"This is all my fault!" Anger swelled in me as my famished dying friend just hung on the wall. Shackles around her hoofs and clamps on her wings, her soft yellow body was beaten and bruised. Covered in lacerations, it wasn't an easy sight. This is all my fault, I ran away from my problems yet again. I abandoned my friend a year and a half ago and she has had to suffer for my crimes all that time.
"Don't blame yourself Boulder."
"No Fluttershy! I have to! I have to blame myself for once in my entire life! This is... this is just atrocious. I'm a terrible pony... I don't deserve anything..." My words choked out of my mouth as it swelled. The first tears I could remember shedding in a very long time rolled down my cheeks. It started as a small quiver but after glancing at her necrotic features, my crying echoed throughout the dungeon. Only to be joined by a harmonizing weeping from Fluttershy.
"We *sniffle*... we need to get out of here." I didn't feel any better after my water fountains dried up. I can't even promise that our escape is possible, but I can't gather myself to even appear strong enough to make such a claim.
"I... I don't know how to escape... I don't know how long I've been locked up here." I didn't want to tell her, but I had no choice in the matter.
"It's been 18 months..." I wanted to faint, my head felt dizzy from dehydration and the fall didn't make it easier on my limbs. I abandoned her for over a year, not only that, I lived that entire time in complete ignorance. I am Boulder, and I am going to work my best to make sure Slate pays for my sins. I will never go back to that life. I will never go back to... Jade.
"Ei-ei-ei-eighteen months? Oh no! What about my animals I care for, what about my friends in Ponyville?!" Honestly, I couldn't say why her friends didn't find it suspicious for her to be completely absent for such a long period of time. Of all of the stories I've heard about her friends, particularly that Raindow Dash fella' they seem to be loyal to the end.
"I'm sure they are doing their best to find and rescue you. It's like you say, they won't ever give up on their friends." I hope I wasn't just lying through my teeth. It would be nice to see them just break down this wall, take us home and live happily merry after, but if it's been this long something just doesn't add up.
"Dinner time!" A strange loud voice came from the outside of the barred door. A large, scratch that, very large pony barged his way into our cell with a tray full of mush.
"Well then, I see we got a new piece of meat down here, don't you worry your little head off, you can eat tomorrow." The muscle-pony trotted over to the chained pegasus and prepared to shove the tray in her snout.
"Don't touch her! At least let her eat like a pony and not some object you can abuse!" I wanted to scream that louder than I did but my throat would have none of it.
"Hah! This one is never getting unchained, too dangerous to just let her loose in her cell. If you want to feed her fine, I'm sick of this job anyways." He drops the tray on the floor, scattering a large portion of the edible paste around.
"What do you mean dangerous? Fluttershy couldn't hurt a fly." He must have been joking with me, though this whole scenario has been absolute crazy from the beginning.
"Tell that to the guard she put in a wheelchair during her first week here. That girl has got a serious temper problem. At least it's your problem for tonight." Fluttershy is a threat? I think my mind just imploded within itself. The guard slammed the heavy steel door on his way out, leaving me to scoop up the paste back onto the tray.
"Here Fluttershy, you need this food a lot more than I do, if I dare say this is food. You look absolutely famished."
"Thank you, and I'm sorry... sorry for..."
"Sorry for what?"
"Sorry for hurting that guard's friend."
"Oh don't be sorry, he probably had it coming. In fact I'm just kind of impressed. I never knew you were so strong. Considering you have survived 18 months down here you must be incredibly strong willed." Maybe I could use her Flutter-Hulk to get us out of this dump. She needs to regain her strength though before we can do anything rash. As I hoof fed my best friend, my eyes recovered their ability to produce tears. I cried into the stew uncontrollably. My tears made it taste surprisingly better with the added salt.
"I'm going to see what I can do with your shackles. I have a plan for escape." I didn't but I was working on one. Better to have half of a plan and improvise than to not have one at all. Improvising is what I do best in my work anyways.
"There's a lot of commotion outside, I can hear it. This is my only chance to make a lot of noise. Fluttershy, this may hurt a bit." Or a lot, but using make shift tools out of the cracked floor pieces and metal dinner tray isn't going to be child's play. Without even thinking I swiftly strike the shackle around her forelimb with my heavy hammering object. The loud clang noise was too high pitched to echo very far and was drowned out by the ruckus a guard is having with another prisoner. Fluttershy's scream of pain however, was not.
"I'm sorry Fluttershy, but I can unfasten this bolt with a few more good hits on it. Here..." I reached down and picked up a wooden spoon. "bite down on this, bite hard it will help with the pain."
I commenced with the hammering after getting a deep look of determination from Fluttershy's gaze. Each hit I could see reverberate in her face as the pain increased and the spoon was cracking under her bite strength. I didn't like it any more than she didn't but with each strike I could wedge the fastening bolt out just a little farther.
"Just one... more... strike!" The metal on metal high pitched clang was interrupted by the thick steel sliding bolt crashing to the ground, creating a longer lasting ring that was dampened with the stomp of my hoof. The shackle looked still attached however, and the pain on Fluttershy's face was too much for me to bear striking it once more. Our progress was halted by the arrival of the guard again.
"You keep it down in there, lights out!" Those words of command triggered the whole place to go pitch dark. Uncontrollably I huddle against Fluttershy without even being able to see her only a few inches away from me. My plan was cut short by our mandatory curfew.
"Fluttershy? I'm going to try to free your hoof from the shackle, I'm going to need your help though since I don't know where your hoof is exactly." I placed my hoof just above where my head pressed against her body and slowly worked my way caressing her soft fur. Fluttershy didn't speak, but she tried to move her body in such a way to direct my hoof around it like a map. It wasn't long before my hoof met hers but the short journey was the closest I have ever been to her physically. The shackle was held together by nothing more than residual attraction, from it being clamped together for so long and it easily came undone.
"I got it off. You can move your left front hoof now. But listen, I'm going to need to put it back on so the guards don't suspect anything amiss." Before I could effortlessly slip the unlockable chains back around her limb, I felt the soft touch of it along my cheek.
"Please don't, not yet." Was all she told me as I held her hoof tight with my own in the darkness.
"G'night Fluttershy, I promise we will make it out of here together." I slipped away from her graceful touch and slipped the shackle back on with her prompt. I couldn't sleep, I lied there at the base of her imprisonment and waited for the darkness to bring forth the light.