//------------------------------// // Chapter Twelve: Diggy Diggy Human // Story: The Element of Willpower // by Redwolf15 //------------------------------// Chapter Twelve Diggy Diggy Human Let's see here. Dark place, no physical direction what so ever, feel weightless. Here we go again. "You defeated the vampire. Good, you are improving." It's that light again. "Yeah, but he was damn tough, too tough in fact. I should have died that day, don't get me wrong or anything, I'm thrilled to still be alive. But it wasn't right, we should have both died." "Your time of death is not yet ready.." "Well that's reassuring. But you know, it's a little odd that you do know all this, you even knew it was Discord behind Nosferatu's actions too. That also means you knew that it was Discord who brought me here. Didn't you?" I ask it. There is a long silence. "... Yes. I did. But that is irrelevant right now. That dragon and Diamond Dog alpha have bad blood between each other. Their hatred towards each other extends farther back than anyone could suspect." "But you won't tell me why and how it happens. All you'll tell me is what I need to know and not what I should know or how to do it. But hey, right now I don't care about that. What I do care is the questions in my head, like how about who or what you are? And why is it that apparently I am the only one who can control you if everyone has a piece of you? And why is it that only I can defeat Discord? You have a lot of explaining to do, and no bullshitting this time!" "As to 'who' I am, I have no proper name to call myself. I am more of a 'what'. I am the thing that gives you strength, I am the thing that lets you walk, lets you choose, lets you be you. I am you, but you, are more importantly me. We are one person, yet two different things." "That doesn't make any sense. I told you to not bullshit me! And what do you do? Bullshit me. Are you sure you're an actual entity of some sorts and not just a figment of my imagination. Because quite frankly, you do nothing but give me warnings and tell me half assed crap. If you're not going to cooperate then take a hike. Better yet, I'll do it. Just as soon as I figure out how to do that." The light stays quiet. Eerily quiet. Oh god don't tell me it has feelings and I just hurt them. "Ugh, look if I insulted you I'm sorry." My head starts hurting. I put my hand to my head to numb the pain. "Why would you have insulted me? You've been asleep this entire." It's a woman's voice. I realize now that I am laying on my back. I'm awake. I slowly sit up until pain starts shooting through my entire body. "Easy, here drink a bit of this." She puts a bowl of water to my lips and drink up. Until I spit it out. It was absolutely filthy. "Sorry, it's the best we have." My eyes try to adjust, but it's too dark to actually tell what's what. As to what I can tell you is, I'm in a small room, well, more like a cave with metal bars blocking the only escape out of here than a room. Well, more like a cell than a cave. Past the metal bars is a hallway with dim torches burning, only enough to know what colour my skin is. Or that my apparent cell mate is a pony. A unicorn to be more exact. In this light all I could tell is that she has a dark blue coat with a dirty and tattered turquoise mane. Everything else is pretty much indistinguishable. "Were are we?" I ask here looking around. "The Diamond Dog Cave. More specifically the slaves quarters, only place we can rest for a bit." Damn. I slowly stand up and walk over to the bars that cage us. I run my hand down one, they don't feel that tough, I can easily slash through them. I reach for my sword only for my hand to pass through air. Of course you idiot. You're a slave now, they would have confiscated anything of value. They took my sword, knife, and my new jacket. Bastards. I peer down the hall to see more metal bars, and other slaves behind them. Can't tell what each are, but they're definitely all slave. "Why haven't you ask?" I address my cell mate, breaking the long silence. "Asked what?" "What I am." "I don't really care." She says sombrely with actual disinterest in her voice. "What? Really? Why not?" I turn to face her. "When you've been down here for a long enough time, you start to lose a lot of things. Interest, curiosity, happiness and joy, hate, even hope. That's what it's like for eveypony here." I stare at her with a mix of disgust and pity. How could anyone lose so much down here? How could you lose hope? "Well then, guess that means I'll just have to rekindle the fires of salvation for you lot." "You think you can help us? Well good luck to ya. I don't know about you, but we all know that that is impossible." Diamond Dogs start yelling and cages begin to open. Ours soon opens with a Diamond Dog ushering us to move. "It would be easier if you just gave up." I stand there for a second and watch her move to where ever it is they'll be taking us. Her head down low in shame. Give up? Never! The Dog is yelling at me to move. As I pass by him, I glare at him, a stare that looks into one's very soul, saying to him: Shut it. I am not a slave. And I will never be one! He growls at me, trying to intimidate me. I just walk past without a care. I catch up to the unicorn. "You know. I never introduced myself. I'm Jeese Ruesgen. Obviously I'm an alien, not from this world." I keep things short and simple and show pride, making her think that I'm some sort of big shot. "I'm Blue Sails." She just gives me a quick glance back and says her name like it was just a piece of disinteresting stone you see every day. We start to move into a crowd of ponies, all looking like zombies. Heads low and ashamed that they are even alive. There are mainly ponies in the crowd, but there are also other species here too, griffins, zebras, an occasional minotaur, and even young dragons. They look older than Spike, but don't seem that old. The Dogs probably capture them at a young age or before they hatch and put them to work on day one. I don't even want to know what happens to them when they get to big. None of them seem to care about me. A grey pegasus with red hair that's been grown out and in tangles walks up to us. He has scars and bruises all over his body. He was the only one that didn't look like he lost his spirit. He held his head high and proud, kept a steady pace when he walked, not a shuffle like the others. He was the only one her that knew that he was alive. The only one that still knew what hope was. "Hey Sails." He says in, not a happy voice, more of a gentle one. One that a friend uses when they try and comfort you when you're down. Her mood seemed to change at his presence. Her walking got a little more up beet, and her eyes had emotion in them. "Oh, hi Jet." I didn't need light to know that she was blushing, or flustered. "Hey! Who, or what, is this?" He asks turning his attention to me. "Name's Jesse, I guess I'm Sails's room mate now." I address him. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jet Spark, biggest badass in these caves and soon to be biggest badass flier in the world once I get outta here!" I think R.D. has a competitor. "You used 'room' mate. Why didn't you use cell mate? You do realize that you're a slave like the rest of us, right?" "Hell no! I may be trapped down here with the rest of you. But I am by no means a slave. I'm gonna break out of this dump soon enough, and the rest are coming along." I play the confident role. If he does have hope like I think he does, that means we're going to get along perfectly. "Ha! Good luck. I've been trying that for years now, and I'm still here. And I'm still gonna get out of here! With another, whatever it is you are, our chances getting out have probably just increased. You, me, Sails, and everpony else in here. I was born in the clouds, I've lived in the clouds, and I plan to die in the clouds. Not here!" He sounds confident. So sure of himself. I'm glad to see that at least one here has hope left. We were given pickaxes to dig. Those that didn't have hands or magic where fitted with a sort of scoop that was fastened to their hooves or harnessed to pull big rusty carts, soon to be filled with gems. I take a spot beside Sails, while Jet has a half full cart strapped to him. We dig for whatever gems we can find and put them in the cart behind Jet. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, opals, everything. "So how'd you two end up here?" I ask them to pass the time. "Sails and I lived in Vanhoover, we knew each other since we were little. Didn't even have our marks yet. One day we decide to go on a road trip. You know, take a vacation, we were halfway through White Tail woods when we were ambushed. Diamond Dogs usually don't capture ponies often, guess we were in the 'more often' group. We were dragged in chains for several days until we were brought here. That was, three, four years ago." I whistle. "Four years. Damn." "We're not supposed to talk." Sails says in a low hush. "What? How Come?" "'Cause the Dogs hate it when we're being all cheery. If we disobey them then they'll throw us in the Pit." Jet doesn't lower his voice like Sails did, he's not fearing this 'Pit'. "No talking!" He gets whipped across his back from a guard that walks down the hall to monitor us and moves on. "So what's this Pit?" "It's supposed to be like a detention room or something. If you're too rowdy like myself then you get sent into a pitch black cave filled with hungry rats. They'll feed you worse stuff than they already feed us, that's actually possible. You'll be lucky if they don't piss on it, in my preference, the piss actually numbs the true taste of that glop." Jet answers me, still not afraid of the whip. "Ever been there?" I ask him a little curious. "Oh sure, a number of times. Most can't handle their first trip to it and stay docile out of fear after that. But me, I'm tough. They haven't broken me yet and they won't brake me now." He says proudly. "Guys, you really shouldn't be talking." Sails sees one of the guard's approach. The guard's ears twitch and he begins to growl. "No talking!" He lifts his arm up and whips Sails. She lets out a whimper of pain and starts working faster. As you would have guessed, I don't appreciate that. "He'y mutt! It was him and I talking, not her." Surprisingly enough, it wasn't me who said that. It was Jet. The Dog growls and whips Jet a few times. He doesn't recoil in pain, he doesn't let out a squeak of pain, he just stands there and takes it. I marvel at the amazement that he doesn't do anything when struck. He just takes it and stares hate at the Diamond Dog. The Dog saw that this was a losing battle, he turns to Sails who is furiously mining like her life depended on it, come to think of it, her life did depend on it. A wicked grin comes across his face. As two other guards pass by, he whips Sails. "Hey! I'm the one that deserves that, not her!" He yells and starts to get out of his harness. Only to be held down by the two other Dogs. He's forced to watches as his friend gets whipped because of his intolerance. And I... I stand by, letting them do as they please. Tears begin to roll down Sails's face as the whip tears through her hide. She finally lets out a scream of agony, giving the Diamond Dogs their pleasure. That does it. His arm comes up once more, ready to strike her again. The whip comes down soon to spill more blood. But I don't allow that. I extend my left arm, shielding her as the whip wraps around my arm tightly. "Piss off ya mongrel!" He's taken aback, surprised at my outburst. We have a tug-a-war for the whip, he's trying to reel me in, and I'm trying to stay away. My feet start skidding towards him, he's winning. Damn he's strong, can't last much longer. He'll get me soon. Wait... I stop resisting and jump at him, adding his own might to the push of my legs. I swing the pickaxe in my free hand and bring it right across his head. His helmet is knocked clean off and rings through the cave for everyone to see. They slow down work and begin paying attention to us. I land on top of the Dog, pinning him down. The other Dogs let go of Jet and tries getting me off the other one. "Hold!" I hear a familiar voice. Corig. "Let them proceed." He's letting me fight one of his Dog's? Fine by me. While he was still disorientated, I took my chance and started belting him across the face. One solid punch after another. He finally got fed up of me beating him up after I knock out a tooth of his. He grips the ground and digs his claws in to keep him anchored. He flips over and brings me with him, now I'm the one pinned. I put my arms in front of me as his fists come down on me. Damn Diamond Dogs are strong. The others howl and cheer him on as he pummels me. He swings wide for one punch, I block it before it makes contact with my face and ram my palm hard into his nose. I boop your god damn nose! He howls in pain and grabs his nose. I punch him in the stomach with all my might. I could just about see his eyes pop out of their sockets and uppercut him under the jaw. I climb out from under him and grab his fallen whip. A crack goes through the air as I whip it across his face, leaving a nasty scar on his left cheek. He whimpers.Another crack though the air and it ties around his neck and tightens, choking him. He tries loosening the grip to breath, I put my foot on his back and tighten the whip even more with both hands. He passes out and goes limp. But I don't let up, I don't stop. Something in me stirs, something that I felt once before on the first day in Equestria. When I found Discord's note. It was there again when I fought Nosferatu, not as noticeable, but I felt it. It felt creepy, but soothing, like it should be there. Like it was always there, I just never noticed it before. And I like it. I love it! And it scares me. "Hehehe, all right, that's enough." Corig gestures to two Dogs to pull me off the other. "Off to Pit with this one." One of the Dogs say with a mischievous smile. "No! Let him go." They look at Corig and then at each other. They let me go and pick up the unconscious one and drag him away. "Very nice. You turned the tide quickly. You certainly are an amusing one." He says to me. "Gee thanks. Hey that's a nice coat you have there. Think you can get me one?" I notice that he's wearing my red coat. He chuckles. "And a sense of humour, I'll enjoy having you around." "So why didn't you let them take me to the Pit?" "Mmm. You're interesting. I'd hate to see you begging us to let you out of there so soon." He puts his chin on his overlapped hands resting on his spear. "Besides, I want to keep a close eye on you." I pick up a pickaxe. "You better keep two eyes on me. Because the moment you look away." I strike the stone surface hard. Pebbles chip off. "You're getting one of these in your back." He grunts and walks off. I start digging beside Blue Sails again. "Thank you." She wipes tears out of her eyes. "No problem. What are friends for?" I give her a generous smile. "That was awesome dude. You gotta teach me how to do that." Jet is bruised and bloodied, but fine all around. "Hey, when we get out of here, I'll teach all of you."