//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen: Pit // Story: The Element of Willpower // by Redwolf15 //------------------------------// Chapter Thirteen Pit Is it possible for a slave to gain respect from his captors? Because that's what seems to have happened to me. Some Diamond Dogs will howl or pat my back like you would a team mate whenever I pass by. Is it because I was able to kick that one dog's ass by myself? Maybe. My daily routine consists of a few hours of sleep, start digging, mouth off, and get beaten. Fun. Corig sticks around and watches me most of the time whenever I'm digging. He won't tell me anything. Where my weapons are, where the Dragon Lord is, or won't give me another chance at convincing him to help us defeat Discord. He honestly doesn't know who Discord is. Well, I doubt they're very educated, bet you they can't even make a simple math equation. I can picture it now. 'What's 2+2=?' 'Um.... chicken?' Heh-heh-heh. Probably true. "Get moving!" A whip cracks through the air and a griffin whimpers. They just won't let up. What I don't understand is why do they even have slaves? Diamond Dogs are stronger and better diggers than any of us. Plus they constantly have to 'motivate' us to work harder, then work to keep us alive. Seriously, too much of a hassle to keep slaves. Jet and I won't shut up, which ends with us getting whipped, Blue Sails stays docile out of fear, and the Diamond Dogs are still jerks. More fun. "So what was it like for you two before coming here?" I ask my new pair of friends. "Well, Sails and I had fun causing trouble just about ever day when we were still little." Jet pipes up. He gets daggers glared at him by Sails. "Err.... Well, maybe it was just me who cause trouble and Sails had to bust me out of it each time. But it was harmless jokes and accidents, I mean, I didn't know that it was the mayor that was going to be there. He never looked at fish the same way after that. I found a new passion when I got my mark, racing. It's so much fun to feel the wind pass you, the adrenaline, the thrill, whoo. Love it. But never gave up my antics, they sort of... progressed. But why don't we skip a few years." A whip gets him along the side and his wings stand up. He never saw that one coming. The dog just growled menacingly and moved on. "Anyway, I stopped my pranks after a terrible accident that I don't want to talk about that, so I stuck to racing only. Sails and I rented an apartment together, places aren't cheap in the city. Tried my hoof at the Wonderbolts, but they were too slow for my liking." He shifts his eyes left. He buzzed out didn't he? "And so life went on. Had fun, got a job, so on so forth. Then Sails and I made enough dough to travel for a few weeks and took it. Lookit' us now." "Sounds pretty cool." "And what about you? What was it like for you?" "Kind of boring. I could never find a challenge in the world. School, sports, music, you name it and I beat it. I lost all interest in the world making me detached from everything else. Got into a lot of fights because of a bad attitude, but my parents were always supportive no matter what happened to me. I only had one friend in my life, Markus. I don't know what it was about him but no matter what happened he never left my side. At first I was an asshole to him, didn't want him around, but he always kept coming back to try and be friends. Eventually I gave in because I was tired off telling him to piss off, guess it was the best choice I ever made. I began having fun again, but I was still pretty bored of the rest of the world, but a least with Markus it made things bearable. One day he suggests we should hang out for an entire weekend and I say yes. Afterwords I meet some guy saying he can send me somewhere else. I thought he was crazy and decide to play along." "No talking!" I get whipped across my back, adding another scar to the bunch. The dog walks away after thinking he got the point out. "Turns out he was crazy," I continue on, "but he also told the truth about sending me here. I wake up in a forest, almost die on the first day, get saved by a new friend, and I go on an adventure to explore this world and try to get home. Don't get me wrong, this place is great, I just never actually expected to come here and I'm probably missing back home. Later find out that it was Discord who brought me here and now he's ruling Equestria. So I and a few others are off to try and get others to help us defeat him. Diamond Dogs being one of them which is why I'm here. Now my companions are probably looking for me and the Cave, hopefully they don't come here. Hopefully they don't get captured." "Wow that's....something." Jet says not sure what else to say. We begin digging for a while, not quietly, but we would dig. Four Diamond Dogs walk up to us, a very familiar one looking kind of pissed at me. "You come. Prime Alpha see now." He points at me. "No thanks, tell him I have work to do." I antagonize them. The first one growls deeply and grabs my neck in his giant paws. Looking me in the face. "No argue. You come!" He has anger in his eyes. "Screw you." I gasp for breath. "You can get me to dig and hold me here against my will. But if that mongrel want's to see me, tell him to pop by. He knows where I'll be." The Diamond Dog holding me brings back a fist, ready to hit me with everything he has. Only to be stopped by one of the other dogs. "You hear Prime Alpha. No hurt." He stares at the one holding his arm and back at me. Conflicted to disobeying his leader and getting even with me. He gives in and lowers his fist and sets me down. I massage the tender spot, catching my breath. "You come. Please." The one that stopped the other dog from punching me says. I push past them and start walking down the tunnel they came from, the four following close behind. I see the other slaves as we pass by. All dreary, dead, and afraid. But above all, hopeless. They saw themselves working down here for the rest of their lives, however long they have. It was sad is what it was. We come to two large iron doors. I was blinded by the bright light inside as they opened. As my eyes adjusted I saw that it was just like the rest of the cave, but with more lighting and a mountain of gems to the side. Corig was sitting on a crudely carved throne that looked like it was once a massive emerald, female dogs were laying around it. "Ah, glad to see you came. Would have visited like usual, but I had... business." He said that last word with emphasis as he scratched under the chin of one of the females. "Right, well what is it you want from me?" I ask him. "My guards have overheard you saying that came from another world. Is that true?" He gets off his emerald throne. "Maybe. What of it?" Before he responds there is a loud roar of anger. Corig growls and points to some dogs. "Shut him up!" The six of them go through two even larger iron doors to where the roar came from. I didn't have to guess what made that. It was the Dragon Lord. He's still alive. Good. "While that's being taken care of, why don't you tell me where you came from." "How about no. Don't feel like having story time right now. How about when I and the rest of the slaves are free and you decide to help? Maybe then I'll tell you. Fair deal?" He stares at me for a while, then laughs when he realizes I'm serious. "I keep telling you. I do not know about this Discord fellow you keep talking about, and even if I did, what business does he have with us? He does not bother us, we will not bother him. But if I was miss informed, was it not him who sent you here?" He asks with gleam in his eyes. "Yeah, he sent me here. Why?" "One with such power can make a wonderful ally. Think about it. With his power we can dig this world dry of its riches, then get him to send us to a new world. One young and ripe for the picking. Just ready to be harvested of its tasty gems." "No! You can't do that. That is just what he would want from you. You'd be causing chaos here and other worlds, it's just what he wants. He thinks of no one but himself. He will eventually bother you, torment your kind. Might be in a few weeks, a few months, or a few years. But one day your dogs or descendants will look back to this day and curse you for not taking action when you could have. But you can stop it, please, help us defeat him now, before it is too late." He stares at me with hard and cold eyes. "I tire of your pleading and begging. I have been kind to you. You won't give me what I want to know. You say he wants chaos, we want gems. We can help each other. Now get him out of my sight." Two dogs walk up, ready to take me back to the tunnel to dig for them. So he won't help. He'll side with Discord. That's it then. We'll have to do it with out him. And I need to get out. One puts his paw on my left shoulder. I push back in a quick motion and ram my elbow into his gut, underneath the protective armour. He lets out a gasp of pain as I grab his spear in my right hand and swing it into the other guard's face. I turned around and grabbed it in both hands and gabbed the butt into the first one's helmet, disorientating them both. I jump towards Corig, gaining momentum as I thrust the sharp end of the spear at him. I was too slow to get him and the spear just cut across the right side of his chest, nothing too deep but it probably stung. I sweep at his legs to trip him, sadly he's faster than he looks and jumps well ahead in time. He punches at me, I was only just able to dodge as his fist passes over my head. He was close enough for his fur to rub up against my face. I crouch low to gain balance and thrust the spear up into his gut. He jumps back before the tip can pierce him. I jump towards him, the spear held high and bringing it down. But he catches it. The son of a bitch caught it! He bites off the metal tip, chews it into tiny pieces and rips the rest of it out of my hands. I receive a solid back hand to the face and fall over. Next thing I know I have six other spears pointed at my face and another four on my back. Shit. I'm picked up and faced to Corig. He wipes some blood off him "Congratulations," he licks at the blood, "you just earned a trip to the Pit." He punches me in the gut. Hard. I gasp for air that doesn't enter. "Get him out of here." I'm dragged through the tunnels and thrown into a damp dark cave. Not much of a pit really. There was a small hole at the top that reached to the outside. First time seeing daylight in a few days. They close the iron door behind me, laughing menacingly. The door had claw marks and puncture holes on it, evidence of others before me trying to get out. "Well, might as well get comfy while I'm here." Day One Well the place sucks. There are rats that constantly try nipping me, it's small and jagged all around. Everywhere is damp so I can't find a dry spot, and Jet is right, they do piss in whatever glop they give us. And I'm kind of ashamed to say that I ate it. What? It was either that or starve and let the rats have me. No thank you. I trickle of water landed on me. It came from the hole up top. Hey, why does it smell like-? "Aw hell! Are you serious?" I moved out of the way and saw a Diamond Dog laugh at me as he finishes his business. Great pissed on food, and pissed on. Wait, am I gonna get pissed water too? Oh god. Day Two Still sucks down here. Still getting pissed on. And very bored. Nothing to do down here but avoid the piss and kick some rats. At least they had you doing something when you weren't locked up. The night and day cycle seems to have gotten worse. No surprise there. Day Five Seriously! It sucks down here! I actually prefer digging for gems for hours on end than do this for another day. Day Eight My defecations have begun piling up in a corner. Smells terrible down here and absolutely filthy. I'm going to kill Corig when I get out. Day Thirteen Rats. Rats rats rats rats rats rats rats. Dead. All rats are dead. Killed them. They got too annoying. The survivors know not to mess with me. If you can call them survivors. Wonder if rats taste better than the glop they feed me? Day Seventeen ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Day Twenty How long have I been down here? I think my sanity is slowly slipping away. Or I'm trying to pass the time by pretending to be crazy. Because if I'm pretending then I don't think I am any longer. Will I die here? If I die here, what will happen afterwards? Will I be sent home? Or will I have gone missing, never to have been found again? I lay face first in the wet stone. The iron doors open. "He dead?" I hear a familiar growl voice. A Diamond Dog. He come closer and pokes me with a stick. The poking stick, the most scientific invention since ever. I give a low grunt. "Nope. Not dead." His friend replies. "Let's get back to cage. He not look tough no more." They pick me up and drag me out of the Pit. Thank God for small miracles, right? I don't struggle as they drag me. I don't look up and see the expressions of the other slaves. I'm dead. Dead inside. I'm thrown into my cage and the two dogs laugh as they close the bars. "Jesse?" I know that voice. Sails, Blue Sails. She lifts me up and put my head over her shoulder. Embracing me tightly. "I thought I lost you." Concern in her voice and tears in her eyes. "I thought they had killed you. They never told us what happened to you. We were so worried. Oh Celestia, they broke you didn't they? You're just like the rest of us. You're dead inside aren't you?" She holds me tighter."Of everypony here I thought that it would have been you and Jet to never back down. Always stay strong. And one day give us hope. And they broke you." "Sails... " I give a low hush. A quiet whisper. I pull away from her and look her in the eyes. And she looks back into my eyes. "We're getting out of here." I look into her eyes, and she looks back into mine. My eyes, so full of confidence and hope. So strong and fierce. So powerful. They haven't broken me. They won't break me! And they. Will. Pay!