Chapter 3: Escape
As the lights went out, Splinter put his plan into action. He had taken advantage of the two remaining minutes of light to yank out the splinter of wood with his teeth, being careful not to jab himself in the tongue. Then, he lay down and waited a minute or so for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then he went to work. Taking a few seconds to locate the keyhole, he poked his makeshift lock-pick into the manacle binding his left forehoof. Twisting it a couple of times, he was rewarded with a click and a soft rattling of chains as the foreleg came free.
He glanced at the two humans guarding the gate that led outdoors. They hadn’t heard anything. So far, so good.
Splinter pulled the sliver out. Part of it broke off in the lock, but he still had more than enough to work with. He quickly repeated the process for his other foreleg. Two down, two to go.
His rear hooves would prove a bit more problematic since his head couldn’t reach that far. But what if I don’t use my mouth? Splinter wondered. He reached for the wood sliver with a forehoof and tried gripping it, using the hoof like a hand. He gave up after a few failed attempts. Gritting his teeth, he instead jabbed the splinter into his forehoof. Ignoring the pain, he inserted it into the locks binding his two hind limbs. One by one, they came free and the chains fell with a muffled thud.
Splinter plucked the wood sliver out of his hoof using his teeth, inhaling sharply in pain as he did so, and spit it onto the ground. If he had a choice, he would never do that again. He turned around and bucked the gate of the stable with a loud thud, but the lock held. He heard distant voices and knew that the humans had heard this time. The two humans at the end of the hall had picked up tube-shaped devices that emitted a bright light (Splinter believed that they were called “flashlights” but he couldn’t be sure), and were coming in Splinter’s direction to investigate the noise. That was good; they were his next targets anyway.
All his life, the humans had trained Splinter as a killer. Now that he was unshackled, it was about to backfire. Big time. Splinter stepped back from the wooden stable gate and crouched down, like a timberwolf about to pounce, as the voices and lights approached.
“What in tarnation... Where’s Splinter?”
The lock clicked, and the gate swung open. At that moment, Splinter lunged at the two humans. He managed to hit one in the chest with both forehooves, slamming him backwards against the wall and crushing its ribcage like an eggshell. The human’s flashlight dropped to the ground, and its light danced around the walls. The other human reached for something around his waist, but before he could reach it, Splinter bucked him in the head with all his strength. The human dropped like a sack of potatoes.
As he stood there, with bloody hooves and slightly quivering from adrenaline, he silently mused about how Equestria could have been taken over by such frail creatures. No pony he faced had gone down that easily; for all the energy it took, he might as well have broken two twigs. Looking down at the bodies, he recognized one of them as the human who was always called in to shock him with an electric prod. Splinter felt a wave of grim satisfaction inside. The human got what he deserved; it was just too bad that Splinter didn’t manage to pay him back in kind.
He crushed the flashlights under his hoof, lest someone else notice the light and come to investigate, and galloped off into the night.
***
Splinter reveled in his newfound freedom. Drawing in deep breaths of the wonderfully cool night air, he let the wind blow through his mane. He half-expected a few armed humans to put a premature end to his escapade – especially since he didn’t really think about how he was going to get past the electric fence surrounding the place - but he really didn’t care too much at the moment. He would gladly trade an entire life in chains for just one minute of freedom.
However, Splinter was brought back to reality by the sound of hoofsteps that did not belong to him. Whirling around, he saw a pegasus mare standing behind him. In the moonlight, he could make out an unkempt coat and spiky mane, but not the actual colours.
“So, you’re the one they call Splinter?” asked the pegasus in a casual tone of voice.
“In the fur and flesh.” Splinter replied. The mare was now slowly approaching him, and Splinter backed away at an equal pace, feeling slightly uneasy.
“You defeated Leiney Arc in the ring tonight.” It was not a question, but rather a statement. The mare’s tone had barely changed, but Splinter noticed a dangerous edge creeping into her voice. By now, she had maneuvered him behind a small shed.
“You saw the fight?” Splinter was now fully on guard, ready to attack if necessary.
“What gave that away?” the mare asked sarcastically. She was quite calm, but there was a fair bit of hostility behind her casual façade.
Splinter didn’t intend to just stand there all night. “All right, just cut to the chase; I don’t have time for this. Who the hay are you, and what do you want from me?” he demanded. It came out harsher than he intended, but Splinter’s patience was wearing thin. It would be bad news for both of them if a human came along and discovered the two of them standing there.
The mare’s tone of voice became extremely serious, almost worried. “Just tell me one thing. What did you do to her, and where is she now?”
“I...” Splinter paused, thinking about how to word his thoughts. “Well, I was fighting to kill just to get it over with, but... It’s kind of hard to explain, but somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She’s probably unconscious right now.”
The mare suddenly put a hoof on Splinter’s shoulder. “Fighting to kill?” she hissed into his face in a venomous voice.
“I didn’t exactly have a choice!” Splinter growled. “Outside the ring, they keep my hooves chained. I can show you the marks, if you don’t believe me. So if I don’t fight like they expect me to, they can do anything they want to me. I don’t even want to think about what might happen. Besides, I was going easy on her. If I wanted to, I could have ended the fight a lot sooner.”
He reached up with a forehoof and pushed the mare’s hoof off his shoulder. “That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”
The mare looked into Splinter’s eyes. She saw no deceit in them, nor did she hear any in his voice. Suddenly, she had a strange feeling of déjà vu. She didn’t quite recognize him, but inexplicably, she felt as though she was supposed to.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
The pegasus mare shook her head and sighed. “No, of course I believe you. I’m sorry about how I acted. It’s just that... I guess you could say that Leiney and I are fairly close. We’ve been watching out for each other for a while now. Do you know where she is being kept?”
“No problem, I understand,” replied Splinter. It would be nice if somepony cared this much about me, he thought. “As for where she is, I overheard a few humans talking about that. In fact, I was going to bust her out anyway. I spared her life after all, so I might as well.”
“Thanks so much, Splinter. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
“Thank me after we’re out of this dump,” Splinter replied, turning around and starting to head off towards the stables. “For now, find someplace to hide and wait for my return. I don’t want to rescue you as well.”
The mare cracked a smile. “Don’t worry about me, worry about what you have to do. Meet me back here when you’re done.” She turned away to look for a hiding spot.
Splinter stopped and turned around. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”
The pegasus didn’t turn to face him.
“Call me Scootaloo.”
***
It took only a few minutes for Splinter to break in and out of the stables where Leiney was kept, leaving a couple more bodies in his wake. Carrying the unconscious Leiney on his back, carefully avoiding contact with her injuries (particularly the ribs on her right side), he returned to the shed where he was supposed to rendezvous with Scootaloo. As expected, she wasn’t there.
“Scootaloo?” he called into the darkness. The name sounded quite eccentric to him, but it rolled off his tongue nonetheless.
“Up here!” came the reply from above.
Splinter looked up as well as he could without making Leiney slide off his back and saw Scootaloo’s face staring back at him over the edge of a small cloud.
“How in the name of...?”
“Tell you about it later,” replied Scootaloo. “I’ll take her from here.”
She jumped off the cloud and spread her wings, hovering in mid-air. Splinter was impressed; he had seen his share of pegasi before, but this was the first time that he had seen one fly. As he watched, Scootaloo placed her forehooves on top of the cloud and lowered herself to the ground, pulling the cloud down with her. As she did, Splinter noticed some sort of mark on her flank in the exact same spot as Leiney’s, but he couldn’t make out what it looked like. Half of him believed that it was coincidence, while the other half thought that it was significant. He made a mental note to ask about it in the morning.
“Put her on here,” said Scootaloo.
“You sure that thing is safe?” Splinter asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Just do it.”
Splinter reared up onto his hind hooves, letting Leiney slide onto the cloud. He was still surprised that the cloud could actually hold a pony’s weight, but then again, he knew next to nothing about pegasi anyway. He turned back around and was about to step onto the cloud, but Scootaloo barred his way with a foreleg.
“That’s probably not a good idea. We pegasi can stand on these things, but that doesn’t go for earth ponies like you.”
Splinter gently put his hoof down on a small corner of the cloud, which dissolved at his touch.
“Point taken.”
“Let’s get this show on the road,” said Scootaloo. She used her forehooves to lift the cloud off the ground as she took flight.
The ponies both knew which way to go. They ran and flew for the electric fence that separated the arena complex from the forest beyond. Trottingham Arena had a security system, which served to keep ponies from getting out. However, nopony ever tried to escape, so the most of the system was turned off part of the time to cut down electricity bills. Tonight just happened to be one of those times; however, the electric fence was always active in order to keep unpleasant fauna out.
The was virtually invisible from a distance in the darkness, but the buzzing of electricity warned Splinter of its location and he was able to stop himself before he ran into it. Scootaloo, on the other hand, simply flew over and set the cloud down on the other side. She then came back over the fence, landed in front of Splinter, and lowered herself to the ground.
“Want a lift?”
Feeling slightly awkward, Splinter pulled himself onto her back and wrapped his forelegs around Scootaloo’s lower chest, just above the wing joint.
“Are you sure about this?” Splinter asked, concerned that his weight might be a bit too much for her.
“Positive. Hang on!”
With a powerful push from all four legs and a flap of the wings, Scootaloo was airborne. She rose in the air until she was flying above the electric fence, feeling Splinter’s grip tighten substantially. Wincing, she edged forwards a few metres and slowly landed beside the cloud carrying the unconscious Leiney. Her movements were slightly more clumsy than usual; she wasn’t used to flying with a passenger on her back, especially one that seemed to be trying to squeeze the air out of her lungs.
As soon as they landed, Splinter let go, rolled off of Scootaloo’s back, and lay on the ground. He had barely been airborne for a minute, but he was already feeling slightly queasy. Like most earth ponies, he was definitely not meant to fly.
The two quickly regained their composure. Splinter got up onto his hooves, and Scootaloo stopped massaging her chest and took to the air, carrying the makeshift cloud stretcher. They shared a wordless nod, and headed into the forest, leaving the arena behind them.