Outcry: Dead Horse

“So, how much do you want for it?”

“Three bits.” Brick said, looking at the sack I had placed on the counter. Gritting my teeth, I jumped up on the counter. Brick was an old Earth pony who had worked for the local crime families. He found me after I was kicked out of one for being ‘A shitty thief.’ Thats what they claimed atleast, I knew it was really because I was too good for them and was making the leader look bad for having an underling that was better then him.

Brick took me in that day, but he made me earn my keep. I joined a small group of colts and fillies who worked for him by stealing whatever they could and selling it to him.

“Three bits? These are quality gems!” I shouted.

“Its plastic.”

“But they’re shiny like the real ones! These people won’t know the difference.” The ponies of Canterlot weren’t all that bright. All we need was to get one of them to buy one, and the rest would sell.

“Be lucky I’m giving you this much.” Brick placed the bits on the counter and I put them in my bag while sneering at the old Earth pony.

“Well what would get me a decent meal?”

Brick shrugged and rubbed his chin with his hoof. “I hear those Smarty Pants dolls are pretty popular.”

My head automatically tilted and looks at him funny. “Dolls? You want me to steal dolls?” Brick nodded.

“They’re worth a good amount and supply is limited. A colt like you stealing one from a Filly shouldn’t raise much attention.”

I sat down and thought about it. “Where would I find one?” Canterlot was a big place, with lots of Ponies. If it was as rare as Brick was making it out to be, I might starve to death before finding one.

“I’ve seen a Unicorn filly with one walk by here around two o’clock. She holds it so close you’d think it was her child.”

It was still early, so there was a chance I could catch her. I looked up at the old wooden clock hanging above Brick’s head. Immediately after seeing the time, I ran out the store and hid in the alley next to it. Only one minute until she’d arrive.

“Uugh” A drunk pegasus moaned. She was wearing an expensive dress, and beside her was a bag with something sticking out. I took it out and levitated it in front of me. It was a small mirror, and a nice one too.

I decided to use it to see if the filly was coming. The reflection showed me three ponies. A purple filly with the payload, a White stallion, and the white legs of a taller pony. I brought the mirror closer to me after this and considered my options.

I could either keep the mirror and sell it, or break the mirror and use the glass in order to intimidate them. The Stallion did look tough...

The mirror was tougher then it looked, and it took a couple of good thwacks to get the thing to break. Unfortunately for me, when I did, one of the shards cut my hoof. I bit my lip to try and keep silent.

The three were close, and I levitated one of the shards and started hopping out of the alley, trying to keep weight off the wound.

“Listen just give me the doll and-” My eyes widened as I dropped the glass upon realizing what I was doing.

Celestia was standing behind the Purple filly, looking at my wound.

I was mugging Celestia,

Panicking, the only thing thing I could think of doing was going along with the original plan. I hopped over to the filly and grabbed the doll and used my kinetic magic I was known for to get away. “Hey!” was the only thing I heard from them before escaping.

The entire time, I was cursing myself for being so stupid. ‘Why didn’t I just sell the mirror and forget about the doll? Why didn’t I try to cover up my wound?’ The blood was leaving a trail, so I had to circle around a few parts of the city before getting to Quack, A doctor who lost his license after trying to sell medical equipment. We brought him business and in return, he provided us cheap medical care.

I snuck into his apartment by climbing up the fire escape and entering through an open window. Going in through the door would risk the neighbors seeing me.

Quack wasn’t surprised to see me, I tend to get hurt a lot on jobs, but its not always my fault, you see. looking out for some of the younger members of our group often meant putting myself in danger, and well, I’m put in danger a lot these days.

Quack looked at the rag I tied around the wound to keep pressure on it and sighed. “What is it now, Blank Flank?” I wanted to hit him for calling me that. You see, I don’t really have a name. I never knew my parents and all my life I’ve been moved from pony to pony, with them either calling me ‘Kid’ or ‘Colt’. Recently, people have started calling me ‘Blank Flank’ as I’m the only one in the group without a Cutie Mark. Even the younger members have theirs.

“Oh, nothing Mr. Quack, I’m just bleeding.” Calling him Mister always made him upset. He grabbed my hoof and removed the rag, looking at the cut. “This looks deep...what happened?”

I blushed from embarrassment. “Its not important.” Quack looked at the head of the doll poking out of my bag and looked at me funny.

“You’re a strange kid, y’know that?”

“Just shut up and fix me.”

“Alright, just let me-” There was a knock at the door.

Quack got up and answered it. Behind it, stood Celestia and the Purple filly. “Hello,” the Princess greeted. “I believe a friend of ours is here?” Quack stood silent with his jaw practically on the floor.

Celestia and the filly walked by him and stood in front of me. The purple unicorn poked her head into my bag. “Hey!” I said, as she pulled her doll out and went back to her place hiding behind the princess.

Before I could do anything, Celestia lowered her head by hoof. Her horn started to glow, and all the pain went away. The cut had disappeared. I wiggled it in front of me in disbelief.

“How did you-” Before I could finish asking my question, Celestia spread her wings out, making me feel stupid for even asking.

“You’re pretty fast. Tell me, what’s your name?” I didn’t answer and turned away from her. “Whats wrong? Did I say something wrong?” She sounded worried.

“I uh, don’t have one..”

“Oh...”

“How about Velocity?” The Purple filly said. The Princess and I both looked at her. “Because he’s so fast..”

The Princess smiled and looked at me. “What do you think?”

“Its okay, I guess.”

“Do you live here?” The Princess asked. It was surprising for someone I just tried to rob showing so much concern for me.

“No, I’m just friends with-” I pointed to where Quack was standing, but he was gone. Some friend he was.

“Then where do you live?”

“I have a couple blankets with my name on it in the back room of the store where I-”

“Where you kidnapped Smarty Pants?” The filly said angrily. She glared at me until Celestia looked at her.

“Twilight..” The purple filly looked at the ground. So Twilight was her name.

“Is the shopkeeper your parent?”

“Nope...” Being asked personal questions by somepony who could send me to the moon was rather uncomfortable

“Your guardian then?”

“He’s more like my boss.” I explained. I never saw Brick as a father figure.

Celestia nodded and smiled. “Ever thought about joining the guard?”

The question hit me like a sack of real gems. “What?!”

“Not right now of course, you’d have to train everyday, but you’d live with us, and you’d have an actual bed..” I stopped listening after that.

I hopped up and down in excitement. “Yes! Yes!”

“Wonderful.”

After that, I went on to live with Guards. Every day, I’d train with them, learn about my future duties, ate my meals with them, and at night, slept in the barracks with them. They all treated me like I was their younger brother. I missed my friends, but it wasn’t all that bad. I wrote letters to them on a regular basis after Twilight and Celestia taught me how. I expected Brick to read the letters to them, but looking back, I doubt Brick could read.

That explain why I never got any letters back. That, or they hated me for joining the Royal Guard and abandoning them.

My guess was the latter, as much as I hated to admit it. They hated the guards, and me joining them must have been seen as some sort of betrayal. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brick burned these immediately after getting them.

When I wasn’t writing letters, or with the guards, I was spending my time playing with Twilight. We’d usually play at night, and explore the castle, playing hide and seek, or pretending I was a pirate and she was a princess. Despite my black coat, it wasn’t easy sneaking out of the barracks. My Neon Green mane and Bright Orange eyes were easy to spot, and we did get caught a couple of times. Thankfully, my past experience with being in places I shouldn’t saved us from trouble countless times.

Twilight and I were good friends up until our teenage years. Thats when Manehatton happened.

And because of Manehatton, I was assigned to the Dead Horse unit.

It was my first official posting as a guard, and it was an insult. All because I fucked up...

I met my new team in a bar in Canterlot. It was the night of the Summer Sun celebration, and the people I was going to be working with were getting drunk. I don’t blame them, I’d be doing it too if I didn’t want to make a good impression. Manehatton had given me a bad reputation amongst the guards. ‘The Butcher of Manehatton’ is what they called me.

At a table in the far end of the bar sat my team. The leader of the group, Javva, was an old gryphon and a war hero. When I heard she led the Dead Horses, I was surprised, more then I was now, catching her chugging a beer to the chant of her subordinates.

I walked over to the table. Sitting with Javva, were a tan Unicorn with purple shades and a green hat on, her cutie mark was a Bullseye. A Zebra and Diamond dog admired their captain’s drinking skills. A Red pegasus flew over to the table carrying more drinks for everyone.

“Heya J, I think that’s our guy.” The Zebra pointed to me. The Gryphon slammed her glass hard on the table and looked over at me, annoyed she was interrupted before she could finish.

“You Velocity?” She asked.

“Yes sir.” Everyone but the Captain snickered.

“Sir? Do I look a guy to you?”

“Truthfully?”

“Heh, you’ll fit right in.” She turned back to her team. “Everyone, introduce yourselves to the rookie.”

“The name’s Obsidian.” said the Diamond Dog. “And this is Syringe.” he said motioning towards the Zebra.

“I’m Dead Horse’s second in command. Now give me twenty.”

Without thinking, I was on the ground doing push-ups. Syringe and Obsidian laughed. “I want twenty bits.”

“Oh.” I blushed got up from the ground.

“Oh quit picking on the kid. He’s new.” The Tan pony said.

“Thats why we’re picking on him.” Obsidian explained.

“I’m Target, nice to meet you.” I nodded towards her and looked over to the red Pegasus.

“No point telling you, I got thirty bits that says you won’t make it to next week.” He said crossing his arms.

“Make it forty bits.” Syringe said.

“Ignore them.” Target said. “Big Red is Fuse, he’s our explosives expert.” She then pointed towards Syringe. “He’s the Medic, not the second in command. Half of what he says is crap.. Obsidian is heavy weapons.” She turned her hoof on herself. “And I’m the Sniper.”

Javva looked up at clock and grunted. “Down your drinks and hurry up. We gotta be leaving here soon.” I looked at her like she was crazy. We had a mission and they were getting hammered? No wonder we were the laughing stock of the guards. “We’re going to the Moon.”

So our team had two bullshitters, good to know.

“Celestia’s apprentice keeps telling her she’s worried something will happen. So she wants us to go there just in case she’s right and because they don’t want to use anyone important.” She was talking about Twilight Sparkle. Even now, she wouldn’t leave me alone.

“But how are we going to get there?” I asked, I couldn’t be the only one who saw going to the moon as a big deal, could I?

“What do you mean ‘How’? Magic, you idiot.” Javva spat. “You’d think a Unicorn would know that.”

“You’re not expecting me to send us there, are you? I’m not exactly Star Swirl the Bearded.”

“Who?” Fuse asked. The others looked at me expecting an answer as well. Apparently, I had spent too much time with Twilight.

“...Nobody.” Javva got up from her seat and stood near the entrance to the bar, the rest of the team left, leaving me alone with her. I sighed and followed them. This was going to be an interesting assignment, if anything else.

Before I could leave, my new commanding officer stopped me. “Velocity.”

“Yeah?”

“These runts are like family to me, and if you ever do something like what did back in Manehatton, I’ll personally rip you a new plothole.”

“I didn’t realize I was your type.” Javva pushed me out the doors.

Outside of the bar stood Celestia, she looked at every member of Dead Horse and smiled at all of them. All except me, and its because of her apprentice that I’m here and its because of her that I’m even a guard in the first place, and she can’t even look at me in the eye.

“Celestia.” Javva said flatly. The Princess nodded at her.

“Javva, how are you doing?”

“I’m not that old, Celestia. I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are. Are you ready?”

Javva nodded and before I could blink, we were on the moon. Never thought Celestia would send me to the moon this soon in my career.

In front of us, was an orb with a blue pony inside of it. We were in some kind of base, and were surrounded by security cameras. The door behind us was sealed shut, and overall, I felt uneasy being here, like Nopony should be here.
“All right, we’re going to be stuck in here until the Summer Sun celebration ends. I hope one of you brought a deck of cards.”

Obsidian reached into his pack and pulled out a deck. Fuse and Target sat down near him and started playing. I had the luck of attracting Syringe’s attention when I was playing with the broken hand mirror I had stolen all those years ago.

“Is that a mirror in your armor or are you just happy to see me?” he asked. I Placed the small mirror back under my set of armor. The thought of anyone knowing about my past was a scary one. I’m already seen as a monster by most people in the guards, knowing that I used to be a criminal would just make the rumors worse. “ It Looked shiny. Can I see it?” Syringe asked enthusiastically with the largest grin I’ve ever seen. I decided to show him my little treasure if it would just make him stop.

“Here,” I said pulling the mirror out. “Just...never do that again.” I asked in the nicest way I could without sounding rude. He just tilted his head and stared at me.

“Do what?” before I could tell him how creepy his smile was, He was holding my mirror. “This is fine quality...But wheres the actual mirror?”

I swallowed my spit. “I don’t know, just found it like that.”

“So why are you keeping it around? Its pretty, but its junk,”

“Its a good luck charm. I found it when I joined the Guards.”

Syringe chuckled. “No offense, but I wouldn’t consider you joining to be good luck.” I wanted to hit him so hard. “But I can understand keeping it around now. We all like to remember our lives from before we were assigned here.”

I nodded in agreement. I looked up at the orb and began to wonder what Luna was like before she was imprisoned here. Was she kind, or spiteful? Bratty, or humble? I’d probably never know, and I don’t even know why I was curious about this, Its not like I cared before coming here.

“Velocity...” My ears perked up. I didn’t recognize the voice. “Velocity...” The voice repeated. I looked around the room, and everyone was frozen still. “Velocity...” I looked up at the orb containing Luna and realized it was her calling out to me.

I couldn’t control myself. Before I knew what was doing, I was climbing up to her and was right in front of the orb. It was black, and you could only barely see her, but she was there. I touched the orb with my hoof, and the scar from when I cut myself started to glow. The orb began to turn white, and in a flash of bright light, I was sent flying across the room.

When I looked up, time had returned to normal, and everyone was looking up at Princess Luna, or what was supposed to be Princess Luna. In her place, stood a Tall, Black Mare. She smiled and vanished before we could stop her.