It felt like it had taken forever to get back home, but Mr. Burr and his posse made it safe and sound. The heat had made the man behind the plantation worn thin, slowly wiping his brow as he ascended the stairs of the back deck. Mr. Burr gripped onto the railing for dear life, hoping this would make him stable enough to not concern his company. Fortunately, Dyson and Sable were right there behind him, tailing the man to ensure he does not falter in front of everyone else. Henry was there too, but not directly behind Mr. Burr. He, instead, was following the two slaves closely. Whether this was out of curiosity or to ensure Mr. Burr’s safety was not something Mr. Burr could determine.
The four shuffled their way into the house. There wasn’t much talk among them at this point, just a silent walk home after Mr. Burr had frantically raced out of the Post. That treatment continued even as they made their way into the house. They were just outside Mr. Burr's bedroom, when he paused, turned around, and spoke shakily, “Henry, c-could you please wait downstairs?”
Henry took off his hat and tilted his head. “Yes, sir, but why, if I may ask?”
“To ensure that we are not disturbed. I need to speak to these two in private.”
“Very well,” Henry said, bowing to Mr. Burr. “Let me know if you need anythin’ else, sir.”
“Will do,” Mr. Burr replied. With that, Henry turned and descended the stairs. When Henry was out of view, Mr. Burr sighed and turned to Dyson and Sable with a bright smile. “Thank you both for accompanying me to the Post. There is more that I need you to do, but that can wait until we are in my room. Come.”
The two slaves looked at each other, a raised brow on one while a tilted head wore on another, yet they did not dare oppose their master. They cautiously walked into the room. The room was as they had left it: clean and tidy, save for a slightly tousled bed sheet (must have been done by Mr. Burr’s changing). Mr. Burr walked in last and closed the door behind him, locking it with a swift tap on the door.
Mr. Burr hung up his jacket on a rack nearby, and let his hat twirl on the top half till it hung there, silently watching him move. He walked to his bed and flopped on it, breathing in deeply while his company looked onward, their gazes perturbed by their situation.
“So, you are probably wondering why you are here.”
The two slaves nodded in unison.
“It’s… complicated. However, our discussion can wait. Please, help me to my bed.”
“Are you okay, Massa?” Sable asked, standing next to him.
“I would be lying if I said ‘yes’. The trip back had me feeling light-headed. Hopefully this is telling me that I need to get some rest,” Mr. Burr replied, yawning. “Not sure why I am so tired all of a sudden.”
“Ya musta been still sick,” Sable muttered. She sighed.
Meanwhile, Dyson walked up to the other side of the bed and crouched down. “Well, Master, ya can count on us in makin’ sure ya well!”
“Yes, I can,” Mr. Burr said with a weak chuckle. “I hope you don’t mind—”
“No, we do not mind assistin’ you, Massa.”
“Not at all,” Dyson parrotted. “It important that you are well, Master! To us and the plantation!”
Mr. Burr nodded, but something was amiss. He felt sick to his stomach, like a bunch of fireflies were burning his insides. He tossed and turned in the bed, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing felt right. And Mr. Burr knew, looking at the slaves around him, they were worried about him too. He just needed to feel comfortable in his own skin. Breathe.
“Massa, are you—”
“Could you…” Mr. Burr began to shout, but he stopped himself, his voice trailing off.
The two took a step back, giving him some room, and they waited quietly as their master mumbled incoherently to himself.
Then, he sighed and got off the bed. He walked over to the window and peered out. Dust drifted lightly past as a horse-drawn carriage passed by the estate. A guard, situated out front, stood still, sporting a canteen in his mouth. He gulped a couple times, before setting it back to his side. His musket was not in his hands, rather he had propped it up next to that very tree. Probably on his break, Mr. Burr thought.
The thought of having a break himself never crossed his mind. Mr. Burr snarled, “Nevermind.”
The gravely tone struck the two still, as they watched Mr. Burr pace. His pacing stopped when the clock sounded the top of the hour.
Frustrated, the man growled out his nerves, “On second thought, you two, grab some chairs, and sit tight. If I’m gonna feel better, I need to get some things off my chest. Listen, and listen carefully.”
Mr. Burr saw them nod and scurry about. Each of them grabbed a chair and placed them next to each other in the center of the room. Then, they sat down in their respective chairs, and waited. Mr. Burr sighed and began to slowly pace back and forth in front of them as he spoke,
“I have heard of what’s going on around the plantation. Lotta things, right? Despite everything going on, we still are maintaining. Yet, maintaining it is not good enough anymore. And on top of that, I have not solved anything that’s going on because all I know are rumors that you or the guards tell me. I do not know about you two, but I think it is time that ends today, especially if I am going to get through what I am going through, and I need you two to be part of this effort, okay?”
The two nodded, which prompted Mr. Burr to continue, “Now, I know I asked you this earlier, Sable, but what are the guards doing with Leo?”
Sable hesitated first, her gaze downcast, but when Mr. Burr walked toward her, she looked directly at him and began to prattle off her thoughts, “Intimidatin’ him, Massa. He ain’t likin’ them—and they ain’t likin’ ‘im either. It ain’t good and—”
“What exactly are they doing?”
Dyson frowned. “They shout at all them new ones. They say it’s their way of saying ‘Hello’.”
“Shout at them all? You better not be implying that they are getting physical with him!”
Dyson kept that frown smeared on his face, but he had a slow shake of his head. He gripped that head of his in his hands as he spoke. “It can get that far some nights, Master, but not all the time. And the kids… they see it too. They askin’ them to stop but they ain’t. They ain't stoppin’ at all.”
Mr. Burr growled out his anger. “Even you two?”
Sable and Dyson didn’t reply. That told Mr. Burr what he needed to know.
“They’re lucky I don’t send them to the frontlines—”
“The frontlines, sir?” Sable asked.
Mr. Burr shook his head. “Not important. Look, I need you to tell me what else they’ve done to you both and the rest of the slaves—”
“But we can’t!” Dyson shouted.
“And why can’t you?” Mr. Burr growled out.
Sable hung her head as she took the reins of the conversation, “It’s… not somethin’ we can do, Massa! The guards… they… threaten us too.”
“I don’t care about what they think. Do they think they are above me? If they are mistreatin’ you all, I’ll—”
“You would what, Master?” Dyson said with a tilt of his head.
Mr. Burr felt his lips quivering under Dyson’s gaze. He exhaled harshly out of his nose and sat on his bed. He put his palms through his hair, which was still damp from being under his hat for so long. He groaned. “I… my wife would be so disappointed in me.”
“Mother Burr, Master?” Dyson asked. Mr. Burr nodded. “But why?”
“I promised her, Dyson. I promised her to take care of everyone. I’ve tried to keep you all safe, even if that meant—” Mr. Burr stopped, shaking on the bed. He licked his lips. “Even if that meant having to change.”
“Change? Massa this ain’t makin’ sense and—”
“You two would have never stepped foot in this room six years ago.”
Dyson and Sable sat still.
“You two would have never gotten to the point you are now if I hadn’t changed. If I hadn’t changed, I would have kept you outside, whippin’ you into shape so that way I would expand my harvest northward. But after she died, I realized what she meant by takin’ care of you. I was… watching while she took care of you slaves. She would stick by you all in the dead of the night to make sure things were alright. I heard her some nights but never thought to look, that is, until one night, I did. That night, she was singing to the young ones a goodnight song that my mother taught her.”
Dyson slightly smiled. “She did, Master. She would do that every night—”
Downcast was Mr. Burr’s gaze, and so too did his breath shake as the atmosphere of the room tore into his core, affecting his words, “And now that she’s gone, have they slept well?”
Dyson hung his head. “I…”
“Massa, they sleep fine—”
“Don’t you dare lie to me, Sable! I hear them crying outside all the time! And when the weather’s not good, it’s worse than normal. I have to sit outside in that reading area just to get some quiet time to myself, and I sometimes sleep out there—”
“Then why do ya hide, Master? Why not fix the roof of the old barn and—” Dyson stopped himself, clamping his mouth shut with his dry hands.
Mr. Burr glared over at Dyson, before Mr. Burr swallowed and licked his lips. “I could. I could and I can, but what does that tell the guards? What do you two think?”
Sable hung her head low. “That you are a—”
“A nigg—” Mr. Burr stopped himself again. He coughed rather profusely, almost as if a demon was lurching out of him. He clutched his stomach, while trying to gasp for air. Was this the end? Was he meant to end this here?
Dyson and Sable surrounded him and elevated his pillows. They laid him down gently. “Sable, get some water!” Dyson shouted. Then she scurried out.
He was not going to let himself falter anymore into this hellhole he put himself into. God shall not smite him down. Mr. Burr would smite himself down.
“D-Dyson,” Mr. Burr struggled to get out. “I… I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what, sir?” Dyson asked with a raised brow. “Sorry for what?”
“If I just said something…” Mr. Burr whispered weakly. “I should have done more—”
Dyson shushed him and smiled. “Master, ya let us live here. It different from the rest: it wide open, and not too bad most days. Better bein’ here than pretty much anywhere else. Besides, we just work for ya, and in return, ya give us a place to be without havin’ to worry about too much! Is that wrong?”
“It doesn't sound wrong but—”
“Then why worry?”
Mr. Burr fell into silence, his brow furrowing. He then grit his teeth and sucked in a bit of air. “Because giving you quarters is only a sliver of what I need to do.”
Dyson tilted his head. “Only a sliver?”
“Yes, I know my wife would rather you all be… well, too.”
Dyson laid a hand on Mr. Burr’s shoulder. “Get some rest, Master. We can talk more ‘bout this when you get better.”
Mr. Burr cracked a smile and let out a dry chuckle. “A-Alright, Dyson. I will.”
With that, Mr. Burr fell back into silence with a smile on his face.
Darkness greeted Mr. Burr in a form of a black cyclone that spun and spun while he listened to the voices of his two slaves, their movements and words echoing in his mind.
“Sorry, sir! Took a bit! The well out back was bein’ used by the other folks and—what’s goin’ on, Dyson?”
“He’s… finally restin’ up, Sable.”
The cyclone drowned out the rest.
The world around me grew still, save for the feeling of my lungs wanting to collapse, and the feeling of the murky waters blooming around me like mud in a field. The gloop made me feel like Death was gripping onto me, but I knew this wasn’t my time. I couldn’t give up, not now! Dash and I had already gotten this far, so why waste this opportunity to just drown in a cave full of water? That thought spurred me on, even if I was running out of air.
Thankfully, it didn’t take us too long to find the surface, and when Dash and I did, we burst through the bit of light that shone through. We both gasped for breath while the water around us splashed and bounced like two small bits of gravel landed in a bucket of water. As we both regained our ability to breathe, we both hugged each other happily.
“We made it, Dyson!”
“We did, didn’t we?” I said, laughing. I let go of her and continued, “Let’s get out of here and dry off.”
“Right,” Dash replied, hopping out onto the slopped shore beside us. She whipped herself like a dog, sending water droplets everywhere. Some even got on me, which made me tell to watch what she was doing. That got her to do it more, and she laughed the entire time too.
I sighed. I am definitely going to have to get new clothes after this. These are torn to shreds—they won’t last another week unless I get them fixed. That would have to wait though, we needed to get out of here.
“So, where’s this light of yours? I ain’t seein’ any tunnel—”
“Of course you can’t see it, you can’t see in the dark! It’s just a way down here and—” The dull blue outline of Rainbow Dash peered into a corridor that I could not see “Oh.”
“Dash, we can always turn back and—”
“No!” Rainbow Dash shrieked, her forehooves tapping onto my chest. “Stop! Look, we need to just walk down there. Trust me, I saw it!”
“From here?”
“No you dolt! Down there!”
“Then why were you looking down there like there was supposed—”
“Because I forgot, okay? J-Just… follow me!” She said with a rather unharmonious blow. “Sheesh! Some ponies…”
I heard her but chose to ignore her. She will be fine, she just needed some time alone to herself, but that didn’t stop me from gripping onto her tail so I didn’t lose her in here. It’s so dark that I wouldn’t be able to get out of here without her.
We walked for a while longer before I started seeing anything, and that was because, well, she was right. It was down a ways, through a few twists and turns that she totally left out of her explanation before we dove into the water, but eventually there was that light. It was piercing and white. It shined through the tunnel like heaven sent it to us as a gift. And when we got to the edge, I saw it.
The Gorge. We were still in the Gorge.
“Dash, are you seein’ this?”
“Yep. We’re still in it.”
The view was spectacular. A large swath of trees painted the land in a lush green that definitely showed more life than the gray grains. A larger stream of water slashed and rushed in-between the treeline, while the towering walls of Ghastly Gorge remained towering over us, surrounding us with giant holes like the one we emerged from carved into their mold. I took in a deep breath, and looked down, only to realize that our luck was looking up. We were closer to the ground than I thought, as there was a ramp that we could walk down without having to swing like I was before we fell into the hole from before. I exhaled rather harshly, feeling that fresh air coursing through me. I growled as my muscles ached, but we were too far ahead to rest now. We needed to explore. We needed to get back to this Ponyville that Dash kept hinting at.
Speaking of Dash, I looked down at her dirtied blue muzzle. She was looking out too—although more toward the right of us than the left. I assume she had something on her mind other than admiring the view.
“So, where are we now?”
That muzzle scrunched up real fast. “Not sure, but I think we are a bit further up than last time. Guess nearly falling to our deaths and exploring a few caves didn’t hurt our chances of escaping.”
“Sounds like it,” I mumbled. I watched as the sun slowly descended on us. “Lookin’ like the sun is makin’ a run for it. We need to think about where we goin’ rest for the night.”
“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash said weakly, her voice trailing off like the path of the sun.
“You okay?” I asked, kneeling down in front of her.
She nodded. “Just starting to feel weak is all. Guess the adrenaline finally wore off.”
That sounded bad. I frowned. “Then where do ya think we should go?”
Rainbow Dash walked further until her forehooves were right to the edge of a crack in the cliffside. “Hmm… Tell me, Dyson. You see that rock in the distance?”
I looked over to where she was looking. There were a lot of rocks in that direction: a giant mountain, a huge boulder that screamed ‘I want to be a mountain’, and a few slabs that jutted from the other side of the Ghastly Gorge. “Dash, there lot of rocks down there. You gotta be more—agh!”
Rainbow Dash had stepped on my foot, which made me groan in pain. “Sorry!” she said all of a sudden, before she looked down to where her hooves were and placed her hoof away from me entirely. “Just trying to get a better view to help you see what I’m seeing!”
“Thanks,” I groaned, before stepping back to give Dash more room.
Thankfully, she too was being careful, making sure to scootch over instead of trying to stomp on the ground. She flicked her hoof in the direction of what she was talking about. “That one, Dyson.”
Among the many trees in front of us was a giant slab poking through the heads of the trees. It was flat yet huge, tall enough to be above the trees but wide enough to announce its presence.
“Oh,” I muttered. I cleared my throat to mask the pain of her stepping on my foot. “So… what about it?”
Rainbow Dash looked at me with a smirk on her face, and her good wing was shaking in excitement. “That slab is one of the markers I use to keep track of where I am in the Gorge. I didn’t see it immediately as I was looking for other markers, but I am glad I saw it out of the corner of my eye.”
“Why is this one important?”
“That slab tells us we’re about halfway through the Gorge.”
“How do you—”
“—Know?” Rainbow Dash finished, her voice squeaking on the word. I nodded, which made her continue, “I used to train my long distance flying here. And when I mean train, I mean it. Was always here for a morning flight and then I would come back to see if I could beat my time. Nowadays, this isn’t considered ‘long distance’ for me, but when I was training for the Wonderbolts, this was what I did every morning.” After she said this, she gave me a bright smile, and her eyes lit up like the sun. “Trust me, big guy. If we keep following the markers up toward the slab, we will eventually reach Ponyville.”
“Are you sure?”
“Enough to break my other wing if you need me to.”
"This shall change, since Rainbow Dash will guide you. Therefore, I must not interfere.”
That pony’s words echoed in my mind. I have to trust her. There’s no other choice, is there? “Alright, I trust you. Just try not to step on my foot again.”
“Come on! It was an accident!” Rainbow Dash said, throwing her forehoves in the air. She groaned, but I don’t think it was due to what she said, as she let out a stabbing pain from being reminded of her broken wing. Her other one slumped to her side. “Sorry.”
I waved her off with my right hand. “Anyway, we should get down from here. It is gettin’ late, and we need to get some food and shelter. Or do you want to risk sleepin’ out in the open?”
Rainbow Dash hummed to herself before she responded, “You’re right. We can set up camp so easily, but food might be an issue.”
I turned and started down the cliffside. “Why’s that?”
Rainbow Dash followed suit, her tail swishing behind her. “Not a lot of things we can eat down here. Most of it is poisonous.”
Great. It’s like this place wants us to die. “Is there any chance we can find somethin’ to eat?”
Dash let out a brief blow. “Yep, but we have some competition.”
“Great. Guessin’ we goin’ meet some hyrdas?”
“Wrong,” Rainbow Dash said with way too much confidence. She walked up right beside me and smirked. “Timberwolves and manticores. Not to mention all the normal wildlife we get around here too. There’s a lot of animals out there that will snatch the food before we get to it.”
“Timberwolves?”
Rainbow Dash pointed to herself as she walked. “See how big I am?”
“You mean small? Then yes.”
The pony rolled her eyes. “Very funny, buster. Seriously, though. Timberwolves are huge. They’re two times as large as me, but with green glowing eyes and made out of a tree. Can you believe that? Oh and they got these really sharp teeth that could tear us to bits if they got close. And worst of all, they travel in packs. So if we run into one, we run into more of them.”
I felt my legs nearly buckle from that description. They would be as big as me. “Great, and manticores?”
“Not as bad as timberwolves, but if we run into one, we better make sure that we do not approach them. They got a huge mane and a tail that can paralyze us if we aren’t careful! Not to mention they are pretty large too, mostly the same size as a timberwolf, but they don’t travel in packs.”
“Got it,” I began, rubbing my neck. Hopefully she didn’t hear my voice crack there. “Sounds like you are givin’ us more of a reason to hurry then, right?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “Exactly! I call leadpony!”
“Leadpony?” I tilted my head. “What?”
“Don’t worry, it’s a… pony thing. I’ll explain to you later!” She walked up ahead of me and craned her neck. “Just follow me! I think we can just follow the stream and it will lead us to that blueberry bush patch I remember running into on my last flight…”
“Alright,” I said, smiling.
I walked behind her, hoping that smile sold her on me not wanting to turn around and scale the cliff face again. Thankfully, she didn’t turn back to check on me, as she was too absorbed in whatever she was planning. There was no choice. It’s either now or never.
I picked up the pace and followed her into the forest.