Break stared into the bowl of what suppose to be her breakfast. In typical slave food fashion, it was barely edible green goop that somehow had just enough nutritional value to allow a pony to survive. Maybe. Break took a tentative sip of it and recoiled. Sure enough, it tasted as bad as it looked. It was impossible to tell exactly what is was suppose to be.

“How the hay do you eat this stuff?” Break asked Comet. She just shrugged.

Break and Comet were sitting in the prison’s cafeteria. It was a wide open room with plenty of windows for sunshine, if the sky wasn’t covered in black impenetrable clouds. All it did was create a gloomy mood. The Yellow Star slavers allowed its slaves a little ability to walk around and get out of their cells. Meals were one of them. Of course they were guarded heavily. Break could see guards with sleek black stun rods used to suppress more rowdy slaves. They looked like swords and had an impressive length. They also look painful as all heck. She also noticed that many didn’t have a gun and the ones that did were far out of reach of the slaves.

“I don’t think it’s so bad.” Bentgrass said. He was sitting across from them. He swallowed down his goop with little difficulty. “It isn’t bad as stuff you sometimes have to eat in the wasteland.”

Break took another sip, winced, and set her bowl down. She wasn’t very hungry anyway. She barely seemed to have any energy at all today. She sighed. She had no clue how she could ever get used to all of this. She really was starting to miss home. She would give anything to be back in Primrose back when her life was normal. Break could feel herself at the brink of tears. She tried to force them back, but failed.

Comet put a hoof on Break’s shoulder and pulled her into a hug. Break welcomed the hug and stayed there for a few minutes. “Thanks.” She said quietly.

Comet gave a small smile. Despite her monotone voice and seemingly emotionless, she was a great friend and just the pony Break needed.

“I’ve been there.” Comet said. “Never hurts to give a helping hoof.”

“So, are you going to finish that?” Bentgrass asked obvious to the moment.

Break groaned and sighed. “No, you can have it.” Bentgrass took the goop eagerly and practically poured it down his throat in one gulp.

“Need my strength when I save this place.” He explained in a whisper.

“About that.” Break said cautiously. “That’s a very bad idea. You will just get yourself killed.” Comet nodded in agreement.

“Ha.” Bentgrass laughed. “It might seem that way, but these slavers have no idea who they are messing with!”

Break stared at him. She concluded that he was, in fact, completely out of his Celestia forsaken mind. She sighed and shook her head. There was no reasoning with some ponies. Nothing she said would sway him from this decision. She just hoped the slavers would capture him quickly before he hurt himself if he did try something.

After the meal all the slaves were put in a line for inspection in front of their table. Manes and tails were combed, faces were washed, and they were made to look presentable. No doubt their captures wanted them looking their best for sale.

Break tried her best to hide her nervousness as a well groomed pony and a bunch of well armed ponies walked into the room. He was an earth pony with a red mane and lime coat. His hair was a Jheri curl but he was balding in the top. He was also wearing a white suit. He examined each of the fifty or so ponies present.

After about ten minutes he came up to Break. He looked over her carefully and circled around her a few times. Break tried her best not to fidget. The pony nodded. “This one.” He said simply. The pony showing him the slaves nodded.

Break despaired. She had just been bought and sold like she was a ware in a store. It was a horrible and demeaning feeling. She felt like she wanted to cry again. She was officially property now and there was nothing she could do about it. She hung her head.

When the final slave was picked, the newly bought group was ordered to follow the pony in the suit. The slaves followed two by two. Everypony were forced to wear chains on their front hooves and were connected to the pony next to them by a collar on their neck by a chain. There were about twenty ponies Break guessed. She looked at the other slaves. Comet wasn’t among them. Neither was Bentgrass. No foals either and Break thanked Celestia for that. Something about the other slaves struck her as strange. They didn’t seem like an impressive group of ponies. Most looked haggard, old, or small. Break also found it strange that she wasn’t asked about her skills or what her special talent meant. Break cursed in Celestia’s name. The purchaser deliberately picked the weakest of the bunch. That could not be a good thing. She had a very bad feeling about this.

As she was walking down a hallway, Break saw the two slavers that brought her here watch her as the group passed. The pegasus pointed at Break and spoke to his friend grinning. The mare grumbled and pulled out a bag of what appeared to caps. Break ignored them and continued forward.

The suited pony that was leading them stopped at the front door that Break entered when she first got here. The rest of the slaves followed his example and stopped. In front of them was a guard. He looked the group up and down.

“Is this all of them?” The guard said. The suited pony nodded. “Damn, what could that old geezer want with this bunch?”

The suited pony shrugged. “Beats me. I’m just following orders.” He got close to the guard and said in a low voice. “Though between you and me, I think he’s finally lost it.”

The guard raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

The suited pony sighed. “Yeah, his orders are getting weirder and weirder these days. And now he’s got it in his head that he should listen to this somehow even older crone that supposedly can read the future.”

The guard winced. “Ouch.”

“But orders are orders.” The pony shrugged. “But if he’s paying me this many caps, can’t really complain too much.”

“Any idea what he is going to use them for?” The guard asked gesturing to the slaves.

“Not a clue.” The suited pony shook his head.

“But hey, you got these stragglers off our backs. The boss will be happy about that.” The guard smiled. “I’m sure he’ll give you a good deal.”

The suited pony was about to say something when he froze at the sound of gunfire. “What the hay was that?!”

More gunfire could be heard and a high pitched alarm went off that made Break’s head hurt. Another guardpony yelled. “One of the slaves escaped and somehow got his hooves on a battle saddle with a minigun! He’s wreaking havoc!”

The guard swore. “Horseapples! Keep guard of slaves. I will be right back.” He left behind them several guards followed behind him. Only five guards with rifles were left guarding them. The suited pony looked around nervously.

“Escaped slave?” Break thought feeling a pit in her stomach. “Oh ponyfeathers! It’s Bentgrass! He must of heard I was being sold and is trying to save me!” It seemed the type of insane, stupid thing he would do.

Break looked down. Her heart was filled with grief over that crazy foal that was risking his life to save her. She felt herself being nudged. She looked at the pony that nudged her. It was the pony she was connected to. He was a younger lavender earth pony with a white mane. He pointed his head at a guard that was close to Break. She paled. He was actually suggesting they use this opportunity to escape. Fear and doubt filled Break’s heart. If she did this, they would almost certainly kill her, but if she didn’t there was no way to save Bentgrass.

Break tried to suppress to the terror. She nodded slightly and he picked up on the signal. If she was going to die, it was going to be as a free pony. She hated this, but she didn’t want to abandon Bentgrass. True, she barely knew him, but he was doing this for her and she couldn’t bear the thought of him pointlessly dying to save her.

The pony next to her waved his hoof and they charged the guard. Break put the chain binding her hooves over his neck and pulled. The guard gagged and tried to pull the chain off. Her partner grabbed the gun his was holding which looked like a rifle and fired it at a nearby guard. He clubbed the pony Break was holding with the butt-end of the gun.

Chaos ensued. It all happened so fast that Break wasn’t really sure what happened. The other slaves also charged the guards using their numbers to get the better of them. Some slaves were shot down in this reckless act, but they were quickly replaced by other slaves and the guards were overwhelmed. The chain around their neck have them just enough reach to strike out at the guards. They were only using rifles, so they weren’t able to fire on the numerous escaping slaves quickly enough. The slaves used the guns that they took from the guards and fired at the approaching guards. A firefight ensued. The slaves fired back with deadly accuracy.

“This way!” One of the slaves yelled and the slaves that still had not fallen followed. They went into a door that was thankfully unlocked and ran through a corridor on the right. They ran down the hall and stopped in front of a door with a terminal. It was awkward with the chains, but Break made it there without too much difficulty. Break noted in sadness that only thirteen other ponies were able to escape.

“You, open this quickly!” Break’s partner said.

Break looked surprised at the sudden order, but nodded. She connected her PipBuck to the terminal and tried hacking the door.

“Luckily one of us has a PipBuck.” One slave said behind her.

“What does this door lead to?” Break asked while trying to guess the password.

“The armory.” Break’s partner said. Break nodded.

“Did anypony get the key?” A slave asked.

“Ha! Got it right here!” A cocky voice said. “I made sure to get it.”

“Well pony, get these damn things off already.” A slave ordered.

“Alright geez.” The same cocky slave said. He got to working getting the chains off. He quickly got Break’s chains off first making it easier to work. Break rubbed her neck gratefully and the chains on the other slaves were removed.

Break heard that they were being fired upon again. She lowered her head and tried her best to ignore it and kept working trying her best to control the rapid beating of her heart. A pony next to her fell and she groaned in pain. The slaves fired back.

Break cursed. The terminal wasn’t easy to hack, since it used an 8 letter password. She was starting to panic and scrambled to get the password right. She yelped when she felt a bullet go past her head. She redoubled her efforts and tried to stop herself shaking. Luck was on her side. After exiting out to avoid a lock out, she was able to guess the right password on the first try. The password was ‘grizzled’. The slaves rushed into the opened door. It was a little tight, but they were able to fit inside without much difficulty. One slaves dragged the hit slave in with them. The mare that was hit was unicorn mare with a pink coat and yellow mane and it looked like she was shot in the back leg. Thankfully, it didn’t look too bad. One slave, a green unicorn stallion with an orange mane was putting some pressure on the wound with a grimace on his face.

The room had an impressive collection of guns that were either hanging from wall mounts or laid out on the shelves. She could also see a collection of different types of grenades and a few battle saddles. Sadly, no medical kit was in sight frustrating Break immensely. They had no way to properly treat the hit mare. Break’s companions grabbed for the guns with seemingly practiced ease. The slave that Break noted for being a loudmouth grabbed a battle saddle. It had a large barrel protruding from it of what caliber of gun she could not be sure.

“Do you even know how to use that thing?” A unicorn mare with a yellow coat and green mane asked.

“How hard could it be?” The slave huffed back who was an orange earth pony with a red mane.

The other slave just sighed. Break found herself being hoofed a gun. It looked like a rifle. She took it like she was being given a serpent.

“Do you know how to use a gun?” The slave that gave her the gun asked. It was the same slave she had been partnered with.

“No.” Break said meekly.

“Really?” The slave said surprised. “You never hunted radroaches and mole rats as a filly?”

“No.” Break said flatly. She found it absurd she would ever do such a thing.

The other slave noted how uncomfortable Break was with the gun. After a moment he took the gun back. “On second thought.” He said. “I think we have enough gunners. The situation is too serious to let complete amateurs shoot.” Break gave the gun back gratefully and sighed in relief. She doubted she would be much help and might even be more a danger to her allies than enemies.

“The ammo is locked. “ A brown maned earth pony mare with a silver coat said. The slavers weren’t dumb enough to let anypony that broke in here free access to the power of the weaponry in here.

“I got it.” The slave with a green coat said. He pulled several lockpicks from a small hidden pocket in his tattered garb.

“How did you get those?”Break asked a bit stunned.

“You would be surprised what you can smuggle in if you are careful.” He started picking the locks of the ammo boxes.

“Quickly, we are running out of ammo!” A slave yelled. He fired out of the door. The other slaves armed with guns followed.

“I’m going as quickly as I can Luna dammit!” The slave cursed back.

“What are we going to do after we get the ammo?” Break knew there was no way they could fight every slaver in the building.

“Simple.” The slave Break was partnered with said. “Your PipBuck will deactivate the locking mechanism and free the other slaves. The slavers can’t overpower all of us.”

“And you know where it is?” Break asked nodding. It was a crazy, but reasonable plan.

“Yes. I have cleaned the floors of the prison many times.” The slave replied back. “I know the layout by heart. It’s not far. Only about 30 hooves from here in that direction.” He pointed a direction with his hoof.

Break nodded again, though her heart ached at how many ponies would die today. She steeled herself and resolved to see this through. They were counting on her and she would do this somehow. She just hated the ‘Or die trying’ part.

“Ha! Got it!” The slave working on the ammo box said. It was full of different types of ammo. It made Break’s head spin. She had no idea what went to where. Thankfully. the other slaves seemed to know what they were doing and load the weapons with ease. The lock picker went to another ammo box.

“How do you even know how to do all of this anyway?” Break asked curiously. Some of these slaves seemed a little too familiar with these weapons.

Break’s partner gave an embarrassed look. “Some of us have had a less than reputable past.” He admitted. Break got it. Some of these slaves used to be raiders she guessed. The pony she was partnered with seemed a little short, but rough around the edges in a way. Now was not the time to concern herself with something like that however.

“Ha! Got another one!” The lock picker yelled.

“Oh ponyfeathers!” A pony yelled. “Down!”

Break immediately dropped to the ground the second she heard that. She heard a whirring sound then bullets being fired. It was deafening. She laid on the ground in terror. She could feel bullets flying over her. They were shooting through the walls and pieces of it fell on her. Break felt a bullet hit a spot next to her and she spotted an empty spot under a shelf and rolled under it. She closed her eyes praying for everything to be ok that she wouldn’t be torn to pieces any second now.

After seemingly an eternity, eventually it stopped. Break look out hesitantly. Her eyes widened. There was so much blood. Ponies were ripped to shreds. She stared in horror, before forcing herself to look away.

“That’s it. We are dead. We are going to die. We are going to die!” Break thought. She could feel tears in her eyes. They were going to die and there was nothing anypony could do about it. They were dead. This fight was for nothing. Break quavered and got into a ball.

Break stopped when she felt a hoof on her leg. It was the pony they pushed her to start this and escape. He was covered in blood. Break’s eye widened at seeing a missing a leg. “Please.” He said weakly. He was dying. Break’s heart broke. There was nothing she could do to save him, but the look in his eyes pleaded to her. She realized he was saying not to give up.

The pony went limp and fell to ground. Break knew he was no more. She felt tears prickle corners of her eyes. Break gritted her teeth and resolve. She knew what she had to do. She would do this somehow. She had to, for him and everypony else.

She looked at the other ponies in the room. To her amazement, some were still alive and unhurt. One got up.

“Still alive?” He said. It was the green stallion that had the orange mane.

“Yeah, barely.” Another said. The earth pony’s yellow coat was spotted with blood. It looked like she was shaking.

“Me too.” Said an orange coated stallion with a red mane. Break noticed he had put on a battle saddle.

“Anypony else?” Break whispered. Her heart sank that no other pony was saying anything. The orange stallion cursed at the silence.

“If anypony is still alive give up!” A gruff voice yelled. “We promise not to kill you if you do.”

“Yeah right.” The stallion scoffed.

“What are we going to do?” The yellow coated mare asked. Break could see the hopeless expression in her features. Her whole body seemed to droop.

Break looked around and did her best to not linger on any bodies. Her eyes quickly moved around them. The room was torn to pieces. Many guns that were sitting on the shelves were shot to pieces or fell because the shelves collapsed under it. Break noticed some tear gas grenades on a bottom shelf along with some flash bang ones. Beside them were some gas masks. A light bulb appeared in her head and she grinned. She had an idea.