Prologue
“You’re not gonna catch me, slowpoke!” a yellow coated Earth Pony colt shouted at the filly of the same tribe chasing him. The foals were playing and running around the pasture near their village. Shouts, screams and laughter of the playing foals were heard all over the normally quiet Earth Pony countryside in the Everfree Valley. The white coated filly with pink mane was smaller than the yellow colt she was chasing and she couldn’t manage to reach. He was too fast for her.
“S-slow down, Daffodil! I c-can’t catch up!” the chasing filly panted, her body already frothing with sweat. The yellow colt, Daffodil, laughed and kept running away from her. The filly’s stubby legs started to ache. She could only trot after him. Daffodil looked back and saw his friend getting slower and panting. With a smile, he slowed down to a walking pace. Foams of sweat dripping and breathing heavily, the filly finally reached her friend and was about to catch him. Daffodil grinned evilly and started to gallop again, leaving his friend staring wide eyed at him in disbelief. “No fair! I’ll never catch you at this rate!” the filly screamed, stomping her hooves on the grass.
“Give up, Sunflower! No little filly can catch me!” Daffodil laughed, shaking his rump in a teasing manner. His laughter stopped, his smile were wiped off his face and his eyes widened as the filly named Sunflower was suddenly on his back with an angry neigh and began punching, kicking and biting her friend. Daffodil tried to free himself from the wild filly but she kept battering him in fury. He could only cry for help. “Argh! Stoppit! Sunny, you’re hurting me! Argh! Help! Somepony help me! Ma! Dad! Help me! Please! Sunny! Stop!” He felt himself being pulled by somepony and Sunflower’s kicking stopped. Daffodil looked behind him and saw a similarly yellow filly pulling him away from Sunflower. Her eyes were full of worry. “Thanks, Posey,” sighed Daffodil in gratitude. He turned his head towards where Sunflower was and saw her writhing against their other peers holding her.
Too tired to keep trying to escape her captors’ clutches, Sunflower stopped writhing. She looked up at the now bruised and bloodied Daffodil and saw him wince at her gaze. She suddenly regretted her temper tantrum. Sunflower started to say, “Daffodil, look -” But she stopped when she saw Daffodil, ears pressed onto his head and with a fearful expression, got up and ran back to the village. The other foals in the pasture glared daggers at the shameful filly and decided to ignore her and keep playing while keeping her out of their games. Ears facing downwards and eyes tearing up, Sunflower whispered, “Daffodil, I’m sorry.”
***
Pain. That and the burning feeling in her tear soaked eyes were what Sunflower felt when her parents got her back in their hut. Their hut, like most other huts in this small, walled and peaceful Earth Pony village, was a small, circular building, built with mud and straw. It had two rooms. The main, biggest one was a place where the family ate together, bathed and where the parents slept. The smallest one was where Sunflower slept. Normally, Sunflower would have been happy to go back to her hut to rest her tired body after running and chasing her friend for a long time. But now, she dreaded being there. After hearing from Daffodil’s parents and their chief of what happened during playtime, Sunflower’s parents immediately went for their wild daughter, slapped her hard on the cheek once they found her and grabbed her by the nape to put her back home. Sunflower was still sobbing pathetically and her cheek still ached when they finally reached their hut but Mum and Dad didn’t stop there. “You little rascal! How dare you act like such a wild foal to poor Daffodil? You two are supposed to be friends! If the chieftess wasn’t as kind as she is, she would have forced us to put you in the Forbidden Forest and leave you there on your own!” Mum shouted, spit flying at Sunflower’s tear filled face with every word she said.
Dad was the next pony to speak. “What you did wasn’t something an Earth Pony of our herd does! I would expect that more from a wild pony of the Forest or from a pegasus! Or do you want to live like a pegasus?” he shouted at his sobbing daughter.
That question hurt Sunflower more than she wanted to admit. Being compared to a pegasus was one of the worst insults an Earth Pony like her could ever have. She would rather try to survive alone in the Forbidden Forest against monsters like manticores than to be near a pegasus. “N-no,” Sunflower sobbed, tears falling on the ground from her face.
“Then you should better learn not to be like one. Tonight you sleep without supper, and from today you won’t go outside to play with other foals nor would you speak to Daffodil again for three moons!” Dad sternly said.
Sunflower looked up at her parents’ faces with wide, tear filled, pleading eyes. “N-no, p-please! D-don’t do this! I’ll b-be good, I s-swear!” she pleaded, but her pleading only got her another slap on the cheek from her mother. Sunflower slowly felt her reddening cheek after Mum slapped her again. More tears welled up in her eyes, her sobs became faster, then it turned into a whine and then she began to cry openly.
Mum was furious. “Go and lay down in your cot. And think of what you have done today,” she said with gritted teeth.
Sunflower turned and galloped to her room and laid down on her cot. It’s not fair, she thought, why do Mum and Dad don’t listen to me but listen to Daffodil? I wanted to say “sorry”, but he ran away before I had a chance! And now I can’t play and talk with Daff for three moons! Sunflower coughed and hiccupped but she did not stop sobbing. Now nopony would want to play with me after what I did. She continued to cry on her cot for an hour until tiredness seeped through her body. Her eyelids became heavier, her legs felt like lead, her neck too weak to move her head and, her face still soaked in tears and sore, she fell asleep.
The parents watched their little pony cry herself to sleep in pity. Though still very angry, both felt a tingling sting from their conscience and felt that maybe they were being a bit too harsh on the filly. “Petunia dear, I understand that we had to do something to stop Sunny’s wild streak. But I think you slapped her too hard,” Dad said.
Petunia, the mother, closed her eyes, breathed in and sighed. “I know, Rich Soil. But I was very angry when she talked back to us after you told her what her punishment would be. Her punishment could have been much worse if we hadn’t managed to convince Chieftess Nightshade that Sunflower is still a little filly and can outgrow her bad behaviours,” Petunia told her husband, “Sunny’s exile in that horrible forest would have been the least of our worries if Nightshade was furious enough and she looked quite livid when she told us about the filly’s actions.” She leaned her head on Rich Soil and started to cry. “W-what if she ordered our l-little filly t-to be the sacrifice at the h-hooves of the druids during t-the Summer Solstice and w-we had to watch her d-die?” she sobbed.
Rich Soil did not know what to tell her. He also knew that their chieftess was not as kind as they made her sound like when they talked about her with Sunflower. Of course, he also felt his wife was exaggerating out of worry, but he would expect Nightshade to order a pony as a sacrifice if angered enough, though the wise druids normally refuse and choose their own. His wife’s sobs slowed down, but he knew only one thing that could calm her down. “Come, Petunia. I’ll walk you to our bed so you can rest while I continue work on our vegetable patch,” Rich told his wife soothingly.
Petunia protested weakly as her husband laid her gently on their bed. “No, I’m fine, dear. Really,” she mumbled sleepily, but then curled up and started snoring softly. Rich Soil smiled at the mare and leaned down to kiss. He looked at where Sunflower was sleeping and, with a frown, went out from the hut while also shaking his head.
***
Sunflower looked at her peers running around the countryside playing ‘Wolf and Pony’, ‘Hide and Seek’ or just pronking for the fun of it. She saw Daffodil playing. Not with her, but with another filly. Without me, Sunflower thought bitterly. Jealousy welling up inside her, she forced her eyes back to the task at hoof, helping Dad tending their vegetable patch.
Rich Soil saw his daughter watering the cabbages with a dour expression. His heart ached from seeing his little filly being very quiet and cut off from other ponies. But he hardened his heart again when he remembered the reason why Sunflower was punished harshly. If that filly really wanted to run around and play with the other foals in the village, she shouldn’t have acted like a beast in the first place. I won’t have my daughter growing up into some kind of monster, thought Rich Soil firmly, removing a caterpillar from a cabbage leaf. He looked up and saw his wife arriving at the village from Whitetail Woods with a basket full of mulberries, figs and edible mushrooms. Rich smiled when Petunia came to him and greeted him with a kiss.
Sunflower mimed a gagging expression when she saw her parents getting so lovey dovey right in front of her. The cabbage in front of her seemed to have become quite interesting all of a sudden, what with all the “dears” and “honeys” and “loves” that her parents seem to insist on saying them to each other when she’s around. A ladybird they put on the cabbages that morning seemed to enjoy feasting on those pesky, stupid aphids that always find a way to sneak into their vegetable patch. A ladybird is an Earth Pony’s best friend, her dad once told her, they keep the pests away from our food. And with that the ladybird would always eat the pests, so it is a win-win situation. The soil underneath Sunflower’s hooves felt mushy. Oh no! the filly thought in panic. While distracted, she accidentally poured too much water to the cabbage she was supposed to look after. Dad’s going to kill me, she thought miserably as she waited for the inevitable.
“What’s this? What have you done?!” Rich Soil shouted. He grabbed her and both went outside the patch. “Can’t we trust you with something for once?!” He yelled angrily at Sunflower, who struggled to not let her eyes tear up. Rich took a few deep calming breaths and looked at the waterlogged patch of soil. He sighed. “It’s okay. We all make mistakes as foals. Now we just have to wait for it to dry and then I’ll check if some cabbages are still okay,” he grumbled, “Just pay attention next time and don’t do this again.”
“Yes, Dad,” Sunflower sniffed while trying to dry her eyes.
“Good,” Rich Soil replied. He then noticed something at the sky. High above, strange, unnatural shapes of clouds flew towards them. On them are purple coloured standards with golden wings imprinted on them and they are moved by… “Pegasi,” Rich whispered, cold terror starting to creep inside him. He looked at Petunia with wide eyes and said, “Quick, take Sunflower and leave! The Roamans are coming!” After making sure his family escaped, Rich ran towards the chieftess’ hut while shouting, “Take your foals and run! The Roamans are coming!” to anypony near him. A rope loop from above was thrown expertly at Rich Soil’s head and stopped him from running towards Nightshade’s hut. A pegasus stallion wearing the lorica segmentata and galea holding the rope smiled cruelly and pulled Rich to the rest of the Earth Ponies successfully captured.
The chieftess Nightshade, a large dark green mare with dark blue mane, wearing nothing but a necklace and blue war-paint, stormed out from her hut and rallied her village’s best warriors to fight against the invading pegasi. “Earth Ponies! Your husbands, wives and foals are being taken by pegasi to work as slaves! If Mother Earth wills it, we’ll fight those birds and free our kin! Attack!” the chieftess shouted and the spears started to fly at the Roaman clouds. As a response, the pegasus legionaries flew down towards the village and started fighting the Earth Pony warriors. Nightshade swung her sword at the legionaries, killing several pegasi. A rope loop found its way around her neck and the chieftess fought to remove it. But in the chaos of the battle, trying to remove it was no use. She looked up and sneered at a pegasus mare wearing a centurion’s armour holding the rope that captured her.
“Leave them! Find the mud ponies who escaped and capture them! Kill them if they resist! And zap this hovel to the ground!” the centurion yelled at the legionaries in a pegasus tongue. She then sneered at the captive Earth Pony chieftess. “And you will make me a good profit as a gladiator,” the centurion goaded.
***
Petunia and Sunflower ran in the Whitetail Woods and hid under a thicker canopy whenever they saw a shadow of a pegasus legionary over them. They stopped running and sat on the grass. With a sigh, they prayed to the Mother Earth to have their friends and Rich Soil alive and safe. A loud crack and a boom followed by more were heard at the direction of their village. Hearts thumping rapidly, they peeked from their hiding place and saw a burning village. Their village. Their village was burning to the ground. The invading Roaman pegasi were leaving. Rich Soil hadn’t come to find them. Eyes welling up, Petunia hugged her daughter, hushing her and tried stopping Sunflower from tearing up too. But it was all in vain. Mother and daughter, alone in the woods and probably the only ones in their village still free and alive from a pegasus attack, cried in silence.
“This way! I know that I saw a mud mare and her filly in this part of the woods!” a distant voice in a pegasus tongue was heard. Opening their eyes in fright, Petunia and Sunflower looked behind them and gasped as they saw three legionaries getting near them. The Earth Ponies tried to sneak away but were caught by a keen eyed legionary. “There they are! After them!” the one leading shouted. One of them threw a looped rope at Petunia and successfully caught her. Petunia pushed her daughter and wordlessly encouraged her to escape. The pegasus who caught the mother forcefully pulled her out of the woods and towards the waiting slavers, Petunia’s screams fading in the distance.
Sunflower ran deeper into the woods, the remaining two legionaries running after her. She started panting, but tried to run faster. Her legs started to ache, but she ignored it. Her sweat started to froth, but she stubbornly shook her head to clear her eyes from them. She tripped. She fell. She landed on the ground and scraped her knees with a cry. Trying to stop her eyes welling up again, she found out her pursuers caught her immediately after her fall. The two pegasi laughed. “Well, well, well. We finally caught a mud filly! But she is so small, how can she be useful as a slave?” one pegasus asked.
“I think we’ll put her in the circus, where she’ll fight as a gladiator,” another laughed.
“A mud filly gladiator? It’s going to be fun watching her getting slaughtered by a manticore,” the first pegasus laughed. He proceeded to tie Sunflower with a looped rope.
The rope felt very rough to Sunflower’s neck, already making her feel some friction burns. The legionary started to pull her, making her gag from suffocation. Suddenly a purple pony-like being appeared with a cracking sound and gave off a blinding flash of light. Blinded, Sunflower heard another cracking sound and she felt a suffocating pressure around her and an ear splitting silence. Just as suddenly, she started to feel it easy to breath again and the ear splitting silence ended. Her eyes recovering from blindness, Sunflower saw a pair of concerned purple eyes.