//------------------------------// // Life Lessons // Story: Where Are The Ponies? // by Warmaisach //------------------------------// Jetty wasn’t sure how she could get out of that, this time. Stupid! Why did she even think that they remembered some silly kind of promise that a random pink mare invented over a thousand years ago? Twinky Green was waiting for an answer, her face still showing the shocked expression. Jetty only smiled in nervousness. Purple Tip only raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t sure what either of them just said. Sacrificially oath? Cupcakes in eyes? Shaking his head, he walked to the front and moved one of his hooves in a strange manner. “Wow wow wow. What are we talking about?” He turned to Twinky. “I thought she just said some random stuff. Does what she said, actually make sense?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. The green unicorn sighed once, her expression being one of uncertainty. “Yes, she recited a part of a secret oath. Sadly, I can’t tell you more about it. It’s secret,” Twinky told him with dropped ears and a look to the ground. Sighing, the purple guard dismissed this. Suddenly, Twinky’s expression changed to seriousness, and she turned to Jetty. Again, she couldn’t contain a gulp. “This oath is secret and only the most trusted ponies of the princess and the goddess know of it,” she explained, and her face came near Jetty’s. “Now comes the question, how do you know of it?” She narrowed her eyes. Jetty continued smiling in nervousness. She had to come up with some kind of explanation for this, but what could she say? There had to be a way to get out of this. “Eh, ancient books?” Jetty ‘asked’ with a nervous smile. The glare of the green pony intensified. If this continues, she will get found out. “That doesn’t work this time. How did you know about this?” Twinky bellowed with an aggressive voice. Celestia couldn’t find a way to dodge anymore. She had to make this with a different approach. With a sigh, she finally answered. “Sorry, but… I can’t tell you.” The head of Twinky went back with a skeptical expression. “What do you mean, you can’t tell us?” Her tone was beyond annoyed and bordered now on angry. “You can’t just say ‘I can’t tell you’.” Jetty sighed again. “But I still do. Sorry, but I can’t tell you.” After a short break, she added one last thing. “Right now.” While the green unicorn still looked skeptical and somewhat angry at Jetty, Purple Tip also wanted to partake in the discussion. “So, you say that you can tell us, but not right now?” Jetty looked him into the eyes and slowly nodded in defeat. “When?” Jetty looked around the room, and then sighed again. “When we are out of this prison and in safety.” Her voice sounded defeated, well Celestia planned to tell them anyway at some point, but right now, she can’t afford to get found out. If they would know that Celestia was capable of different kinds of magic, and they would slip up, the nargians would subdue her and imprison her in a cell, which could suppress her power. The two ponies continued looking at her with unconvinced stares. Looking into each other’s eyes, it seemed like they had a silent conversation. After a short while, Purple Tip looked back to Jetty. “Alright.” He held out a hoof for Jetty to grab since she moved back that much that she lay on the floor. Slowly, she took the hoof and pulled herself up. “But you will answer us when we are in safety!” He told her with a dangerous voice and narrowed eyes. Jetty only nodded. Celestia was not afraid of them since they are only mortals, but her conscience felt kind of hurt after telling them off like that. Suddenly, Jetty perked up. “So, you had an escape plan?” She asked, hoping for an answer. The two ponies looked at each other and nodded once. Purple Tip walked over to her, and just when he wanted to explain their escape plan, something knocked at the chitin door. All the ponies looked over to the door, and shortly after, it opened. Out of the door, came three nargian guards. They looked like every other nargian, except for their weapons. The weapons looked like some kind of dog-catcher device, but instead for ponies. One of the guards stepped forward and addressed the ponies with his buzzy voice. “Time for work, slaves.” Jetty looked to the other ponies, and they only nodded to her once, telling her that they will talk later. Then, they slowly walked to the door, the guard making space for them. Celestia wasn’t sure where she should go, so she simply followed Twinky. The guards came at a wrong time, but it also was good that they came. She still needed to look at the surroundings in order to find potential escape routes, if the plan of her “friends” sucked. They walked through a hallway, which was made out of the typical red goo and black chitin. The black chitin floor felt cold, even more than stone or rock. The red walls looked somewhat warm, and if Rarity would still be alive, she would probably gag at the sight of goo, sliming down a wall. After some minutes of walking, they stepped “outside”. It was still hard to call the interior of a cave outside. Celestia recognized the structure of this part of the cave as the second cave. It was the cave with the facilities and the prisons. In comparison to the worker-caves, this one was way smaller. What surprised her, were the vast amounts of ponies walking around the street. Every kind of pony was present, and all of them were working. Some had easier tasks while others had harder ones. The pegasi were allowed to fly, in order for them to be able to “coat” the cave walls. The walls of the cave were also covered with that red sludge, and this red sludge needed maintenance. It would hold for a long time without, but then it wouldn’t be as slimy and warm as the nargians want it to be. Also, they wouldn’t know what to do with the amounts of slaves they got in this city. The unicorns and earth ponies had to work on the ground. Some were ordered to clean the streets or buildings while other ones were made to personal slaves of some nargians, carrying luggage and some even had to get ridden by them. To say that Celestia’s heart broke, when she saw the demise of her little ponies, would be an understatement. How could they have so much bad luck? Jetty got poked in the back because she stopped moving. “Move it!” The guard yelled, and Celestia turned around. She looked angrily in his eyes. In her stay in the multiverse, she changed. Anger wasn’t an emotion that should be avoided at any point. Anger was ok, as long as it was appropriate, and her anger right now seemed to be more appropriate than ever before. How dare they treat her ponies like this? The guard didn’t know what happened. He thought he was looking into the eyes of a helpless pony slave, but somehow he felt afraid of this one. It felt like someone would hold a blade to his throat the entire time. He felt like this slave had his life in her hoof. Out of fear, he didn’t move at all, hoping that this creepy feeling would subside. Celestia seriously considered ending this guard’s life just to calm her anger, but she knew that she would get found out by the other guards. She wouldn’t have any chance if the whole cave would be on her tail. Sighing, she walked forward and complied with the guard’s earlier command. The guard followed her, hoping that this feeling hasn’t been produced by this slave. “Psst!” Jetty heard from her right, and without moving her head, she looked to her left. Purple Tip wanted to gain her attention, and Jetty slowly tilted her head, indicating that he had it. While no guard was looking, he indicated with his right front hoof to some part of the cave. “You see that hole near the ceiling of the cave?” He asked her with a whisper. Jetty looked over and saw an exit at the height of around 100 meters at a wall of the cave. Nargians always built their exits on that height, since they all could fly. “This is the exit we will take.” Jetty tilted an eyebrow. Purple Tip saw this and rolled his eyes. “Our plan is to somehow escape the prison, and fly up there.” He looked around to see if someone was spying on them. He happily noted that no one should be able to hear him. “When we get back into prison, the guards place flying restrictions on us pegasi, but that won’t work on me. I’ve got an abnormal wing strength, meaning I’ve got enough power to strengthen my wings to fake that the bindings are tight. Then I simply loosen up my wings, and I am able to slip out of the bindings. I would be able to carry both of you up there, but first we need to find a way to get out of the cells.” He explained to her, and Celestia was bewildered by the ingenious and the stupidity of the plan, at the same time. The plan “We escape and fly out there” just sounded, simply put, stupid, but the idea of escaping the wing-restraints seemed truly original. Jetty nodded to him, indicating that she understood what he told her. The walk continued without further conversation until the guards and the slaves split up. Celestia was being navigated to a plaza while Tip was released from his restraints, and was ordered to smear the cave walls. Twinky was ordered to get to her “personal master”. Apparently, one particular nargian saw her one day and decided to make her his mount, saying that her green coat reminded him of those filthy plants on the surface of the planet. He liked dirtying the filthy plants, so he also liked dirtying Twinky. Whenever she fell down into some kind of puddle of red goo that fell down from the ceiling, he would laugh at her and would whip her to stand up. She probably had it the worst out of the slaves. Suddenly, a bucket with dirty water and a broom where thrown to Jetty. “Clean.” He simply ordered with a neutral voice. Jetty looked around, not seeing a floorcloth. “Where is the floorcloth?” She asked with an annoyed voice. The anger inside her was too strong to play the helpless victim. If the guard had an eyebrow he would crook it, but instead his chitin made a movement that indicated that one of his muscles over his eyes were strengthened. One could see that he “raised an eyebrow”. “You got hooves. Use them!” He ordered her again, and Celestia gritted her teeth. Hooves are exceptionally strong and can endure hours of walking, but with rubbing movements, they could get damaged. If a hoof gets rubbed at the floor, it’s possible to chafe it. The hoof could get irritated and could also get infected. There were a lot of staying illnesses that could come from that. She looked around the other scrubbing slaves and noted that they all washed the chitin with their hooves. Using a sight enhancing spell, she investigated their hooves closer and saw that many of them were red and some of them even yellow with bacteria. They had to be in immense pain. Ending her spell again, she made one deep sigh. She couldn’t lose control now. There was still a chance to rescue her ponies, but for that to succeed, she needed to remain calm. Being irritated by the slave’s tardiness, the guard walked over to her and put one of his chitin-claws on her back. Celestia’s anger flamed up again, and she couldn’t control herself this time. Feeling her back being touched, she did something to the guard. The guard shoved Jetty to the front. “Get to work!” He ordered, and Jetty slowly stood up. Walking to the bucket, she picked it up in her mouth and put the broom on the back. When she walked away from the guard, she had a smile on her face. Back when the guard touched her, he didn’t close his magical receptors, meaning that Celestia had free reign over all the magical energy in his body. When Aren explained this concept to her, back when he battled Nifret, she got enthralled by it and was able to learn it not even five days later. It certainly was an easy concept. What she did to the guard was nothing that can be overlooked. She transformed a large part of his magic into pure fire but surrounded it with a time spell. The time spell would vanish in about three days and would release the fire in him. The disgusting bug would blow up into an explosion, and the explosion wouldn’t be small. If he was on the right spot, it was possible for him to take 10 more guards to, whatever it is where they think their souls go after death. Yes, Celestia changed. After she visited the most brutal and disgusting of worlds, she slowly began to accept Aren’s way of thinking. He was her master, and she knew that she had to learn from him. After 500 years of nearly constant battling against the most foul and disgusting of villains, she was used to killing something. After this time, she seemed to totally forget that every action she took would sniff out a life. Maybe even a life of someone that had to be like this because of desperate reasons. Yet, she justified such actions with the reasoning that it didn’t matter why they did what they did. As long as they endangered the lives of innocent, they needed to be dealt with. This kind of thinking pattern enabled a lot of dimensions to live with exceedingly little crime and war, but it also scared the innocent. They were scared of doing something against the law, even though they didn’t want to. But Celestia wasn’t heartless. This whole thinking pattern only applied to people that would continue doing dirty deeds. If someone was obviously forced into something or had some kind of psychological illness, she would still forgive them, as long as they promise to never do it again/to get treatment against it. Celestia could be cold and heartless, but she only was it when it was needed. She learned that when she tried to save one bandit that screamed for help. He was falling down a cliff, and she flew under him to save him. He thanked her, but when he saw her saddle-bags full of coins, he tried to stab her. Celestia only survived this encounter due to Aren not being as reckless as her to that time. He already knew how wretched some beings could be. Celestia asked herself this question a long time. How could someone be this squalidly? She still knew what Aren told her at this day. “Be friendly and compassionate, but be also careful. Being friendly can create a warm atmosphere between two beings, but there are a lot of people who abuse this. In order to not get reckless, you need to look at everyone as if they tried to backstab you. If they never make any indications of betrayal, you can let your guard slowly down but never fully. Always be ready for some kind of explosion or attack, and never turn your back on someone you don’t know.” Celestia always remembered this speech. It saved her life a lot of times before. “Stop scrubbing and get back to your cell!” She heard from her left. Jetty’s eyes widened. How long was she scrubbing already? Depending on her inner clock, she saw that she already scrubbed for ten hours. It didn’t feel like that at all. Looking around the plaza, she saw that the other ponies slowly hobbled back to their cells. Every step of them resonated in Celestia, and she wished nothing more than to just free all of them right now, but she sadly didn’t have the power. Slowly, she followed the way the guard indicated for her to go. After several minutes, she was back at her cell, and she still was angry beyond belief. The two other inmates in her cell saw her with the bad temper and looked worriedly at each other. Purple Tip knew how she felt right now. He didn’t feel any different the first time he saw the plaza. “Jetty, are you-“ “Can you slip out of your restraints right now?” She interrupted Purple Tip with an impatient voice. The two other ponies were a little taken aback by the new behavior of the new pony. What happened to the shy mare from before? Tip only sighed once. “I know how you feel, but there is no use in-“ “Can you slip out?!” She asked with anger in her voice, and the purple pegasus only moved a step back, being surprised by the sudden outburst. After he calmed down, he shook his head. “No, I didn’t want to risk the trick being found out.” He explained. Jetty’s eyes narrowed, and some kind of lightning shot out from her body to his wing restraints. Another bolt shot out and flew at Twinky’s horn restraint. The two ponies gasped and protected their eyes from the light. When they didn’t feel any pain, they opened their eyes. Twinky’s eyes widened in shock. “What- How- Why- What did you do?” She asked with a panicked voice, and Jetty only turned around to the door. “I destroyed your restraints, and now step back.” The two ponies instantly looked at their restraints, and saw that they vanished. Nothing black could be seen anymore on Twinky’s horn and Tip’s wings. They both looked at each other, hoping that the other one had an answer for this. Sadly, the other one didn’t have one. Suddenly, they heard a boom from the door, and when they looked over to Jetty, they saw how the door was utterly obliterated. Both looked at Jetty with horror in their eyes, their jaws hitting the floor. Jetty turned around. “Are you coming or not?” She asked with an angry tone.