Rainbow opened her eyes after feeling a rather hard bump. She raised her head up, blinking to clear her vision. She heard the sound of rocks being crunched and moved around. She felt another bump and vibrations reverberated throughout her body.
Rainbow quickly tried to stand up but was restrained by ropes that were securely tied to small wooden posts that came up from the short walls around her. There was a big, off-white cover that was above her, blocking most of the light from the bright sun. It was warm inside of the cover.
Through a small opening in the fabric of the cover, Rainbow saw somepony else sitting, facing away from her.
“Come on! Don’t make me hit you again!” he yelled.
What is going on?
Rainbow struggled again, trying to get out of the ropes. She accidentally kicked a large can of a strange black substance that was very thick. He quickly turned to the sound of the can hitting the wood.
“What the—What’re you doin’, pony?!” he yelled.
Pony? My name is Rainbow.
“Do I need to wack ya to make you stop movin’ ‘round?”
Rainbow attempted to speak. Her voice was hoarse as she whispered, “N-n-no...”
“Good, now stay still and be quiet!”
Rainbow complied, breathing heavily. She looked around the place she found herself in. There was multiple cans of black liquid, including the one that had been spilled. There was extra rope lying next to her, along with a sharp blade.
As she was looking around, she overheard the other pony quietly say, “I ain’t even ‘sposed to have ya right now.”
What does he mean?
Rainbow began to move slowly, keeping silent. She reached her hoof under herself, trying to grab the sharp blade. She froze as soon as she saw the other pony looking back at her.
“What did I just tell you?! Quit yer movin’!”
“W-what’s g-going on...?” Rainbow asked, unsure of why he was so mad at her.
He glared at her for a moment, then turned back around. “Halt!” he shouted. Just then, whatever she was in stopped moving. The vibrations stopped.
The other pony stood up, stepping into the covered part with her. “You listen to me. Do whatever I tell ya to do, without complaints or questions. Got it? If ya disobey, you’ll be hit.”
Not wanting to agree, Rainbow argued, “W-why should I listen to you?”
The other pony hadn’t noticed, but Rainbow had the sharp blade hidden behind her back as she laid. Before she could do anything with it, the other pony slammed a hoof down on her side. She screamed out in pain.
“That’s why. Now, listen here. I’ma untie you, then you gonna go out there and walk with the rest of’em,” he said.
The other pony reached for the rope, looking for the knot that he had tied into it. He had a hard time untying the knot, so he looked around for the blade.
“Where’s my knife? Did ya take it?”
Rainbow took this as a chance to get away, so she quickly cut the rope and jumped up to her hooves. She dropped the knife and ran out of the cover. She jumped out and was quickly met with other ponies, everywhere.
They were in a very flat field of sand. There was nothing but small patches of dried grass and dead branches lying about in the sand. The sun felt hotter than ever as it radiated light down.
“Pony! Get back here!” the other pony shouted, chasing behind her.
Rainbow continued running away, following the train of other wooden things. They all looked the same; wooden frames with wooden wheels, and large covers made of fabric that draped over. There were ponies everywhere. The ones with wings were all sad-looking, pulling the wooden wagons along. There was no sign of the ones with horns. The rest of the ponies had no wings or horns.
She felt like she had made it far enough to slow her pace a little. She still heard the other pony yelling curses at her, but they were faint over the loud noises of the wagons moving along.
“Psst, what are you doing? Your master will beat you if they find you out,” a pony whispered to her right. Rainbow looked towards them, and saw they had wings, just like her.
“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked. She saw that the other pony was a dull blue colour. They also had scars along their back and side.
“What do you mean?” they asked, still whispering.
“Why are the ponies with wings being forced to do things?”
“You don’t know? Ever since the great war, pegasi have been forced to be slaves, all because we have wings. We were ‘proved to be traitorous’ during the war.”
“Great... war?”
“Yes. You’re not from around here, are you?” they asked.
“N—” Rainbow started, but was tackled to the ground. She felt a sharp pain on her back as the pony climbed on top of her.
“I told ya not to run ‘way like that! Yer gonna regret doin’ it!” He let out a deep grumble of a laugh. It was terrifying. “Now, what should I do to ya? Hmm... cuttin’ sounds good.”
Rainbow struggled under his weight. Suddenly, she felt a cold surface touch her right side.
“Yer burn looks like a good place to start.”
Rainbow struggled harder, not wanting to be cut. “D-don’t do it!”
“Too late!” Just then, Rainbow felt the cold surface against her side slide down, pain shooting through. She flipped around, hitting the knife from his hoof. She jumped up from the sand and began running. The pain in her side was accompanied by red liquid leaking out. She kept running. Her wing wasn’t a bother anymore.
She had run for what seemed like forever when she stopped. She turned around to see the wagon train off in the distance, distorted from the wavy look the hot sand gave it. The other direction, the way she was headed, had trees. There were quite a few; not enough to make a forest, but still a lot.
“It hurts... s-so bad,” she said to herself. She looked up, and saw that it was around point 13. The sun was right above her.
She collapsed to the hot sand. She crawled, trying to make it to shade.
“Keep... going...”
Rainbow’s words faded. She didn’t have the strength to move anymore. She felt exhausted. She was in pain.
She was dying.