//------------------------------// // 5 - In the Dark // Story: The Everglow of a Twilight Sunset // by David Silver //------------------------------// She was in a place full of fire. Wherever Twilight turned, someone was dying. Gnolls with wicked smiles and sharpened blades cut down the small ponies, each time looking at her with an awful smile. She would be next. Every time she ran, another got cut down, and she got that look. She would be next. A gnoll rose from the ground in front of her, pick raised high. "Stupid pony!" It swung the weapon down with all its brutish strength. Twilight jerked awake with a shudder, tears flowing with the memory of the massacre she had survived. "Did I rouse you?" Roll was there. She was dimly visible in the light. "We should speak. If our captors continue to trust us, today we make our move. I only require you to follow my lead. Stay close." Twilight shivered, remembering the small pony she had told the same to, but she had been powerless to help them. Was she the powerless one? Yes. Yes, she was. Or so she decided after a moment of thought. She reached into the darkness and gently nudged Sunset. Sunset nodded in the dark. "I'm already awake. I heard." She sat up and stretched slowly. "Ugh, I don't suppose... there's a laundry day?" "Negative. The likelihood of laundering, especially for slaves, is vanishingly tiny." Roll raised a brow. "Unless you have magic, we are stuck with the raiments we arrived in." Did Roll have clothes? Twilight looked over the metal pony to confirm that she had some, covering her chest and front, but nothing over her flank or back sections at all. Curious... "Is that what you normally wear?" "For the dance, yes." Roll smoothly slid to her hooves. "Come, they will be coming for us soon." They had been working for... it was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed, but they were apparently 'good'. They were largely left alone and trusted to get to work when they were told, so the screams of hit ponies didn't come from them. Twilight didn't like it. But she liked the idea of being the one taking the whip even less, so she was good and worked and wished she had her hands back. It was bad enough digging every day, but doing it with her neck? She was surprised she hadn't broken something. A gem gnoll entered their small cave and squinted at them. "Big job today. Dangerous. Do good, reward. Do bad, dead." He shrugged and turned around. In silence, the three followed after him. There were other groups being led in the same direction, but none of them spoke. None dared. To speak was to invite that whip. Twilight had dared once, only once... Her snout still stung from where the scaled whip had dug into her and tore free some fur along the way. They were quiet. They were led to what felt like lower. They went down several rough ramps until they arrived where the gnoll wanted. "Something in the air killed last diggers. You do good so far. You dig, no die. Get at least ten gems before lunch." He nodded firmly. "Ten gems, or lashes, one for each missing. No lashes all day, reward." The 'reward' typically consisted of a meal worth having instead of the paltry servings they typically offered. Roll had won the reward whenever offered and always gave it to Twilight or Sunset. Twilight and Sunset, not so lucky. They had avoided being punished, but they weren't fast or durable enough to find gems and to make the quotas consistently. Only luck allowed them to find big enough gems to make the gnolls happy. The hyena laughed to himself as he walked away, leaving them to their work. Roll moved to a wall and began working at it. "We will wait until lunch. That is when they will least expect our movement, expecting us to be tired. Reserve your strength. I will find your gems." Sunset picked up her pick with her magic. "Do you breathe? I mean... I'm worried." She glanced around the darkness, only lit by a torch that was too far away. "He said this place killed a few miners already." Roll nodded. "Exactly why we're moving today. It's a calculated risk." She brought down the pick in a savage swing, sending rocks and flecks of valuable gems to the ground. The area was thick with them. Sunset's nose wrinkled. "No wonder they're willing to risk to get it." "Willing to risk the life of others." Roll brought down her pick solidly. "Reserve your strength." Twilight gave a few swings of her pick. Pony necks were strong... She could mine, she just wasn't really... She would rather be doing almost anything else. She kept her tool raised high, but didn't swing. Any gnoll that came in on them by surprise wouldn't find her slacking off, or so she hoped. Something bothered her and she moved beside Sunset. "Sunset?" "Yeah?" "Why don't you, you know, do more magic?" Sunset raised an ear. "Not a terrible question... Magic here, uh, this world here, it feels... strange." She made a swinging motion with her pick. "My horn works about the same. I thought I'd send a force bolt at that goddess, but instead fwoosh, fire. I don't normally make fire." "You were on fire before," pointed out Twilight. "The kids said you were a flaming demon, once, you know?" Sunset frowned at that. "Do we have to bring that up in the middle of a terrible situation?" "I don't mean to pick on you." Twilight gave a little smile that she hoped would be reassuring. "It's just, you know, new world, new rules. Maybe you're related to that, you know, fiery?" "So I'm fiery?" "Could be." Twilight nodded. "Best theory we have so far." "What are you then?" Twilight sagged at that. "Mostly useless, so far..." "Don't say that." Sunset nudged against her before moving towards the wall again to at least pretend she was working. "The way I see it, the moment we get out of this place, we'll at least show you how to use that horn of yours. You're a unicorn, girl! Magic is what you do." Roll glanced towards then before she struck firm and true, unsettling more stone to the ground. "Why do you speak as if unicorns are the only ones capable of magic?" She glanced at them, then away. "I am perfectly capable without a horn." Sunset started at the news. "Wait, what? You can do magic?" She glanced away and back at the mechanical pony. "You haven't done any since you got here," "Correct." She struck true, keeping her tempo even. "There is no reason to give away my advantage until we act. If you also have magic, you will want to put it to use when we move." Twilight made a sympathetic swing of her pick. Watching Roll do all the work... "What should I do?" "Stay close. Attempt to not be in the way." She raised a hoof and brought down the metal limb down on the wall. A hairline fracture ran up the stone and expanded as it shattered, raining rocks, both sparkling and otherwise. "Assist me in locating the gems they desire." That Twilight could do. She set her pick down and began to sift through the rocks quickly, pushing the more glittering specimens aside to add to their collection for the day. By her quick counting, they had enough to avoid punishments that day. Twilight didn't have a clock, but that felt fast. "How do you do this so fast?" She set her pick down with a metallic sigh. "Strength the gods gave me. I would have preferred another gift, but one does not get to argue with gods, not and survive to tell about it." Sunset let out a nervous laugh. Roll picked up on it and raised a brow high. "Is that how you came to be here, angered a god? You should count yourself fortunate this manual labor is the extent of your punishment." Sunset shook her head violently. "I, uh, you remember Lashtada right?" "Affirmative." "She wanted to... do things... with my friend." Sunset pointed to Twilight. "I kinda..." Her voice dropped low, almost a pathetic squeak, " I mighta attacked her a little." Roll did not react as the two were expecting. She looked thoughtful instead for a long moment. "I thought she had not arrived... If she was there, why did she allow this attack to proceed? Those are her children, many quite literally. She is very protective of them..." Twilight raised a hoof as she was about to respond, but a gnoll approached. "Better not be talking instead of digging. Must be confident. Let's see how many gems you found." He ambled up towards them, eyeing the pile of gems they had produced with greedy eyes. "One, two..." The gnoll picked through the pile, making an appreciative noise at a few, and discarding a few others. "Not bad. No lashes. Take break, food." He produced a bag of oats and tossed them on the ground as if they would eat them like any random farm horse. "Eat quick, then mine. Since so good, target higher, twenty gems by rest time." He ambled off, leaving them to their... meal. Sunset grabbed the bag in her magic and poured some into a waiting hoof to start chewing moodily. Roll nodded. "Eat. You will need the strength. It is time to move soon." She glanced left and right slowly. "Tonight, we will know freedom, or the release of death, which is a freedom of another sort. I prefer the former." Twilight rose and approached Sunset, who levitated the bag over and fed Twilight without being asked. She stuffed the hoof-full into her mouth and got chewing. "Tell me this world has tastier things than this..." "You truly are outsiders... We have a wide variety of food, but I admit I usually only sample a great deal on our special day." She quirked a smile. "Memories of the last sustain me right now. I plan to survive to the next. What of you two? What will you survive for?" Sunset cleared her throat softly. "Well, I want to get home." She smiled at Twilight. "I want to protect my friend." Twilight flushed. She hated being the helpless damsel, but what could she do? "I..." That warmth inside of her had never gone away. Whatever the goddess had done, it remained with her. Another mark the world had left on her, like the scar on her very inhuman nose. "I'm tired of being pushed around." "Then let us do the pushing." Roll shook herself off, then grabbed the heavy pick. "It is time to mine for gnoll brains, but only the ones that get in our way. Follow me." She trotted off into the darkness, her pick seeming to take a whole new dimension as she wielded it, seemingly perfectly ready to use it against any she decided deserved it.