//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: A warning // Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning // by Dianabel //------------------------------// As Gusty was walking the corridor as everypony else, she noticed Glory walking in front of her. Her ears perked up and frowned in determination. After she took in a few breaths, she walked to her. What she didn´t know, was that her plans were about to complicate for some time. And it wasn´t going to be due to Bray or Grogar. Through the many ponies behind Gusty, there was Fizzy jumping constantly as she walked. “Do you see her?” Buttons asked her. Fizzy groaned. “I don´t!” “Well, maybe it´s time to look behind.” “No, wait. I see her!” Fizzy exclaimed enthusiastically. “Ok, that means we can start.” The two mares stopped walking. “Remember, fall gently.” “Gently, got it.” But just when Fizzy was going to let herself fall, she stepped on her skirt and fell harder than she originally wanted. Her thump was so loud that even Gusty heard it. “What the.” she thought aloud while turning around. She gasped when she saw Buttons still, which meant that Fizzy was the one to have fallen. She gasped. “Oh no, she´s hurt!” she exclaimed while running to them. Meanwhile, Fizzy was groaning in pain. “Ooouch!” she exclaimed softly as she held her foreleg. “Gently, I told you gently!” Buttons scolded her. “I tried but my skirt had other plans.” Fizzy replicated in pain. “Never mind.” Buttons massaged her forehead. “Can you get up?” “I think so.” When she put her foot down, however, she changed her mind. “Ow, ow, ow!” she whimpered. Then, she fell on her stomach. “Ok, I actually I can´t.” “I´ll help you, then.” Buttons bent her legs so Fizzy could put her foreleg on her back. “On the count of three.” “Un. Deux. Trois!” Fizzy exclaimed. The two mares got up at the same time. “Ha! I see that being around me has influenced you somehow.” Buttons raised her eyebrow playfully as she smirked. “The same goes for you. Otherwise, you wouldn´t be doing this, am I right.” Fizzy smirked back. “Sí.” Fizzy laughed. “So… What do we do?” “We´ll go to see the doctor, obviously.” “Of course, but you know what that involves, right?” The two mares clenched their teeth. “Yeah… But we must do it if you want to get better.” “He´ll send me to the dungeon, until I get better, won´t he?” “Not if I can help. But it´s either that or working until it gets worse. Stay here, I´ll go and look for him.” “Or you could stay with her and I could you bring you something until he comes here looking for you.” Another voice said. Both Buttons and Fizzy widened their eyes. They turned around and saw Gusty standing in front of them. Buttons was left with her mouth wide open. Buttons, on the other hoof, didn´t realize much what was happening. “Ah, hi Gusty.” Fizzy said at first. But after she realized that Gusty was standing in front of them, she left out a huge gasp. “Gusty! I´m so happy to see you!” “You two saw me yesterday.” Gusty raised an eyebrow confused. “Well, I also see Buttons every day, and I´m always happy to see her. And so does she, right Buttons?” She hugged Buttons, snapping her out of her shock. “Oh! Ah, yes of course.” she smiled nervously. Gusty smiled warmly at them. Though small, Fizzy and Buttons were able to notice it. “I´ll bring you something cold for your leg.” “Wait.” Buttons stopped her. “Do you know where to get something cold?” “On the kitchen.” Buttons widened her eyes surprised and looked at Fizzy, who was smiling slyly. “I told you she´d say that.” she whispered. “What did you say?” Gusty asked. “Nothing!” Fizzy looked from side to side. Gusty blinked. “I´d better be going. Otherwise, your foreleg might get worse.” “No, no. Don´t go to the kitchen. There´s a better place where you can get that. Let us accompany you. You don´t want to get in trouble with Bray, do you?” When Buttons mentioned Bray and trouble, Gusty realized the mistake she had done. Instead of trying to reach Glory, she got distracted and did exactly the opposite of what she was told. Not lonely that, Bray must have been looking for her like crazy, which could bring suspicion if he found her with them. “You´re right. I´ll better go and look for him.” she said while she walked backwards smiling in agony. “No need to! He´ll eventually come here for you after having searched the whole castle since he´s always after you!” Fizzy said excited. “No, he can´t find us together!” Gusty exclaimed horrified. She covered her mouth. Buttons and Fizzy stared at her estranged and blinked. “Why can´t he?” Buttons raised her eyebrow. “Because… he might think that I could have stopped you from working and thus you might get in trouble because of me!” Gusty said as she started to sweat. “You can always explain that you were helping us.” “Yeah, but as Fizzy said, Bray´s always after me and I wouldn´t want you to feel as overwhelmed as I feel when he does that.” she giggled nervously. “Well, it´s a little too late for that, isn´t it?” Bray said behind Gusty. Slowly, Gusty turned her head backwards. “Gah!” she jumped back when she saw Bray. “Uh… Hi sir!” “I see that you somewhat got distracted with your friends. I hope that your conversation was fruitful.” “Oh no sir. We weren´t talking.” Buttons explained. “My friend Fizzy fell and hurt her leg so she was trying to help us.” Bray raised his eyebrow suspicious and rolled his eyes. “Stop exaggerating, it can´t be that bad. Get to work!” he ordered Fizzy. Buttons looked at Fizzy, wondering if she needed help. “Don´t worry, I think I can walk on my own.” Fizzy reassured Buttons. Buttons nodded and let go of her friend. She walked without putting the leg she hurt on the ground. “With all your hooves.” Bray specified. The three unicorns widened their eyes. “But if I do, my leg will get worse.” “Well, I want to see if you´re telling me the truth. Don´t worry, you won´t have to walk with your four hooves all the time, just give me a few steps.” Fizzy looked at Buttons, who was also unsure of what to do. Gusty frowned at Bray. “Well, if she´s walking like that, it´s for something. What more prove do you need to have?” she said firmly without thinking. Buttons and Fizzy widened their eyes. Bray was also surprised by her sudden snap. “I know I´m new, and for that Grogar distrusts me which is why you´re always on my back, but Fizzy and Buttons have been more time here so why are you two suspicious of them? Besides, why would Fizzy all of the sudden lie to you about her leg to free herself from working, huh? I may know her for few time but I know she´s not the kind of pony who does that. You can be after me all you want but don´t you dare distrust my friends!” she stomped her hoof. Fizzy and Buttons mouth hung wide open. But they got the answer they wanted. She considered them her friends. But if that was true, why was she avoiding them? Meanwhile, Bray was processing what Gusty just said. Normally, any unicorn would be reclaiming their innocence but Gusty directly accepted the blame. “So you´re hiding something…” he smiled maliciously. Gusty´s ears dropped. She accidentally gave herself away. All because she let her feelings get the best of her. “Wh- What do you mean?” she asked. “You know that we distrust you, and for a good reason.” “I I I assumed that because you´re always specifically on my back.” “I´m always on anypony´s back when they first arrive here.” “Well you weren´t after my back when I first arrived. And the same goes for Buttons.” Fizzy naively said. Bray widened his eyes. Yes, he had Gusty on his hooves but at the same time he made another mistake. Grogar told him if the situation of finding her out arised, he would have to confront her when they were alone. Nopony could know that the empire had a crisis. And he accidentally left it out. “Shut up, will you?” Gusty remembered that something similar happened when she first met Bray. It looked like Grogar wanted to hide Majesty´s rebellion from the public knowledge. And from what she heard at Grogar´s reunion, not only were unicorns revolting, but pegasi and earth ponies. Which made her wonder, what would happen if everypony knew what was happening? Her thoughts were interrupted when Bray grabbed her foreleg. “You know what? I´m starting to get tired of your rebellious attitude. I might be used to impertinent ponies but you´re too much. I´m locking you in a dungeon until the emperor tells us what to do with you.” Buttons and Fizzy gasped. Gusty stared at him in shock. Whatever Grogar would have in mind for her, wasn´t going to be pretty. However, there was a chance that she would only get hurt and not executed, since Bray had also messed up as bad as her, which could mean that he would get the same punishment as her if he told him everything. “F- For what?” she asked him in order to know if her instincts were right. Bray stopped walking. With only that gesture, Gusty confirmed she was right. He noticed that Buttons and Fizzy were expecting an answer as well. “For your unruly behaviour of course!” Words that seemed terrigying to Buttons and Fizzy were of relief to Gusty. Buttons ran to Bray. “Wait, wait. She was just explaining what happened.” “That counts as unruly behaviour! She needs to learn a lesson. Unless you want to join the party.” “Don´t worry. I´ll be fine.” Gusty smiled briefly at Buttons. “I am the one who messed up, not you.” Buttons stared back at Fizzy, who was also worried about Gusty. “You two get back to work!” Bray yelled at them. “What about my leg?” asked Fizzy. “Then take her to the room and nurse her. Call somepony if necessary, I don´t care, just go away.” he walked to them. “If you say a word about what happened, I´ll make sure that leg won´t be the only one broken. Understood?” he threatened Fizzy. The unicorn nodded. “And the same goes for you.” he said to Buttons. “Be quiet or you´ll suffer the consequences.” “Yes sir.” she whispered. “Good! Now go away!” he yelled before taking Gusty away. She smiled at the two unicorns to reassure them that it was ok. The two mares stared as they walked away. “What was that?” Fizzy asked. “I… I´m not sure, if I´m honest.” Buttons replied. “But one thing´s for sure, this is your skirt´s fault.” “Well, if I hadn´t tripped over my skirt I wouldn´t have got her attention. She would have noticed I was faking it.” “You´re the one who was a performer before you came here. Surely you could have performed it in a way that it was believable.” Buttons said somewhat annoyed. “Besides, wasn´t this your idea?” “A musician performer, not an actress. There´s a difference between the two. And yes, this was my idea. But honestly, I didn´t think it would work. And it did somehow. Although it would have been great if Gusty didn´t end up flogged.” “Well, maybe he gives her another punishment. But yeah, I agree with you.” “But looking on the bright side, we got a confirmation that she considers us friends!” “And not only that… We might have got a reason why she avoids us.” “What do you mean?” "Didn´t you hear Bray when he was talking to Gusty? Or how he always has his eyes at her specifically? He´s never done that before.” “You mean that there´s something he´s occulting everypony and Gusty might be involved on that and thus avoids us so we don´t get hurt if she gets caught?” Buttons widened her eyes. “How do you do that?” “Do what?” “Finding a perfect explanation for everything.” Fizzy shrugged. “I just suppose.” “Well, in whatever she´s involved, I hope she doesn´t get caught.” Buttons said worried. Gusty waited anxiously for something to happen on the dungeon Bray locked her in. She knew she wasn´t going to die but she feared that Bray was going to involve Buttons and Fizzy in the mess she was responsible of. Apart from fear, she was feeling guilt. She buried her face on her legs as she hugged her knees. Fortunately, the troggle that was assigned to watch over her was Drog. Of all the troggles, he was the one who had the most sympathy for ponies. He didn´t like how Grogar enslaved or tortured them. He didn´t even like working for him! But he also knew that his kind was better under his command, which was one of the reasons why he didn´t speak up, aside of the fact that he was afraid of him. Nevertheless, he was always willing to help ponies in all the ways he could. He approached the dungeon. “Psst. Hey!” he called her. Gusty´s ears perked up. She unburied her head and when she saw Drog, she looked away. “It´s ok. I´m not gonna hurt you.” “No, but you´re going to make fun of me. Like all troggles do.” “I wasn´t planning to.” he replied, a little hurt by her response but understanding as well. “I just wanted to tell you that if you´re feeling lonely, I´m here available to talk. And don´t worry, I won´t make fun of you. Not all of us are mean.” “Wish I could believe you.” Drog took some seconds to think how he could prove Gusty his point. “What you did for those two unicorns was very brave. I wish I had that courage.” Gusty stared at the troggle. That comment wasn´t filled with irony, it was just pure and genuine admiration. He smiled at her. She raised her eyebrow, curious about this troggle. Suddenly, they heard the doors to the dungeons opening. The only thing Gusty could hear were hoof steps but she quickly knew who was coming, as after Drog froze in fear, lights appeared. “My emperor.” Drog bowed. Gusty´s ears dropped when she saw Grogar right in front of her. A chill ran through her spine when he eyed her. “Leave us alone.” Grogar ordered Drog. The troggle nodded and left, but not without taking a quick glance of Gusty, wishing her good luck quietly. At the same time, Gusty was begging him not to go with her eyes. “Come closer mare.” he ordered, forcing Gusty to look at him. Gusty nodded and slowly, she walked to the dungeon´s bars. “Sit down, you and I will be talking for some time.” Grogar sat down. Gusty did as told. “So, I see you got in trouble, huh?” Gusty nodded. “I guess Bray told you everything.” “Indeed. He always tells me everything. Unless… He left something out.” Gusty widened her eyes. “What do you mean?” “Was defending those two slaves the real reason why he locked you here? Because normally he doesn´t lock ponies just because they made him mad. So, tell me: did he accuse you of being a spy in front of them?” Gusty knew it was a trick question. He thinks that she was angry with Bray and thus leading her to put him in evidence but also putting herself in evidence in the meantime. She kept quiet. “If you tell me the truth, I might lessen your punishment.” That was also a lie. Deep down, Gusty had already assumed Grogar knew she was working for Majesty. He was just waiting for her to reveal it herself. “No.” she replied. Grogar raised his eyebrow. “No?” he asked calm yet Gusty could notice some anger was building inside him, which scared her. “Are you sure?” Gusty shook her head. “I just get him on his nerves. It´s just I always make remarks telling him to be more understanding. But the last straw for him was telling him not to make a unicorn who just hurt her leg walk.” “Hm. I see.” “You were planning on punishing him if that was the case, right?” “I do everything in order to keep my throne. Always remember that.” “Have you ever punished him?” “No, but he has seen my anger directed at him. And you don´t want to see me angry, slave.” he threatened her. Gusty walked a backwards a bit. She had a very rocky relationship with him, but she felt bad for him. His so beloved master was willing to do anything, which could include killing him. “I understand why you do that. But Bray is your most loyal subject. I might not like him much but I know he takes everything seriously and thus wouldn´t betray you.” Grogar chuckled. “You´re too naïve, you know that? Defending those slaves was stupid and impulsive. Not to mention that makes you weak.” “Weak. Why?” she asked genuinely curious. “Because you felt for them, mare. And let me tell you, feelings are a sign of weakness.” “Well… Actually, I don´t see it like that. If you had achieved your empire, it must have been because you were pushed by something. Call it motivation, call it desire, but those are feelings.” Grogar raised his eyebrow. “You´re right. But I´m talking about feelings for others.” “Those feelings are love, my emperor.” “I don´t know why that word exists.” “You don´t believe in love?” “Oh, I do. But I don´t think it´s something beautiful or fuzzy like you slaves describe it.” Grogar said the word ponies with disdain. “Love is a trap. Be careful with love and feelings mare, as it´s something dangerous that will only bring you pain.” “Even loving a child?” Grogar´s ears perked up. “I mean I would understand why you would have difficulty trusting adults. But children? They won´t harm you.” “Until they grow up.” “Not if you love them.” “Loving a child is the purest expression of weakness.” “For me it isn´t. You think that because you haven´t any but I know you´re wrong because that´s basically what keeps me ahead.” “You have foals?” “Two fillies.” “And their father?” Gusty looked at her necklace. “Dead.” “What killed him?” “To this day I don´t know the answer.” she lamented. “All I know is that no matter how hard things are, my love for my girls will make me go through the hardest challenge.” “No. That will be your downfall.” “We´ll see.” Gusty said in a challenging tone. The two of them stared at each other, trying to tell each other that they were stronger than the other. “You know what slave? I enjoy our conversations, but I can also make your life impossible.” his tone turned more serious. “One little misstep,” he slammed his hooves on the bars, scaring Gusty and making her whimper. “and you´ll see what I´m capable of. And we don´t want that, do we?” “No sir.” “Good. Our conversation is over but your punishment isn´t. You´ll stay in this dungeon three days with food and water once a day. And if you complain, I´ll make your back bleed.” “I wasn´t going to complain, my emperor.” “Glad you made the smart decision.” he said before walking away but stopped when he realized he still wanted to ask her something. “One more thing. What´s your name mare?” “Gusty.” Grogar widened his eyes. “Gusty. A curious name. I won´t forget it.” he said before leaving while giving Gusty a suspicious look.