Soon after, five pirates led Zealot and the children off the pirate ship and onto the foggy island where they landed. They walked for a minute or two before the walls of a great fortress began to focus into view. As the gigantic double doors opened, Zealot’s breath caught when he saw numerous slaves and their overseers amidst a maze of buildings within the compound. The children winced and gasped when a few of the exhausted workers were whipped by their disgusting masters.
As the pirates walked their captives to the center building, the former group sang, “Behold the glory…Behold the wonder…What we have made shall not be torn asunder…Such vast achievement, yet so onerous…That’s why we have slaves who never raise a fuss…Thing of majesty…this well-guarded isle…Its long history…no one dare defile…”
When the pirates and their captives arrived at their destination, they entered the building and saw several lines of downtrodden ponies waiting at their registration tables.
The portly pirate escorting the captives groaned, “This will take forever.”
The tall pirate reassured him, “I got an easy solution.” He whistled and shouted out, “Oy! Captured royals here! We got captured royals here! Stand aside! Stand aside!”
The slavers nearest to the group soon pulled their line of slaves away from their registration table. The pirates proudly walked by with their new arrivals in tow and came up to the table.
The middle-aged record keeper widened his eyes and remarked, “Noname! Fancy meeting you here again!” He then taunted him, “What’s the matter? Weren’t good enough for the infamous Hoofbeard? Or did the old scallywag up and –“ He made a KRRRIK sound while sliding his hoof across his throat.
As the record keeper chuckled at his own dark joke, the pirate with the crooked smile spoke up, “We found him in the Marendelle palace with the children…including these ruffians.” He pulled on the Young Six’s chains, causing some of them to yelp in pain.
The record keeper chortled, “Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” He turned to Zealot and said, “So you be a palace servant now, eh? A palace servant helping to harbor six runaway slaves, no less! Well, here’s my message to the royal family.” He spit on Zealot, causing the children to grimace in disgust. He then asked the captors, “I take it Noname is to be sent to the captain’s stable, the fresh meat to the inspection area, and these six troublemakers to the torture chamber?”
The bearded pirate nodded, “Got it in one.”
The record keeper quickly wrote on a piece of paper and then set the quill down. “There. Every slave is recorded. You may continue with your business as you will.”
Before the buff, mute pirate could take the Young Six away, Zealot called out, “Wait! Take me instead!”
The portly pirate chuckled scornfully, “Ha! You would take the punishments meant for them?”
Zealot did his best to stand tall as he nodded, “Yes. I would.”
The pirate with the crooked smile said gladly, “As you wish, Your Majesty!”
As the muscled pirate led Zealot away, the children began to protest. Their resistance was so strong that the pirates struggled to pull them towards their designated areas.
When Zealot and the large pirate reached the torture chamber, the slavers who were there wasted no time in subjecting the prince to the various torture methods meant for the Young Six. They did not hesitate to whip him, zap him, and even beat him. As Zealot suffered at their hooves, the slavers sang, “Serve and be silent…you who are chattel…We think of you as little more than cattle…This is your lot now and we advise you…to bow before whatever master buys you…
“Feel the power here…Power has its price…Some can live like gods…Some must sacrifice…Through the centuries…many backs have bent…Many dreams are built…Many lives are spent!”
“Get in line!”
The children were still protesting and crying by the time they arrived at the inspection area. The slave drivers struggled to pull them up the platform and arrange them in single file. But even then the children still writhed and fought against their would-be masters.
“Looks like we got a whiny bunch here, gents,” one of the slave drivers told his colleagues.
Grunt – the griffon – responded, “I’ll soon fix that.” He then gave a mighty shout, “QUIET!”
CRACK!
Grunt’s sharp voice and the crack of his whip quickly scared the kids into submissive silence.
Another slave driver smiled, “That’s more like it. Now let’s see what we got here.” He came up to Aerodynamic first. “And what are you supposed to be?”
She began to answer, “I’m a po-AAH!”
The stallion who slapped her said, “No speaking unless you’re spoken to!”
Aerodynamic wanted to say something about that, but decided against it.
A slaver then grabbed her wings and mocked, “These are very big wings. Maybe she’s another freak like our bird horse!”
The stallions and griffon laughed raucously while the royal kids scowled at their cruel joke.
One of the slave drivers suggested, “They could be used as big fans or shade in hot weather.”
Another stallion proceeded to flap Dyna’s wing close to his face. He sighed, “Ahh, yeah. This is the stuff.”
The slave drivers then inspected Oddball next. They laughed at his strange appearance, not refraining from openly calling him “a freakier freak than the last one”. Needless to say, this did not please Oddball one bit.
Grunt then asked him in a mocking tone, “What kind of magic can you do, wittle guy?”
Oddball answered, “Chaos and changeling magic.”
He chuckled, “Oh, really? Show us.”
The colt smiled mischievously, “Gladly.”
He aimed his magic at Grunt’s face, rearranging his eyes and beak like a Pinto-Picasso painting. The slave drivers laughed at his trick.
One stallion remarked, “This kid’s great! He’ll sure make good entertainment!”
Grunt, however, found this less than amusing. Due to the condition of his face, he could only grunt his disapproval and his plea to look normal again.
Another stallion chuckled, “All right. Fun’s over, kid. Change him back.”
Oddball simply said, “No.”
The slave driver’s tone lowered to convey his firmness, “Now.” When Oddball didn’t reply, the stallion’s voice sharpened, “Now!”
CRACK!
The business end of the whip stung Oddball’s shackled hoof and left a thin wound with a growing red bruise bordering it.
The jokester slave driver snarled at him, “That’ll teach you to behave, scum.”
Though he was close to crying, Oddball scowled and begrudgingly returned Grunt’s face to normal.
The slave drivers then inspected Snowflake until one of them said, “Look! He’s got a snowflake cutie mark!”
Another suggested, “Well, maybe he can summon snow.” He then asked Snowflake, “How about it? Can you create snow?”
Snowflake merely nodded, afraid that saying something would get him in trouble.
A third slaver said, “Excellent! He can make us snow cones whenever we want! Free snow cones on the house!”
The slave drivers cheered.
Meanwhile, the slave drivers escorting Zealot took him to Flog’s private stable. Zealot was exhausted and in so much pain. Until now, he could only imagine what his mother went through for him whenever she took the punishment for her son. He had tried to escape a few times as a child, but he stopped once his mother took a severe punishment in his place. Even then, that did not stop the slavers from punishing the both of them whenever Zealot accidentally displeased his masters. At this point, Zealot wondered – even dared to hope – if his mother was still alive out there. If she was, he knew that she’d be both worried about his state of health and proud that he protected innocent children from the slave drivers’ wrath.
As the slave drivers threw cold water and then white powder on Zealot, they sang, “Look and be humbled…Learn what your place is…A lifelong slave no matter what your race is…This is your future, your life suspended…and everything you knew before has ended…”
After they attached a pronged collar onto Zealot’s abdomen, they chained his shackled hooves to the nails driven into the ground. Zealot also had a muzzle to which the slave drivers attached a shorter chain to another nail, thus forcing the prince to hang his head low to the ground.
As this happened, the slave drivers sang, “You are all ours now…We have all control…from your every step to your very soul…”
A portly stallion with a semi-toothless grin came up to Zealot with a red-hot branding iron. He singsonged, “Say ‘bye-bye’ to your cutie mark.”
“Stop!” a gaunt stallion commanded as he stood at the entryway of the stable. He then smiled maliciously, “The captain said to leave it untouched to serve a painful reminder for what he’s lost.”
The slave drivers chuckled in wickedness and left Zealot alone in the stable. It was silent for only a few moments before he heard a familiar voice, a voice he never wanted to hear again.
“Welcome back, Noname. How was the sweet life?”
Because of the muzzle, Zealot couldn’t lift his head high enough to see Captain Flog. However, his peripheral vision confirmed that it was indeed the hated pirate.
Zealot asked, “Where are the children?”
“In the Fresh Meat area. We haven’t had new arrivals in so long. I can imagine how excited my boys must be.”
“And the others?”
“In the cells to serve their time for escaping again.” Flog then chuckled, “Come to think of it, this was the longest they had eluded my grasp. I commend them for finding temporary sanctuary. But what about you? Did they imprison Hoofbeard and free you so you could be their nanny?”
Zealot snarled, “You know nothing about me.”
“Oh?”
“I am a prince of Marendelle now. And rest assured, Flog, my family will come looking for me, and when they do, your heinous empire will be no more.”
Flog laughed in amusement, “’Heinous’? You’re using big words now! They must’ve really gotten to you. As for your presumptions, you are wrong in two ways. One, Coltavo Island is protected by a strong magic that prevents anyone outside the slave trade from finding it. And two, I wouldn’t be so sure about your family’s loyalties. After all, you were just a lowly colt when I sold you off. Why should some blue-blooded yuppies search for somepony not of their kind?”
Zealot knew Flog was wrong. He hadn’t been with the royal family for long, but the stories they told him and their dedication proved to Zealot time and again that they truly cared about their family, even the members who were only married into it. Their deeds gave him hope and the will to stay strong for the kids.
The pirate gave an evil smirk and a chuckle, “Heh. You’ll see, Zealot. If they find you, it’ll be many years later. If they do, they will forget that you were one of them.”
Zealot scowled, for he knew that his family would never stop searching for him and the children, even if they had to spend an eternity doing so. Then, he got an idea.
Before Flog could leave, Zealot called out, “Wait! If you ransom me and the children, they’ll pay you a hefty sum of gold just to get us back!”
“Nice try, but no. Had you made that offer ten years ago, I would’ve jumped on it. However, since your little family has soldiers hunting us down, we’re reduced to only a few strong ships and our last hidden hideouts. If we reveal ourselves, they would sooner run us into the ground than pay a handsome ransom. But…I’m sure someone of less-noble morality would pay an equally-large price for a captive prince.”
Flog laughed maliciously at this as he left the stable and Zealot in it.