Book 3: Equestria Abides
Chapter 24
Twilight held the still-sniffling mare closely as she watched the work in front of her progress. The griffon ambassador Gozwin was helping Apollo and a couple pegasus ponies she didn't recognize lift a rafter as a few ponies below attached it to the growing frame of the little house. The rest of the griffons had gone home after their battle, but Gozwin – as the ambassador – had stayed... and Twilight had to admit that he was being a very good representative, first putting the ponies in their debt by helping turn back the slaver attack, and now building goodwill by helping with the rebuilding.
The mare at her side quieted down now, and Twilight turned to her. “Feeling better?” The pegasus mare was light purple, almost Twilight's own coat color, but had a very light pink mane, and a cutie mark of a sun shining through a couple little clouds... She had been one of the ponies living outside the walls... what was her name again? Right... Merry Weather. Even that little bit of conversation threatened to throw the mare into tears again, so Twilight tried to console her again. “Don't worry, we'll get them back, no matter what it takes.”
She wiped a tear from her eye and gave Twilight a weak little smile. “I... I know you will. It's just...” Twilight just held on, giving her the time she needed. “It's just yesterday, he proposed to me.”
“Aww... that's so sweet!” Twilight said, but she soon regretted it.
Merry's expression dropped, and it looked like she was struggling not to break down into sobs again. “I said no.” Now the tears did start flowing again, “I said I needed more time... and now we're out of time... I said... no. And now he's gone!” With that she drooped down almost to the ground.
Twilight wrapped her hooves around the tearful mare again, more tightly this time. “You'll have another chance, I promise.”
* * *
Apollo Dawn landed for a moment, catching his breath. Even with two other pegasi and a griffon helping, those trusses were heavy. Still, only two more to go, then the roof and walls could be filled in... it would start to look like a house soon. This mare's house – as well as the houses of the other displaced families – were still mostly intact outside the walls; in fact, that's where they were getting most of the building materials. Mostly, since a couple had burned down... and nopony was sure if that was the work of the raiders or if it was just an accident. At any rate, nopony felt safe living outside the walls anymore, not with those slavers on the loose, so the lucky ones, the ones who got away, were now busily moving inside.
He still felt sick about it inside, really. He had let his ponies down. Unofficial as it was, it was his job to keep the ponies under his care safe... it was like they were an extension of his crew... but all told so far, over a dozen ponies had come up missing after the raid, including one who was actually part of his crew, Hair Trigger. According to reports, the brash colt had flown off to meet the raiders even before the griffons joined in the fight... and he hadn't been seen since. He just couldn't help beating himself up over it... how could he not have put plans in place for that kind of thing? How had he thought that a single pony guarding an open gate was enough security? How could–
“Apollo!” The shout broke his internal tirade off. He looked back towards the fortress's door, now obscured by the increasingly crowded little village between the walls and the building. Albatross was approaching, flying low and coming to a landing right in front of him. “The prisoner's awake!”
* * *
Sunny Daze scowled at the captured earth pony mare. She hadn't responded to any of Sunny's shouted questions yet, infuriating Sunny even more. Her coat was a light brown, and had lots of old scars running across it, while her mane was a vivid yellow, even as matted and tussled as it was. The cutie mark was a smiling yellow heart... which was entirely inappropriate – Sunny thought – for a slave-raiding pony. These monsters had taken away a lot of her friends, especially one of her best friends in the world, Trigger! How could such a mare dare to have such a bright and cheery cutie mark?
So far all the prisoner had done was roll over and moan a little, once asking for water... But Sunny was in no mood to be nice to anypony, especially not this pony! “Where did you take him!?!” She demanded again, only getting a whimper in response. This was getting her nowhere. Obviously, she would have to resort to something a little more drastic... what would she do?
Before she could think of anything, the door to their makeshift dungeon – just an empty storage room in the basement, actually – opened, Apollo and Albatross walking in. She turned to them instead. “Ugh, this thing won't tell me anything! We have to do something.”
Apollo peeked around her at the prisoner, who again softly moaned for water. He nodded back to Albatross, who left... apparently to go get some.
“What?” Sunny asked, incredulously. “You're going to give in to her demands?” How could he give in to this monstrosity so easily? Didn't he realize what she had done?
Apollo only stepped around her to get a closer look at the prisoner, who cringed and tried to shy away from him. He just stood and stared... for far too long in Sunny's opinion.
“See! She's being entirely uncooperative!”
Before Apollo could respond, his assistant came back, flying in, carrying a jug in his hooves... which Apollo quickly took and gave to the prisoner, who gulped it down greedily. When he moved in to take the empty jug, the prisoner cringed away again.
“Look at that!” Sunny said vindictively, “Such an ungrateful little–”
Apollo cut her off with the sternest of looks. “How about I ask a few questions?” he said to her, before turning back to the prisoner. “What's your name?”
The earth pony mare only cowered again, covering her head with her hooves. Sunny was about to make another snide comment about what a monstrosity that mare was, but Apollo cut her off with a raised hoof before she could even start.
“You're safe here.” He said, “We'll protect you, and nopony,” he gave a significant look towards Sunny, “nopony is going to hurt you.”
The imprisoned mare peeked up from her cowering stance a little doubtfully, but saw only the gently smiling face of Apollo. “Happy Heart!” She blurted out quickly, before covering herself again.
“There we go, Happy Heart.” Apollo said with – in Sunny's opinion – a revolting level of sweetness in his voice. “Do you think you could tell us how you got those scars?”
She shied away a little, asking softly, “You won't be angry?”
“We promise,” Apollo said, again looking back at Sunny, this time expectantly.
Sunny sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we promise.”
The prisoner still looked uneasy, but began to talk again, “It was Black Diamond and his gang. They live just over on the far side of Trottingham, only a little way away... They made us work, and if we didn't work hard enough... we got punished. Whips... or beatings sometimes... Sometimes they would do it for no reason, too... like it was just for fun... and if anypony tried to fight back... they got sent to Black himself.”
“And what did he do?”
“I... I'm not sure...” the mare continued, “But there were rumors... rumors that he did terrible things. He's a unicorn... and they said he used his powers on ponies... but nopony really knew. When a pony got sent to Black... they would come back, but they wouldn't be the same anymore. Their eyes would be all wrong and they wouldn't talk anymore.”
“Wrong?” Apollo asked gently.
“They wouldn't have any color anymore... just a black hole in a white eye... and it seemed they could look right through you.”
“But how does he get ponies to beat the slaves? How does he control them?”
She paused for a moment. “If they find out... if they know I told you things... they'll take me to him! No! I can't!”
There it was again, the refusal. Sunny rolled her eyes again; this wasn't getting them any closer to getting Trigger back. Apollo didn't seem to think so, though. He continued on. “Shush... Don't worry, they can't get you here... Now tell us... we need to know if we're going to stop him.”
Happy Heart looked up fearfully, but began talking again, “The ones with the wrong eyes... he has a bunch of those, and they do anything he says... but, but mostly it's regular ponies... they beat and control the ones under them because they know they'll get even worse if they don't.”
“And that's why you were on a raiding party?” He asked.
The prisoner nodded weakly, looking shameful now. “I had a friend there... named Peachy... she didn't want to go on raids. She got beaten really badly... but she still wouldn't go... I tried to tell her she had to... but...” she gulped, “she didn't... and she got sent to Black.”
Apollo then moved over, wrapping a comforting hoof around the prisoner. Sunny couldn't believe he was being like this with such a little monster.
“This scar,” She pointed to a relatively fresh one, running along her neck and down her shoulder. “This one was made by Peachy... after she came back from Black.” She started to cry a little. “She was my friend... I thought maybe I could talk to her... maybe I could bring her back... but instead.” She just collapsed. “She was my only friend there. After she was gone, I gave up.”
“I can't believe you're falling for all this!” Sunny said, fed up with keeping quiet through this display.
“Sunny!” Apollo whirled to face her. “Look at her!”
“I have!” Sunny insisted.
“No, look!” Apollo insisted right back... and this time, in frustration she did... and it finally 'clicked' in her head. She really looked at the mare this time... at the scars on her body, and more than that... at the scars in her mind. The poor little mare was still on the floor, halfway between cowering and crying. Suddenly, the part of herself Sunny had been ignoring and shoving aside came back full force, and she wanted nothing more than to comfort that poor, abused pony. She even made a move to do so... much too quickly, it turned out. Apollo stopped her before she could reach the prisoner, but the frightened mare had already scurried to the far corner of the room when she saw Sunny try to approach.
“Easy there,” Apollo said to her, “She's still very scared... and unfortunately, she's scared of you. Just let me handle it, okay? I'll see what she can tell us about their town.”
Filled with regret, Sunny walked out of the makeshift holding cell, leaving Apollo to hopefully make more progress without her. Only too late did she realize that the pony there wasn't a monster... even if she had helped steal Trigger. That pony was as much a victim of Black Diamond as the ponies who had just been taken... maybe more... and now Sunny had missed out on a chance to make a friend. She wondered if Happy Heart would ever want to talk to her again.
* * *