//------------------------------// // Act I – Slaves – Chapter 3 // Story: Sunset in the gods // by red-sun //------------------------------// “I love sleepovers!” Pinkie jumps up and screams with excitement. "Can someone tell her this isn't a sleepover?" Flash said frustrated. "Nope." Big Mac answers while he loads a cart with carnelian and throws it where there is more of the extracted mineral. “Let her think that. She and her sisters work the best, plus that seems to keep her awake.” Sunset answers. "Hey, we don't have room to hide any more carnelian around here." Applejack reports. “It doesn't matter, just take out enough so that no foreman suspects us…Twilight. How long until the day begins? Sunset asks. “I would say if we keep everything hidden now we can sleep…like four hours.” Twilight answers. "We better go back so we can get some sleep." Shining suggests. A MONTH AGO “We are going to escape from the mines.” Sunset tells them. “Why are you telling us that all of a sudden?” Applejack asks. "Because so far they're the closest thing I have to pon... trustworthy people." "Thanks...? That was a compliment right? Flash question. "The point is that I found a way to escape... we're going to dig a tunnel." “Dig a tunnel? From here to the outside...? Do you realize what you're saying?!" Limestone yelled at Sunset but Pinkie covered her sister's mouth. "It's a secret." She whispers to him. “I've been exploring through the night. The security inside the mines is not so strict, there are only a hundred guards, obviously that amount is insufficient to guard thousands of slaves and most of the guards are guarding the exit of the mine”. “What do you think the competition system is for? They would denounce us to get a better living condition.” “Horsey, horsey!!” A girl is heard playing "What's going on?" Flash peeks out to see what's going on. "We better not leave this cave for a while... Diamond Tiara is playing again, she is using the slaves as horses". "It irritates me every time I see her 'play'...why don't we kidnap her and use her so we can escape from the mines?" Limestone suggests. "You couldn't, all the time she has a group of bodyguards protecting her." Shining replied. “That's why digging a tunnel is the best solution. We can work secretly at night, as I said the security is not very strict, no one will notice”. “You forget a detail... the production quota, if we work at night we will be too tired to work during the day, besides, how will you know how long until dawn? They could discover us if we don't coordinate the schedules well." Applejack says. "It's easy." Twilight answers. "We use the shift changes to guide us, the guards take turns every two hours, we just have to pay attention to that." “And about the quota I already have a kind of solution”. Sunset points to a corner where Maud was working. "Were you there the whole time?" Flash question. “Her name is Maud Pie, don't worry about her…she's like that…what matters is what she can do. She apparently knows where to look for large mineral deposits, so she took her to the caves in the highest areas and found the right place to dig and at the same time we got carnelian for production”. "It's a very risky plan... if they catch us they will kill us all." Flash says. “Do you see any difference between us and the dead?” “Since we are almost dead people, what can we fear?” Says Big Mac. "Count on me for the plan." Applejack says. "My sisters and I support you with the plan." Limestone also responds. "It's not that I have anything else to do." Flash responds. After that Sunset and her group started working every night. Maud had pointed out to them where they could make the tunnel without problems, with that they could dig an escape tunnel, at the same time they could get enough minerals to meet the quotas without raising suspicions. It was a long and arduous job, Sunset knew that the tunnel could not be finished in a short time. They just had to persevere and one day he might escape the mines. As the days passed, Sunset noticed that unlike other slaves that as time passed they looked more depressed. While in his group he looked more animated, he wondered what was different in his group, would it be the feeling of camaraderie that came from working together? The fact that some of them had known each other before and that encouraged them? Or was it just hope? Hope that they still have a future? PRESENT That same night Sunset slips away to continue working. "Girl, are you going to work at night again?" Sunset sees a slave lying in a corner of one of the caves and freaks out a little as she believes he has discovered his escape plan. "You get so little rest each night, you should take care of your own health." Sunset is relieved to note that they hadn't figured out her plan. "It's alright sir, I have no problem with that." I respond trying to keep her innocence. “You know, at first I believed in what the foremen told us, that if I worked hard I could have a better future. But nothing has changed... we equestrians did not know slavery until the fall of the kingdom and now we work day after day without stopping... and the same is repeated day after day. Now that I think about it, the sad thing is that this will be the rest of my life... cough cough...” “Old man, are you sick?” “It doesn't matter... I won't live long with these living conditions... continue on your way girl. Thank you for listening to the nonsense of an old man.” Then Sunset says goodbye to the slave and runs off. As Sunset continued on her way, she looked around and saw the slaves sleeping inside the caves. When her plan was successful she and her entire group would escape, while the rest of the thousands of slaves would be trapped in the mines forever, but she didn't care, she had her own problems, Sunset didn't have time to worry about the rest. When Sunset is arriving with the rest of her classmates she begins to speak, “Hey! I've been thinking why don't we make the tunnel bigger so more people can go through? After all...". Sunset sees Applejack, Big Mac and Shining lying on the ground hurt and sees that the culprit is Big Brother who was about to hit Maud and Flash until he realizes that she had arrived. “So they were planning to let even more people escape? That is very reckless." Says Old Brother without trying to hide his discontent. The foreman looks at the accumulated carnelian and then looks at Sunset. “It seemed strange to me that they fulfilled the production quota and at the same time it seemed that they did not work very hard.” Sunset tries to stay calm. "Please listen to me...". Before she could finish speaking, Old Brother punches Sunset hard in the stomach. "You know Sun... I never liked you, from the first moment I saw you, there was something in you... as if you believed that you are better than everyone here... With this I can finally get rid of you when I inform the guards about your escape plan.” The foreman tells him. Sunset, still sore from the blow, tries to speak. “We can get out of these mines together! You too can escape from this place when we finish escaping!” Then the foreman hits Sunset again. “Why do you think I want to escape? I like life here. Do you think everyone wants to get out of here? I worked hard to be appointed as foreman and to be in charge of a group of slaves! what could I do out there? farmer? fisherman? Or just beg? I don't want to be any of that! I want to stay here and even become a lead foreman! I don't care about the rest!" Those words surprised Sunset she never believed that she would see someone who would settle for such a life of slavery let alone enjoy it. "I will report this to the guards... after this they will sentence all of you to death." And Old Brother proceeds to leave the cave. As the foreman was about to leave, he suddenly fell to the ground and screamed before having difficulty breathing. Sunset had jumped on his back and with his arms began to strangle him. But Old Brother is bigger and stronger, he started to get up but Big Mac and Flash quickly run to help Sunset hitting the foreman's legs making him fall again, the foreman begins to bleed from the nose while Sunset presses harder with her arms to continue strangling him until Old Brother ends up dead. "Sunset...you can let go...he's already dead." Flash tells him. "Yep". Sunset tries to calm down and looks at the foreman's corpse. "I heard screaming over here!" "Curse. The shout of the foreman drew the attention of the guards...! what do we do?" Flash question. “Quick, we have to cover the tunnel immediately! no one must find out about the escape plan!” Sunset says. "Let's also try to hide the carnelian." Shining tells Sunset that Twilight, Limestone and Pinkie were still inside the tunnel they were digging but Sunset replies that it's better this way, that way they don't catch everyone, Shining understands and with the help of Big Mac covers the tunnel before the guards arrive, while Applejack and Flash cover the carnelian with earth. Sunset, Applejack, Big Mac, Flash, Shining and Maud were in a cage waiting for what was going to happen. "Although we are locked up here, there is only one guard watching... why don't we escape?" Flash asked. "It wouldn't make sense, even if we got out of the cage it wouldn't open any place to escape." Applejack replied. Someone was talking to the guard and then approached the cage, it was Night Light. "They finally let me in to talk to you guys." "Dad, how did they let you talk to us?" "I told the guard that you are my son and that I was going to give you a good lecture for what you had done... what exactly happened...?" “Old Brother discovered everything... the tunnel, the carnelian we accumulated, the escape plan... everything... what happened to the others, are they okay? what do they say about us?” “The others are fine, they stayed hidden until everyone had left. At the moment nothing has been said about the escape plan... according to what I heard, there was only a fight last night with Old Brother... it's no secret how badly they got along... Filthy Rich plans to make a public trial. He intends to use you guys as an example to keep order.” “ha! public trial? As soon as the guards arrived, they subdued us and put us here. They didn't even ask what happened! I bet he's thinking of doing a show with us!” Applejack complained. "You say everyone knew how Old Brother and Sunset got along?" "Yes!. Not that it was a big secret!” Pinkie responds by suddenly appearing. “AAAHH!!” everyone screamed in fright even the guard. "You shouldn't be...! It doesn't matter, keep it short." And the guard returns to his post. "Sister, don't worry, I'm taking care of Boulder for you." "Sunset, what do you think we should do?" Applejack asked, noticing that Sunset had been quiet all this time. "Sunset... are you alright?" "Were you softening me up?" Sunset gets out of her trance and notices that everyone was looking at her "what were they saying?" "You seem distracted... in general, you are always more attentive to everything around you." "It's just... it's the first time I've killed someone." After a while of silence Applejack approaches Sunset. "Do you regret what you did?" "No! And that is the problem! that's normal?" "You don't regret it because not killing him would have been worse." Applejack told him as he puts a hand on Sunset's back. “You know sugar cube… I also killed someone before I got here… when the family was escaping during the war we joined other Apples on the way and we came to form a caravan and on the way a band of raiders attacked the camp. While most of the adults were fighting, the children stayed hidden in one of the tents, in the middle of the fight one of the assailants entered the tent and looked at all the children, the worst of all was the look he had... It doesn't take a genius to know what he was thinking, when he saw my little sister I saw how the assailant smiled sickly... before letting me touch her, I jumped on the assailant and hit her head with a rock... and I did not stop hitting him until I broke his skull and killed him”. "You were scared, you didn't think, you just reacted without thinking, you had no choice." Flash said. “You're wrong about something Flash. Yes, I was scared, but I also thought very well about the situation and acted aware that I was killing someone.” Applejack stands in front of Sunset and looks into her eyes. “Sunset, I didn't kill the assailant because he had no choice… I killed him because the option was worse. If you hadn't killed the foreman, the guards would have found the escape tunnel and tortured us to find out who else was involved." Appleckjack hugs Sunset as she tries to hold back her tears. "Please don't blame yourself for what happened." Sunset wipes away her tears. "Thanks Applejack." "I don't want to spoil this emotional moment but what about our public trial?" "Night, I need you to explain the situation to me." Sunset said with determination.