “Step aside and wait.”

I complied, removing myself from the line to allow another stallion to advance. He gave his name, waited while Boss marked something on his paper, and then continued onwards, around a corner and into the depths of Foundry Two.

I noticed another pony standing by my side. He had an inky black coat, and was drawn so far into himself, huddled against the rough wall behind us, that I almost didn’t notice his wings. He glanced up at me shyly, looking away when he realized I saw him.

“You new here?” I asked.

He nodded. He looked young, like a colt fresh out of the home. We were both relatively small compared to the large, built-up ponies that lived here, but he was even scrawnier than I was. An image of a paintbrush trailed by stars adorned his flank.

“My name’s Dissero,” I said.

“Moon Dream,” he replied.

I looked around. The line was almost gone. “How’d you end up here?”

“I came to draw the airships,” he said. “I got closer than I wanted.”

Boss’s harsh voice cut through the air. “You two, over here!”

The line was gone, leaving only Boss, now outside the booth, tapping a hoof impatiently. I stepped forwards, and Moon Dream followed nervously behind.

“Welcome to Foundry Two!” he barked. “You will be working with the furnaces! Come with me!”

Is the constant yelling really necessary? He marched down the hallway, and we followed into the central structure of the foundry. It was dark inside, with narrow slits supplying sparse daylight. Large casts were stacked against one wall, and giant iron cauldrons hung suspended from the roof, slowly lumbering around the room as a few ponies labored over the pulleys attached to them. Two large doors on the other side of the building rumbled open as I followed Boss, revealing a pair of massive pony-drawn carriages, the stallions pulling them straining against their yokes.

Boss led us down a narrow flight of stairs tucked into a corner. We emerged in a much more compact room, somewhere beneath the main one. Eight brick furnaces were aligned in two columns of side-by-side pairs, with two ponies waiting expectantly beside each pair.

Boss stopped besides an unoccupied pair. “You two will be operating these furnaces!” he explained, still shouting. He pointed to me. “You will supply each one with coal!” His hoof turned on Moon Dream. “You will supply them with air!”

He narrowed his eyes, glancing over us one last time before marching back to the stairs. He shot a look over his shoulder, a snarl already prepared for the rest of the room.

“Get to work!” he roared.

I jumped at a sudden bang by my side. A chute in the wall I hadn’t noticed before had slammed open, dumping a pile of coal onto the floor.

Gingerly levitating a piece to look at it closer, I suddenly met eyes with Moon Dream. I saw my own misery reflected back at me. He opened his mouth to mumble something.

“I suppose we should get started.”

Ω     Ω     Ω

The sharp shriek of the whistle rang in my ears.

The hard stone floor rose up to meet me. I lay there, drenched in sweat, and vaguely aware of Moon Dream collapsing by my side. My magic sputtered and died in much the same way that my body was trying to. A few pieces of dropped coal rained upon my coat, adding to the already thick layer of coal dust on it.

I stared straight forwards, panting, and cherished the next few seconds of peace. My ears registered the sound of hooves clopping past. How can they still be standing?

A shadow cast itself over me. With a gargantuan effort, I rolled over and looked up, to be rewarded with the sight of Boss grinning down at me.

“Hard work, eh, newbies?”

If I hadn’t been so exhausted I would’ve frowned. For a moment, I thought I’d heard a distant second cousin of sympathy.

“Take tomorrow off. You’ll be working every other day until you can manage two days without dying. You’ll get used to it,” he told us. “If there’s one good thing about foundry work, it’s that it makes you hard.”

The journey home was almost as hard as the work itself. The sun had both risen and set during my time in the foundry, and my tired hooves stumbled over every bump in the path as I dragged myself back to my building. Moon Dream staggered next to me. During the day we had determined that his room was just down the hall from my own.

By the time we reached our rooms, we were too tired for any kind of real goodbye. We exchanged half-dead glances of acknowledgement. He opened his door and stepped through.

I stepped over my door and collapsed into bed, not even bothering to levitate it into place.

Ω     Ω     Ω

Oh, sweet.... damn. My whole body ached like it had never ached before. Even my horn ached. I couldn’t even levitate my sad excuse for a blanket off of me without summoning a massive migraine all too reminiscent of being punched in the face.

Maybe... yeah. No magic for today.

I stumbled out of my room to find the building mostly deserted. Everypony must be out working. I spied the old pegasus that had laughed at me when Ember bucked my door down, sitting in his chair and smoking a pipe.

The old pegasus looked up and cracked a toothy smile my way. “I see Sword Breaker has elected to give you a day off,” he laughed. “Hard first day?”

I nodded uncertainly. Who’s this guy? “Why aren’t you out with the others?”

“Hah! Work, an old pony like me!” he exclaimed. “I’d break my back out in that foundry. Sword Breaker may be tough, but he cares. He’s just as much a slave as the rest of us.” He winked at me as he said the last few words, taking a long pull at his pipe.

“Who’s Sword Breaker?” I asked.

“Oh, well he probably introduced himself to you as ‘Boss.’ He likes that kind of thing.”

He released a puff of smoke, leaning back contentedly. A shaft of sunlight lit up his face, revealing a veritable army of wrinkles and spots.

“You’re the oldest pony I’ve seen in this place so far,” I said.

“And probably the oldest you’ll ever see, until the day I die!” He chuckled. That’s starting to get on my nerves.

“Why doesn’t anypony make you work? I didn’t think the Baron was the kind of pony to allow retirement.”

“He’s not, boy. The good Baron would never let a pony rest as long as his hoof can still be raised, and even then he finds a use for us.” He smiled to himself. “But when you’ve survived here as long as I have, you find ways.”

I nodded. “Suppose I’ll go look around then.” I began to make my way down the hall.

A cane flashed out, slapping me on the knee as I tried to pass him. “Ow!” Where the hay did he get a cane?

“Now listen here, son.        I’ve heard about you and your crew. Unfortunate business, but don’t you worry: they’ll come around. Friends are hard to find here, and sometimes harder to separate. What’s your name again?”

“Dissero.” I rubbed my knee with my other leg. I really don’t need ancients beating me with sticks right now.

“Ah, yes. Dissy! I remember now.” He chuckled again. “My memory is not what it once was.”

Remember? I had never told him my name before in the first place, let alone the pet name Dissy and my parents used. The old stallion looked behind me and smiled. “Ah, Moon Dream. I see you too have been graced with a free day.”

“Yes, sir,” Moon Dream said. He stepped up to my side.

“Always sad to see a young pony like yourself caught up in this hell.” The old stallion released a series of hacking coughs before taking another pull at his pipe.

“Y’know, that’s not very healthy, sir,” the younger pegasus said.

“Bah, don’t worry about me. I would’ve been dead years ago if it wasn’t for some lucky placement.” He winked at us, and shifted so we could see his cutie mark: a glowing hot ingot. “I have a talent for metal work, you see. Kept me alive longer than anypony else in the foundries. I’ve lived through generations here, seen many of these skydocks being built. A few years off my life won’t hurt. Oh, pardon my manners!” He took another pull on his pipe. “M’name’s Old Ironhide.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said. Moon Dream murmured agreement.

“Hey, where is Nix’s room?” I asked. Old Ironhide chuckled.

“It’s not too hard. You go down to the second floor, and her room is the second door on the right as you leave the stairwell,” he said.

I excused myself, leaving the two pegasi to talk amongst themselves. I followed Ironhide’s directions to a nondescript door on the second floor and knocked lightly.

“Come in!” Nix called. I entered to find her tending to Silver Feather’s hurt wing. The pegasus was awake, and his face scrunched up in pain. He bit down on the towel in his mouth as Nix set the broken bone in his wing and tied it in place with bandages and tape.

Silver spat out the towel. “By Celestia, that hurts!” he hissed. “And itches!” he added, rolling his back.

“Stop that, and try not to scratch,” Nix ordered. “Actually, you’d better not move your left foreleg much at all,” she said after a moment’s thought, easing him back into a lying down position on his bed.

Nix looked up to see who her visitor was. “Oh, hello Dissy,” she said. “Silver Feather is well enough to talk now, as you can see. I’ll be right back.” She got up and walked into the adjoining room, leaving me alone to face my best friend.

Silver fixed me with a hard look, similar to the kind he‘d used on me at the poker table. I approached him meekly, trying to figure out how to apologize, already anticipating his rejection.

“Silver,” I started, but he cut me off with a wave of his hoof. Here it comes. I was about to lose my best friend.

“Save it,” he said. I was doing a lot of apology saving recently, it seemed. He stared at me for a full minute, and then he said, “I already got my revenge.”

I cocked my head, unsure if I should be happy or depressed. What?

Suddenly, he broke into an evil, playful grin. “I was conscious as I was being brought here...” he started, “and I made sure that everypony thought your name was Dissy.”

“W-what?” I had been expecting anger. Sadness, scorn, contempt. This was literal foal’s play.

I gathered myself together enough to smile. “Thanks.”

I sat by his side, and spent the rest of the morning there. Nix, Silver, and I talked about whatever came to mind, when she wasn’t tending to him or the one other, unconscious patient in the room. Every now and then she asked for my assistance, and I gave it freely. It was my only way to repay her.

Eventually, I dozed off. Despite last night’s sleep, I was still exhausted, and Nix’s room was full of unused beds.

I was roused by the sound of heavy hoofbeats out in the hall. Nix came out of the side room to eye the door, ears twitching curiously. Silver was in the midst of a deep, herb-assisted slumber.

Suddenly, the door burst open.

Three ponies rushed in, carrying the moaning form of a fourth between them. “Phoenix Down!” one of them called.

Nix rushed to the corner of the room where her satchel was placed. “Place him on the table! Gently!”

The ponies cleared a space on the wide metal table that dominated the center of the room and placed their companion upon it. They all wore thick, dirty clothes and caps. One of them had a strange device slung about his neck, vaguely stick-shaped and covered with strange runes. “He’s been shot!”

“What happened? Give me some space.” Nix brushed the others away as she bent over the moaning body. Two of the dirty ponies went to watch the windows, while the one with the rune-covered thing stayed near the table.

Nix beckoned to me with a flick of her tail. I leapt to my hooves. Grabbing a pair of scissors in my magic, I carefully cut away his clothes. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. The wound was bleeding badly, and the fur around it was matted with dirt. Nix grabbed a damp towel and began to gently clean the filth.

“We were smuggling supplies when the Baron’s ponies ambushed us. We had a few casualties, and most of us escaped, but there’re some too weak to take back. We need you to care for this one until he’s good enough to make it home,” the pony with the rune-covered device said. I gave the wounded pony something to bite as Nix poured cheap alcohol over the wound, eliciting a muffled scream.

“I’ll care for him. You’d best go before you’re found here,” Nix said authoritatively. “We don’t want anypony else hurt.”

The two near the windows pulled back, filing out into the hallway. The third followed after them, stopping in the doorway to speak. “We’ll send someone to check him every Sunday.” Then he was gone, as suddenly as he appeared.

“Dissy, hold him down,” Nix ordered. She reached for a pair of tongs, and I put my weight down on the pony’s chest. He moaned in agony as Nix reached into the wound with the tongs, biting the towel so hard I thought he might pop a vein, and passed out.

The tongs came out red, with a bloodied stone sphere covered in runes between its fingers. Nix dropped it into a nearby tin.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a bullet, Dissero,” Nix said as she continued to remove shrapnel from the wound. “The Baron’s ponies shoot them out of rune guns. They’re kinda like hoof cannons. One of the ponies that was in here had one.”

“How do they work?”

“Ancient lunar magic, from the Nightmare Wars. We don’t know much about it, as the Baron keeps it a closely guarded secret. What we do know is that unicorns can store their magic in runes written on moonstone, to be released with command words from other ponies. The Baron knows somepony real high up who gets him the moonstone.”

“And who were those ponies?”

“They were rebels. Surely you didn’t think that the Baron could be running Harmony City like this for so long without some kind of resistance?”

Huh. “Are they recruiting?”

Nix shot me an alarmed look. “Surely you aren’t thinking of joining? Rebels die every day, Dissero. If you think life under the Baron is hard, you can’t imagine life against him.”

“I can’t just sit by and let him own me,” I pushed.

She glared at me. “Nopony lives long as a rebel, they all die eventually. If you join them, your fate will be no different.” She turned back to her work, looking away from me. “If you truly want to throw your life away, then feel free to sign up.”

“How?”

She shook her head. “I’m not telling you how to kill yourself. I’m sure if you walk around outside they’ll run into you eventually.”

Ω     Ω     Ω

Wow, it’s dark out here.

I walked up to another alley, peering down it curiously. The sun was setting now, and with the stars blocked by the airships above, only the sunlight that reflected off the taller  buildings reached the surface.

Where are they?

I squinted, straining to pierce the darkness. Nothing. Come on, did you really think you could just walk out and find rebels in one night?

My ears twitched at a scrabbling sound to my left. I turned, just in time to be knocked over by something that ran between my legs.

“Hey!”

“Get back here!”

“Stop it!”

I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding being  trampled by four thickly clothed ponies. They galloped past me, into the alley, and were swallowed up by the night.

“Hey, wait!” I ran after them. They look like rebels!

I darted through the pitch-dark alleys, following the sound of chasing hoofbeats. I heard a loud metal clash, the sound of scrambling hooves, another shout, and then silence.

It was so dark that I could barely see. I slowed to a stop in an empty courtyard, unsure of where to go next. A pair of trash cans had fallen over and were knocking into each other in a corner. My ears twitched.

A rough pair of hooves wrapped themselves around my neck.

I gagged, gasping for breath as I waved my legs around haphazardly. Things started to go dark.

“Wait!”

I fell to the ground, my neck finally free to breathe again, retching. I rolled onto my back, to be rewarded with the sight of three stallions looking down on me.

“He doesn’t look like one of the Baron’s.”

“I thought work didn’t end in this district for another half hour?”

“Well, what’s he doing out here then?”

“Well, he doesn’t look like- “

“I’d like to join you!”

They stopped talking. A frown, a raised brow, and a grin looked down on me. I waved them away with a hoof to give myself some room to stand up.

“Who is it?” The fourth rebel, a mare, pushed her way into the circle. She eyed me over suspiciously. She was holding a struggling, grey-furred filly in her magic. “What are you doing here?”

I swallowed. Here we go. “I’d like to join the rebellion.”

She raised a brow. “Well, you don’t look like much, but... Just let us deal with this scrap and then we’ll head for the safehouse.”

The filly bobbed up and down. “Let go of me! I have to get to my brother!” She flapped her legs around wildly, as if trying to swim out of the magical grasp and escape.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, little one,” the mare said. “We gave you a chance, and you didn’t take it.”

“I have to get to my brother!” the filly repeated.

“What are you doing with her?” I asked.

One of the stallions glanced my way. “She’s a Baron spy. Seen too much, and since she didn’t agree to join us...”

A second stallion finished for him. “We kill her.”

I blinked. “Wh- what? You can’t kill a foal!”

The mare fixed me with a hard stare. “We have no choice. It’s the life of this filly or the good of the rebellion. We have no place to put her.”

I gaped. “No! That’s not right!”

One of the stallions pulled me aside. “Look here, recruit. The rebellion is the only thing here that’s fighting back against the Baron. We can’t afford to take any risks. She has to go.”

“No! Find another way!”

He frowned. “There is no other way. She thinks the Baron will give her her brother back, and she won’t give in to us. She needs to be silenced.”

“Listen to yourself!” I growled. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping these ponies? You can’t kill their foals!”

“There are certain unfortunate necessities that must be seen too. Are you sure you have the drive to join us?” The stallion punched my shoulder lightly. “Have you got what it takes to serve the greater good?”

“Well, yes, but-”

A high-pitched squeal rang through the night.

I looked at the rebel before me, terrified. He nodded at me grimly, patted me on the back, and began to walk back to the rest of his group. My eyes followed after him.

I focused in on a trickle of blood, and a foal-shaped shadow on the pavement.

I turned and ran as fast as I could.