Prologue
I enjoy the limited time I get to be with my family nowadays. I get to visit them once a month, for one day. Which is a cruel fate for me to be forced to. Only the fillies with the "good genes" are allowed the luxury to work for and be protected by The Bureaucracy. The unlucky street urchins like me are forced to work in the power plants to generate electricity for the poorer cities of Candelia. I'd prefer not to think about the power plant right now, I just lean back in the wooden bench situated on our front porch, overlooking the busy streets of our homage, known as "Cell 4", every district or town center in Candelia are known as Cells, for reasons I never quite knew.
Sooner or later I hear my named called from within the house, "Fidelity! Come on inside, it's time for supper!" I yell back at my mother to give me just a few moments to myself. I sigh, believing I better not keep my family waiting, I rise up onto my hooves from the bench and trot inside the front door to our small cottage. I situate myself at our kitchen table, fashioned from a now rotten black wood. A small tile plate is laid in front of me stacked high with beans and corn, along with a variety of other plant goods.
Before I can dive into the delicious looking meal, I'm halted by the sudden blaring of sirens from the Center Office of our Cell. I cock my eyebrow in confusion to my mother who shakes her head, clearly annoyed by the racket.
"That damn Vindicator set new laws into place for Cells 1-7, once a week there is an 'orderly' scan for misconduct among the populace. Just a fancy way of harassing us poorer ponies." I look down at the table now my thoughts drowning out the opinions of my ranting mother. Vindicator Dime was always a curious stallion, no one knew the purpose for the policies he set into place not only for the poorer Cells but for Candelia in general.
My thoughts were eventually cut off by the strange sound of screaming coming from across the street. I gave the food and my mother no more attention, running out to the porch in time to see a young colt being harassed by full grown stallions. My instinct to protect this poor colt came into effect, and I leaped off of my porch in a single bound, already upon the scene screaming at them to back away. It took a while for me to process that these Stallions were dressed in some sort of uniform, a black body suit with green, translucent goggles that acted like visors over their eyes. The minute they saw me coming they turned on me, forming a barrier between me and the colt.
"What's going on here? Stop picking on him!" I scream at the stallions, they swap amused glances among one another before shoving me onto my back with their fore-hooves.
"Look what we have here? Little filly interfering with State Patrol? That's against the law little one. Maybe if you....gave us a favor." The tone of his voice was enough to set my mind to cold steel. If he dared to touch me, I wouldn't hesitate to kill this stallion, or the others. But, he did, he caressed my cheek with his hoof and my instincts took over. I bit down on his foreleg as hard as I could. He yelped in pain, falling onto the floor while his comrades were too confused to act. Before they could, I was upon them, spitting fresh blood in their faces. They let out groans of disgust, trying to wipe the blood away from their eyes with their hooves. I had just enough time to get past them to the hurt Colt.
"Hey, you stupid bitch!" One of the officers yelled after me, I grinned defiantly, bucking him in his rear end, causing him to sprawl forward onto the pavement in pain. I bit down on the Colt's neck with my teeth, eliciting a yell of pain from him, I dragged him along as me as fast as I could. Trying to put as much distance between us, and those officers as possible.
Eventually, my fatigue got the better of me and I collapsed from exhaustion. If those patrol officers were still following us, they were either lost or had given up the chase. I took a minute to catch my breath, passing a glance over to colt who was now staring at me with a goofy grin on his face.
"Thanks for saving my behind back there, my name's Hollow." He said, holding his foreleg out to me for a hoof bump. I rolled my eyes shaking my head at him. I bumped his hoof with my own playfully, before getting back to the matter at hand.
"What did you do to provoke those officers, Hollow?" He looked off to the side, refusing to meet my gaze.
"The State Patrol has been harassing my family for months, so I guess I just had enough of them. I threw one of my horse shoes at them, so they started to kick me and punch me. Until you came along that is." I sighed, but I couldn't hold back my laughter for much longer.
"Hey, what are you laughing at?" He asked me, his tone now a bit irritated.
"At you! A young colt attempting to fight officers twice your size?" I laughed uncontrollably, until he let out a groan of embarrassment and began to trot away. I wiped away my tears of humor and began to follow him down the grass hill we had stumbled onto, back to the housing sector of our Cell.
"By the way," he said as I walked him back up to the door of his cottage. "What's your name? I never got it." I smiled at him, brushing his mane with my hoof playfully.
"My name's Fidelity, and stay safe Hollow." He gave that goofy grin he shot me earlier, and trotted into his home, closing the door behind him. I looked at the door for a few more seconds, before trotting across the street back to my own home, looking over my shoulder once more, before muttering to myself:
"Hollow, huh? Well, it's nice to meet you." I trotted into my house, and shut the door behind me.
Me and Hollow were to be friends for many, many years. That is, up until Day X occurred. Up until, everything changed.
