I awoke in the morning with soreness as a companion. It came as a surprise to me, and I couldn’t help but groan as I sat up and massaged my aching wings. Sweet Celestia, I was stupid.
Geoff was already awake, padding around the camp. Upon hearing my groan, he looked at me and gave a goofy grin. “I suppose you didn’t think of the fact that you’d been flying all day and never previously flown in your life.”
I waved a claw at him, brushing him off. My wings HURT. I didn’t think I’d be doing any flying that day at all. I looked around and saw Robin shaking herself awake. “Where to today?” She asked.
“Continue north, I guess,” I responded. “Hope we find something soon.” I stretched. Ugh, moving my wings at all was painful. “I do believe I’ll be walking with you two today.”
Geoff snorted. “You’ll probably scare anyone we come across.”
I gave him a dirty look, and we gathered ourselves up. I kicked some dirt on the fire, and then we were off. The dirt path that led (sort of) north was quite wide, easily wide enough for the three of us, even when one of us was a dragon. After walking a while, I found that my tail swung back and forth quite a bit and with a lot of force, so I made sure never to have Geoff or Robin behind me. We were silent most of the time – there wasn’t much to be said. Just walk, get to where we were going.
The trees were pleasantly changing, one of the few happy parts about autumn. The forest was full of color, and it only looked more so with the cartoon-esque feel. Such a pure world. Untainted by the reach of civilization, it seemed the world was a happy place. That’s not to say the people on Earth can’t be happy, it’s just that it felt easier to just let go of my worries in Equestria. Or whatever this world was called.
Of course, this happy feeling was quite fleeting. It left me again to focus on Sam and Chrissie – I may not owe anything to them, but they were aliens as well, and could be in danger.
It was at this point that we spotted a small wagon far ahead. On a whim, I breathed out a word and changed into Pony form, faltering just a bit as I adjusted to the new shape. Neither of my companions said anything and just gave me a quick glance. I stretched my wings, noting that they were still just as sore. Well, then.
As we got closer to the wagon, I could see that something was wrong. One of the ponies in the back was clutching a hoof, and a zebra in front of it, pulling it, looked awfully hungry. Once in range, I spoke up. “Hello! Are you okay?”
The zebra stopped, and two ponies came out from behind the cart. A cyan stallion approached us, fixing me with a strange look.
“We’re just escaped slaves on our way to Hoofington,” he intoned, sounding tired. I’m not sure how my face looked just then, but he took a step back.
Slavers.
“Where.”
“Um… ah, well, Hoofington is-“
“Not that. Where are the slavers?” I could feel Geoff’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head.
Hearing my tone, the stallion blanched, noticeably losing color. “Base of Snowpeak.”
“Where is Snowpeak?”
“Biggest mountain in the Hoofington County.” He pointed a hoof at a mountain to the northeast. “We’ve been walking ‘bout half a day. Nasty dogs.”
Diamond dogs. Figured. It’s always them.
“Hoofington’s nearly two days out. Just go south,” I said to him, then started forward on the path again. I heard the wagon start moving.
“Jason,” Geoff said behind me. I stopped and looked at him. “You can’t seriously be thinking of going to those slaving dogs and killing them.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“Going to kill them, I mean.”
“What?”
“They’re slavers, Geoff. I’m going to destroy them and their operation.”
“What? You haven’t been a dragon a week and now you’re going after experienced fighters in order to save people you don’t even know? What the hell!”
“I can’t sit by and let it happen, not while I have the power to save them. If I walk by this, I’ll just be like any other enabler.”
Geoff shook his head, mane flying about. “No! We’ve gotta get ourselves established, hopefully find the other girls, then maybe we can help out like this.”
“And how much suffering will be perpetuated in the meantime? No. If I’m going to live here, I want better neighbors.”
Geoff narrowed his eyes at me. “If you’re going to be like that… I hope to see you in Manehattan.” Geoff walked off, tail swishing. My eyes wandered to the antlers on his legs, and I figured he’d be okay. I gave Robin a look.
She seemed torn. “Robin, whatever you decide is fine. My path is likely to be far more dangerous.”
After a moment’s deliberation, she frowned. “Geoff may need help. If he gets attacked on the road…”
I nodded and walked into the trees toward Snowpeak Mountain, not looking back. Just a couple of days in and I’d already alienated my companions. But this was too important. I swore to myself long ago… what I swore was unimportant. But this would not stand. With just a moment’s thought, I whispered out a word and swapped my form yet again with that of a dragon’s and pushed through the forest. I worked at my wings, hoping to alleviate some of the soreness.
I didn’t think it was a stretch to say that I was in a foul mood. I stomped through the forest, away from the path, toward the mountain. I tried to cut out my thoughts as I approached the behemoth, instead trying to focus on what I was going to do. I really, REALLY didn’t want to get in a big fight. If possible, I hoped to scare the dogs into submission.
As I got closer to Snowpeak (real original name), I began to get whiffs of something… quite unpleasant. I really hoped that it wasn’t the slave camp, but I wasn’t going to assume anything. I quit the quick, thrashing movements and started to slowly stalk forward, hoping to pick out signs of life before I was discovered.
Hell, what was I going to say? Hey, I’m gonna ask you to let all your slaves go, how’s that sound? Oh, some escapees told me you were… wait. Those escaped slaves seemed awfully casual about it. Seriously, how does that work? You’re a slave, and you escape, and you just go about your business? How hostile was this world, exactly?
I’d thought Equestria was paradise, but Chaos had told us to throw that view away. Why hadn’t I? Was I still hoping beyond hope that perhaps, just maybe this world could be kinder than Earth? That maybe things could be better?
Just because I had a new start doesn’t mean that my surroundings were new. If this world was filled with shit… then I’m just going to have to change it.
Moving forward slowly, I eventually came upon the ending of the tree line. Shadows were short, so I stayed in a thicker bundle of trees to keep my bulk hidden. Peering forward, I took stock.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to take in. There was a large wall built with spiked tree trunks, with three towers in sight. Each tower had a Diamond Dog guard, and all three of them seemed alert.
‘Guard must have changed recently…’
I inched forward, thinking of a way through. Dragons aren’t built for stealth. With a moment’s thought, I decided on a quick plan – to break my way in and hope for the best.
Yeah, great “plan.” I’m not a strategist, and I honestly put things into the hands of Fate far more often than I truly should. With a great shout (I kind of like how loud I can be now) I burst from the trees, crossing the open ground to the wall. As the dogs began to send the alert, I raked my claws across the wood, damaging the wall.
That wasn’t working, so I breathed a small gout of flame onto the surface. Even breathing in for the blast was unpleasant, because the rank smell was so pervasive.
I felt the first impact quite clearly – something smashed into my right shoulder. Sparing a glance, an arrow had bounced off one of my scales. I shoved a clawed fist into the burning timbers, and tore at them. Weakened by my silvery fire, they came apart easily. I jumped through the hole I made, and I stopped short.
Nearly all over the little compound (which, I noted dispassionately, had several entrances to caves inside the mountain) were ponies and dogs of differing varieties. What got me to stop my motion, however, was a single emaciated little colt staring at me next to a pegasus mare, eyes quivering in fear.
I couldn’t make any judgments right there, but dozens of different reasons for his behavior ran through my head. However, I quickly chose the most logical one:
A dragon was attacking his home.
I made sure to give him exactly that impression. I roared as some of the dogs assembled together, pointing spears at me. I felt several more arrows hit my side.
I sneered and put on a malevolent face. “Bring whoever runs this sorry camp out here. Now.”
Instead of answering, one off to the side threw his spear at me like a javelin. I looked at it and swatted it aside. How to show I meant business without resorting to killing anyone? A show of force?
Force.
I focused on the one who had thrown the spear and voiced a single word after bringing my ‘will’ to bear.
“Fus!”
A burst of motion shot from me and hit the dog straight-on. He sailed through the air and hit a wall. I was relieved to see him begin to rub his head as he slid down it in an almost comical manner.
“Who else wants to play?”
None of the dogs did anything, and I took the opportunity to look around. Many of the ponies had gathered around the entrances to the caves in the mountain, and were looking at me in abject terror. I couldn’t really blame them, but I hoped I could gain their trust.
“Now. Go get your leader, or Alpha, or whatever leads your sorry bunch.”
One of the dogs loped off inside the mountain, leaving me to face off with the dogs. My ears, much more sensitive than they had been when I had been a human picked up the sound of several combatants moving behind me. I flared my wings out, spreading a huge gust of air that knocked over some of the carts in the opening.
Some of the carts held gems, while some seemed to hold ores. All of them led back into the mountain, and I had to assume they went somewhere. Maybe they were sold to smugglers, or launderers, or any number of people.
Eventually, the dog that had loped into the mountain came back out with a styled-looking yellow Earth Pony stallion.
I narrowed my eyes. I had suspected some sort of devious Alpha dog, but I had not even thought a pony would enslave his own kind like that. I shouldn’t have been surprised at that, given humans’ willingness to commit that same atrocity among ourselves.
“I would like to know what a literate dragon is doing inside the walls of a sanctioned institution,” the stallion spoke. He had a commanding voice, a voice that was used to getting what it demanded. In other words, he spoke like he owned the world and didn’t give a damn what you thought about it. I didn’t like him already.
“If by sanctioned you mean ready for demolition, then I’ll have you know that I’m the one who’s going to destroy this operation.”
The pony laughed, his styled mane shaking. “I run the biggest mining operation in Hoofington county, no, the entire northeast. I hardly believe that anyone would want that shut down.”
My mind was going a million thoughts a minute. Sanctioned? This operation was known?
Equestria willingly allowed slavery?
What?