I woke up to the same white landscape I saw after first agreeing to the, for lack of a better term, contract. Once more, floating nothingness surrounded me. And let me tell you, it was boring. You ever spend time alone on a weekend with anything to do, yet you do none of it because it all seems somewhat pointless? Yeah, that's the kind of bored I was.

So while I floated in white, I thought back to the events of the past. I had accepted the deal of that old woman. I woke up in a field with a new body, which somehow came with creepy red eyes and flaming hair. I was then captured and put to work in a mine by talking dogs. After that, I got to talk with a pony -never thought I'd say that- and learned that I was in a land called Equestria. Now I'm just waiting for something to happen so I can escape.

I must've been really zoned out, because next thing I knew there was a slight tap on my right shoulder. I looked up to see the same fire woman from before standing right in front of me. After acknowledging her presence, she backed up a little before clearing her throat.

"Hello Jack, or maybe I should call you Blaze now? I see you've been busy... being captured." She said with a noticeable smirk on her face.

All I could do was glare at her. "Yeah, well it's not like I had any choice. You might be immortal, but I'm not. I can still die by an arrow to the head. Besides, I'm just waiting for a chance to escape."

"Uh huh, sure you are. While I may appreciate the fact that you're not stupid, I don't appreciate my champion doing absolutely nothing but mine gems for those filthy mongrels."

"Well what am I supposed to do? It's not like they give me much of a choice with all the guards they have posted. If you want me to do something, then give me a hand here."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her index and middle fingers. "Fine. You want help, I'll give you help. But I expect some gratitude after this is done. Not many gods would help their piece so easily. I just need you to do something- anything. I swear, Poseidon is laughing at me whenever I turn my back."

"No complaints here, so long as I can escape that stupid hole in the ground."

She snapped her fingers and I looked around expectantly. When I noticed nothing had happened, I looked back to her. "Hey, what gives. I thought you said you were going to help me."

"I did say that, and I already have. You don't see anything because everything here is in your head. In short, nothing has changed physically. In fact, the only way anything for anything to change is if you wish it so. Though that doesn't mean you can give yourself something in here and expect it to follow you into the real world. Though on the upside, everything will change the same next time you come back here."

"Well if nothing changes in here, then what did you give me?"

She giggled- no kidding, the goddess of fire actually giggled- and put her hand to her mouth in an 'oh-so-ladylike' fashion. "Oh nothing much. Just a small increase to your speed and reflexes. Nothing too drastic, but you shouldn't need to worry about arrows hitting you if you're smart. Oh, and none of that super speed nonsense. The last time someone tried that, we had Argus scrape him off the wall he ran into." She turned around and walked a few paces before she stopped and faced me again. "Oh, and I gave you a couple other things. But I'll leave the surprise for when you wake up."

And with that a door materialized in front of her and she walked through it. This left me with some time before I would wake up. If I remembered correctly, I had about five minutes before I'd be forcibly removed from this... white room of nothingness. Yeah, I need to fix that.

'She said that this was all in my head, so maybe if I imagine something in here it might appear. It was worth a shot I guess.' I thought hard and imagined a writing desk like the one I had back home, and no sooner had the thought popped into my mind did an actual writing desk appear before me. 'Oh that is so cool.'

After that, I thought of a couch, a widescreen TV, a PS3 with a couple games and controllers, and a little kitchen area in case I ever did get hungry in my head. Call me materialistic or childish, but it felt good to have some stuff from back home in my imaginary living quarters.

'Though now that I think about it, I should probably be waking up soon. And there goes all the furniture. Guess it really is time to wake up.'

~3~

I woke up in my oh so familiar cage, but I noticed something was off. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but it somehow felt as if... I had woken up weird. I didn't let that distract me for long though. With a quick shake of my head, I looked around my temporary prison and my eyes lit up at the sight of a gift wrapped box in the center of the cage. It even had white wrapping paper tied with a red bow.

I hastily made my way over to it and unceremoniously ripped it open. What was inside left my jaw dangling about a foot below the ground. I sifted through the box and pulled out a pure white cloak with red flames along the bottom and around the hood, and a pair of cool looking claw gauntlets.

I studied the claws for a bit. They were really well made, that much I could tell. They had black fabric along where my wrists and forearms would go, and I could tell that I would have to slip them on kind of like gloves. Then again, what kind of gauntlets would they be if I didn't slip them on. Around where my wrists would be there were more red sashes like the one on my waist. And finally, they ended with five sharp ivory claws. The tops of which were actually bone white, while the bottoms were translucent, and would no doubt allow whoever looked open them a view of my fingers inside. All of this was connected to the actual gauntlet itself, which was a dull orange color and contained several black lines going around the palm areas.

After studying them for a while, I decided to try them on. I'd hate to find out that they didn't fit. I grabbed one by the black fabric and tugged it onto my left hand. My hand slid comfortably past the fabric and into the actual gauntlet, where each of my fingers had a tiny bit of space left between them and the tips. I then repeated the same process for the right one and brought my hands out in front of me to examine them. All in all, not bad. I flexed my fingers to see how fluidly I could move them and found them to be surprisingly dextrous.

Before I could finish my examination, I noticed a faint glow coming from my palms. I turned my hands towards me and found a small light on each palm, growing brighter with every second. It started off dull orange just like the rest of my palm, but then grew into a bright orange, then yellow. After it turned yellow, the rest of my palm turned bright orange and I saw yellow lines snaking their way up my arms. Now, normally I'd be freaked out about this. Weird yellow lines that somehow start appearing on my body plus a glowing gauntlet, yeah that would scare almost anyone. But the thing was, it didn't hurt. I've learned from experience that unless it's painful, you can probably leave it alone... Maybe not the smartest way of wording it, but I didn't really feel like I had to do anything.

Eventually the lines stopped at my shoulders, and I could see the finished product on my arms. At first glance, they were randomly crossing my arms, but on closer inspection I saw them making up symbols along my arms. Neither side had the same symbols, but they were definitely there. Strange symbols to see on my arms, but I wasn't complaining. If anything, they were rather glowy scars.

I don't know how long I stared at the lines on my arms, but eventually I stopped and looked over to the other item from the box. I picked up the cloak by the hood and felt along the material. It was very soft to the touch. How I could feel anything from in the gauntlets I don't know, but it was rather convenient. The cloak was soft on the inside, yet the outside was as hard as a rock. It weighed next to nothing, which confused me. How could something as hard as a rock weigh practically nothing? It went against all laws of physics. Still, I would worry about that later. I donned the cloak and put the hood on my head. I couldn't even describe the feeling. It was warm, yet cool at the same time. It just felt... right.

I pulled the hood back and considered my options. 'The goddess said that she would help me in escaping. While I appreciate the cool claws and cloak, that doesn't really help me scape from here.'

Out of nowhere, I heard a tiny voice in the back of my head. burn the bars

"Burn the bars? How the hell am I supposed to burn anything without fire?" I stopped my one sided conversation to look at my now lit hair. I then slowly lowered my eyes to my gauntlets, and the still yellow glow in the center. I edged my way over to the side of the cage with the "door" and once more looked at my hands. Then, I grabbed hold of the bars.

The reaction was almost instant. The second I wrapped my fingers around the bars, the spots where I grabbed turned a violent orange and I could hear sizzling noises coming from them. A few second later, and the bars had quite literally turned to mush. Red hot molten mush mind you, but still mush. I moved over a little and melted the next few bars. Man, did it feel good to literally melt through steel. By the time I finished with my second set of bars, I had made a space large enough for me to walk through. I did so, and silently stretched, hearing each of my vertebrae pop with a satisfying crack.

After my impromptu jailbreak, I looked down at my hand to see the same yellow glow coming from the center. "Note to self: no handshakes or face palms with these things on." But on the subject of these gauntlets, they were really powerful. And the heat needed to melt what I assumed to be steel would have to be pretty high. It made me wonder how my hands weren't already molten slushies themselves, let alone why I didn't feel hot at all.

Once more, I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. There would be plenty of time to wonder about these things later, after I had broken out. So I set off down the dark tunnel in a random direction, hoping that it would lead somewhere productive.

~3~

Bored. So. Bored. I'd been traveling down the tunnel for what felt like forever. There were no signs of any adjacent pathways, and no physical signs of anything traversing this particular tunnel. I was just beginning to give up hope and turn around when I heard the faint sound of snoring. I slowly made my way forward until I came upon a wooden door. There was a torch set in the wall just to the side of it, but other than that, it was just a door. I didn't see a handle on it, so I assumed it was a push door. I assumed correctly, as I pushed with my shoulder and it slowly gave way. Once inside, I quietly shut the door and looked around.

There were sleeping dogs everywhere. Okay, I may have exaggerated. In reality, there were really only like ten of them. Still, I couldn't be too careful and I had to assume there would be more of them nearby.

I must've been in the barracks or something close to that, so I decided to follow the advice of a wise dead man, and let the sleeping dogs lay there. All I could hope for was to get through without waking any of them up. Some of them looked like they could eat iron for breakfast and not feel it. So I began to tip toe past the sleeping guards, and I had nearly made it past them all when I heard one of them growl, "You're mine now."

I quickly spun towards the voice and got ready to fight, but stopped shortly after seeing who had spoken. It was a guard dog that was slowly chewing on his pillow, and I had to try hard not to snicker at the sight. The fool thought his pillow was his lunch. After making sure that none of the other guards had woken up, I made my way to another door and slowly pushed it open. When I made it through, I froze up. There was another dog standing there staring at me, fully awake.

I slowly brought my hand up and waved at him. "Uh, hi."

His eyes widened in realization- god how dumb can you be. I'm clearly not another dog- and he sucked in a breath, ready to call out for reinforcements. Without thinking, I shot my hand forward and clasped onto his still open mouth in an attempt to silence him. In my haste though, I forgot that I was still wearing my gauntlets. The ones with the weird fire powers.

Oh god. I had to watch as his eyes widened even more in fear and pain, as his mouth was slowly melted from his face. Shortly after, I let go and stumbled back before landing on my ass. All I could do was watch as the dog tried to scream in pain. Unfortunately for him though, the lower half of his jaw had been completely melted off, tongue and all. Some of his throat had even been caught, and absolutely no sound was coming out. I just stared at the mangled mutt as he silently screamed in pain. I knew he was dead, and I'm pretty sure he knew it too. While most of his jaw had been cauterized by the flames, his throat wasn't so lucky. There was blood flowing out in tiny streams, and there was no doubt he'd die of blood loss before he could get the proper attention needed.

This wasn't my first time seeing blood, but it was my first time seeing someone die right before my eyes. And by my hand no less. He was in for a very long and painful death. He looked towards me, his eyes mentally begging for me to do something. I couldn't think of anything else. I had no medical training, and if I barged back in the barracks for help, I'd just be captured and/or killed because of what I did. No, it was either let him die, or finish the job. I was not looking forward to what I had to do.

I stood up on my still shaking legs, and made my way towards him. I raised my right hand up and brought it level with his eyes. He understood what I was going to do, and he shut his eyes, resigned to his fate. My hand shook as I prepared for what I was about to do. I mentally argued with myself for a few seconds, before I steeled my nerve. I was doing him a kindness and giving him a quick death. It was the least I could do after what I had done.

I took a deep breath, brought my hand back... and launched it forward. My clawed hands pierced through his eyes and into his brain, shutting it down and stopping it from sending out the signals necessary to acknowledge the pain. He was dead within a second, and his body slumped to the ground as soon as I pulled my blood soaked claws out of his face. The sight of the body was enough to make me sick, and I dry heaved against the wall of the tunnel.

It was another five minutes before I stood back up. I had to kill him. He was going to alert the other guards and I would be captured again. They were the villains here, not me. I just did what I had to do to free myself. All these thoughts bounced around in my head, but only two echoed the loudest. I had killed him. And I needed to escape.

Once more, I headed down the long dark tunnel, and once more I found myself coming upon a door. I pushed it open the same as the last two, and I found the room to be filled with cages. The cages were all filled with what I could assume were the slaves. At the moment, all I wanted to do was leave, but I had a promise to keep to a certain blue pegasus. I walked past multiple cages, some holding more ponies and some holding things of other forms and sizes. After about the twentieth cage, I finally found her.

I crouched down and tapped the cage with the the back of my right index finger, and she stirred in her sleep slightly. I tapped the bars again, this time a bit harder, and she started to shift. Soon, she opened her eyes and saw me crouching in front of the cage. She rushed up to the bars and started to verbally assault my ears.

"How did you escape? How'd you get past the guards? Are we escaping now? What's your plan to get me out?"

I sighed. "I can't answer all your questions. But yes, we are getting out of here. Now back away from the bars. I still don't know how to control this."

She eyed me curiously, but did as I asked. I then grabbed hold of the bars and melted them down to paste. After that I motioned her to get out of the cage with my right hand, and held up my left hand to signal that she should be quiet. Once more, she did as I asked. I crouched down once more and whispered, "Look, we need to get out now. I can't free everyone here. When we get back to this 'Canterlot' you can get the law to help. Right now, we need to get out. Okay?"

She silently nodded her head and she motioned for me to follow her. She led me further back past the cages and to a tunnel with a small speck of light in the distance. We looked towards each other, nodded, and started jogging- in her case, she trotted- down the tunnel towards the light. At our increased pace, it only took us a minute to reach the light. I looked to the right, and found a door just like the rest, but this one had light coming from around the edges. Without hesitating, I pushed it open to reveal a small field of grass. But none of this mattered to me at the moment. I looked up at the clear blue sky above us and took in a deep breath of clean surface air. It felt nice.

I turned towards Swift Gale and spoke up, "So how far away is Canterlot?"

She pranced in place and stretched her legs before turning to me. "Only a half a day's walk. See that large mountain not too far from here?" She said as she pointed straight ahead of her. I turned to where she was pointing, and indeed there was a large mountain there. There even seemed to be some sort of city built along the side.

"Yeah. I take it that's Canterlot?"

"You would be correct. And the border is only a mile away. Once we make it past there, we're home free. No more dogs to keep us here, and bright sunny skies lay ahead."

I could practically see the enthusiasm dripping from her as she said that. "Well okay then. We may as well start out now. The sooner we cross the border, the better."

And with that, we set out for what would be the Equestrian border, and the safety it provided.

Author's Note

Oh jeez, it's been nearly four months. So sorry about the real long wait. Pretty much all my fault though. I ended up scrapping this chapter about three times because I felt it needed another approach. I finally settled on this one after months of internal debates. But yeah, whatever I wrote just didn't feel right.

If any of this bothers you, then sorry. But I'm a perfectionist. And I try to do anything to the best of any ability, be it my own or others'.

Also, I felt really good writing this chapter. I was missing a few parts throughout it, but once I started writing it just seemed to all flow and snap together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In fact, I could probably write more if I wanted to. But that would leave me with a shorter next chapter. Don't worry, now that I got this out, I'll be trying harder to get chapters out sooner. Once again though, sorry for the extremely long wait.

Also, NewVegasNut. I would've sent this to you, but I felt that:

a) I did a good job
b) It's been so long that I felt it couldn't wait.