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Act 1 - Welcome To Equestria60 words
Chapter 13,324 words
Chapter 1.5 - Bonus5,046 words
Chapter 22,668 words
Chapter 32,931 words
Chapter 42,825 words
Chapter 53,802 words
Chapter 63,924 words
Chapter 72,940 words
Chapter 83,661 words
Chapter 94,371 words

Chapter 3

"It's only by sharing their pain that you can understand others."

=====

“Oh sweet Arceus, look at the poor thing!”

I opened my eyes and saw someone. She was female. I could easily see that from her facial complexion. It also helped that her voice was obviously higher in pitch than the monster who was with me earlier. Still, she had a look of innocence in her eyes. She looked like all the forces of evil couldn’t rot her heart.

“Those Flare grunts, they don’t respect Pokemon at all! Lysandre, vile monstre, pourquoi? Why did I ever trust you?”

I turned my head to find the source of this deeper voice. I was met with an older male who radiated knowledge. Seeing that he looked angry at what happened to me, I knew that he would keep me away from those red-dressed demons. Well, seeing that I was about to faint, I didn’t really have a choice.

“V...Vee…” (Help.)

I barely managed to finish that word that the humans obviously failed to understand before falling into the deep abyss of unconsciousness. Before my eyes closed, however, I saw the face of the female human, smiling warmly with the lights giving her a golden aura, saying something to me. Sadly, I couldn’t hear what my savior was telling me as I was out like a light.

=====

My eyes opened quickly as where I was laying started to move. I looked around and saw that I was in a rusty cage inside some kind of workshop. I tried to focus and see what was located outside the three walls and the jail gate I was in, but it seemed that someone was shaking my cage. It's more important to survive face planting in a wall than to analyse my surroundings.

"Wake up you lazy thing!" The one who was shaking my cage shouted as he placed me back on a platform. Then, he walked in front of my only point of view, allowing my analytical side to do its job.

He was a male from the same species as the one who attacked me earlier. His mane was a shade of red that looked like rust and was really messy. He had glasses that were soiled with black powder, making me wonder how he was able to see anything. He was smiling at me like a hunter would do to the one he was hunting after finally capturing him.

“Would you look at that. Perfect health and not a scratch. Kind of surprising if you ask me. They normally bring you critters in pieces.” He shook his head. “Those dumb ponies really don’t know their strength. You and your white friend are the first living animal to enter this workshop since… well, since I moved here basically.” He laughed before walking away.

To get a better view out of the door of my cell, I tried to move forward towards it. Sadly, I soon realised that I was actually chained. My four legs were attached to the wall of the cage with a steel chain, making my escape seem impossible.

“What? Wanna ditch me before you become a nobles’ new fashion accessory?” He shook his head again while making disapproving noises. “You won’t be able. I heard about your witchcraft powers, lil’ one. I made sure that your mouth and your little paws wouldn’t be able to cause me trouble in the long run.” When he finished his sentence, my eyes looked down, only to see something made of some strong material blocking my muzzle.

“I like you creatures better when I can talk to you without being interrupted. This way, I can make a big evil speech to you poor things like villains do in stories. Makes me feel like I’m superior, you know?” He walked to a wall and grabbed a cloth. Then, he placed it on a table and revealed its content. It was full of different knives that was obviously not used for eating. There was even one stained with blood.

“You must be wondering what those are. I mean, not every creature know what a weapon is even though they have claws.” I rolled my eyes at how pitiful this guy was. Even I knew how to know if somebody had friends. The way he talked to his animal victims made him look like a poor soul looking for attention. Sadly for him, I forgot my affection in the forest when his goons attacked me. Oh Arceus, I think like Brave and that is not a good thing.

“Those are cutting knives. The small one over there is a boning knife. It is used to separate the meat from the bones to sell it to gryphons.” I let the information sink in and suddenly realised that this creature was seriously planning on cutting us apart. My eyes shot open as I started to back off.

He looked at me with a sadistic grin. “Well, well. Looks like someone can understand me.” He turned back to his knives, laughing. “And this is a skinning knife. By the name alone, I guess you already understand what it is.” I wanted to put my paws on my already lowered ears to block whatever he was saying, but the chains made it impossible.

“Finally, even if there are more than ten knives here, I only need one more for you and your friend.” Using his hoof, he grabbed a large knife with a square blade. “This is a cleaver. Whatever useless part there is attached to the coat, like the head or leg…” He then slammed the knife in his wooden cutting board, managing to enter the entire length of knife inside. I swallowed whatever was coming up my throat.

One by one, he moved the three knives toward another table out of my sight. Then, he moved the table right in front of my cage. On it was the Espeon I tried to defend with the knives perfectly placed beside her. “I’m sure you want to see how I do it with only three tools. Normally, a task like that would require more as a more precise tool makes better fur, but technology is slow in this neck of the woods, so we’ll have to do with those babies.”

So there I was, defenseless and powerless, forced to look at a mad ponyta cutting whoever that Espeon was. All because I’ve decided to listen to some crazy legendary Pokemon in my dream telling me to protect her. I knew I should have ran away when I was able to.

He grabbed the knife he used for skinning animals and slowly placed it near Espeon’s body. Then, in one quick motion, he sliced a large scar from her front leg to back leg. The poor Espeon,was woken up by the pain and started screaming.

When I heard the screaming, something snapped inside of me. Like if I heard that scream in my past coming from someone I cherished. Either be a human or Pokemon. That’s when I knew that, even though I am lazy and normally peaceful, even if a Pokemon goddess told me to, I had to save her even if it costed me my life.

A new wave of energy flowed through me, but this time, it was fueled by pure, unadulterated rage. Using an attack I never thought I would ever use, hidden power, I dashed forward, pulling the chains and the cage with me. It seemed to be super effective as it fell right on the Ponyta’s head, breaking open the door and making him stuck.

When the cage fell, I felt the chains loosening up. I saw that the screws were only attached to a slim sheet of metal, making it really weak to any act of strength. By using hidden power, I managed to unscrew all of my chains, freeing me.

I fell forward and out of the cage as his head was getting stuck. I grin with malice, thinking on how I could repay what he did to the Espeon who was now unconscious from the pain and bleeding from the side.

Using take down multiple times, I managed to force him down on the floor, the cage still on his head. After the second attack, the badly made thing that was blocking my jaw fell, liberating my mouth and a plethora of new attacking possibilities. Sadly, I knew I didn’t have much time as Espeon was losing a lot of blood.

I walked near the edge of the table and looked at the laying body of the monster that sent those trappers to attack us and that tortured my kin. I was looking at my list of options for my next move. I could use giga impact and shatter his skeleton to shreds. Maybe I could try hyper beam and reduce to ash his body…

...or I could listen to my good side and do nothing.

I calculated the pros and cons of killing him and the fact that it would lead to guilt and hatred from the village I was in, I knew that killing wasn’t the best solution right now. Plus, I needed a Nurse Joy quickly to heal the Espeon.

I grabbed her body with my mouth and managed to place her over me, soaking my fur in blood in the process. I managed to get down from the table without much problem and got out of the workshop, only hearing the sound of the Ponyta waking up.

As I got out of the house toward an almost empty street, I heard some sounds behind me. I started running away, hoping that my act of kindness wouldn’t…

“CATCH THOSE VERMIN!!”

...bite me in the ass.

I never ran this quick in my entire life. Considering that I had additional weight on my back, it was quite the feat that I was pulling off. I looked back to see the same goons from earlier, all bruised up and angry-looking, running after me.

I continued running away from the grunts when I heard a voice in the distance calling for ‘the black cat’. I looked at the general direction and saw a smaller Ponyta, obviously a kid, motioning me to enter his house. I knew that it was a risky move to enter the habitation of a creature coming from the same village as the group trying to kill me, but I also knew that one being doesn’t represent a species.

I dashed inside the house, not caring if I was trampling anything. When I set paw in the entrance, I heard the kid close and lock the door behind me. I fell on the floor, trying to breathe normally. I immediately took awareness to my surroundings, the adrenaline boosting my senses to a maximum.

I saw a female enter the entrance room from what looked like a kitchen and stare at me with curious eyes. “Sweetie, why did you let a bleeding cat enter?” She asked the kid. That’s when he started explaining that he heard the ‘crazy animal butcher guy’ yell that an animal had escaped and that they were running toward here.

“So you were attacked by Crazy Nail?” I laughed internally at what the mother said. Was this guy’s name really Crazy Nail? Anyway, I nodded to the question, hoping that animals who understood normal speech was normal around this town.

“Poor thing, he really did a number on your friend.” She started to move toward us, a pair of wings popping out of her chef apron. I was taken by surprise as I knew from experience that Ponytas didn’t have wings. When she crouched to grab Espeon with her wings, however, I adopted a fighting stance by reflex.

“Don’t worry. I must take care of her wounds before they get-” Before she could finish, someone knocked at the door. Sadly, I knew who that was. I dropped Espeon on the floor for the mother to take and ran towards the closet to my right.

“Sweet Leaf, go place that creature in the bathroom near the sink. Whoever is on the other side will not be friendly.” I opened a small crack of the closet to see what would happen. I knew that I may not need to fight, but I prepared myself mentally in case I needed to.

She opened the door and we saw two goons standing there with large knives that was obviously used to kill anything on sight. Instead, I prepared myself mentally to run away at the first sight of provocation. I had more chances to escape than to survive fighting them.

“You again? How many times did I told you both that you won’t find any zebra potions hidden in my cupboard?” She shouted angrily at the males.

“Look, Witch, we are looking for two creatures that hid inside your house. There are witnesses saying that they’re here and the blood stains stops at your porch. Hand them over and we’ll do nothing to you and your son.” The taller one angrily said to the mother.

“You and I both know that you won’t do anything to us because I only need to say one thing to the mayor to get you both expelled from the village. So leave us alone.” Then, she slammed the door, hitting the muzzles of both non-Ponytas.

“We’ll enjoy the day we find proof of your associations with the Zebras or of your acts of witchcraft. When that day will come, we’ll see who will get the last laugh!” One of them shouted behind the door. I slowly crept out of the closet, only to see the mother motioning me to follow her.

We made our way to the bathroom where the Espeon was laying in her own blood. I saw the mom rush in and grab an elaborate healing kit the kid was giving to her. I looked at her, the only thing passing through my mind was a whispered wish that she was going to be okay and that I would learn what was so important about her in the first place.

“Hey.” I saw the kid looking at me. “I don’t know if you can understand me…” Okay, so intelligent critters weren’t common around here. “... but you can wait in the living room if you want to.” He proposed. Seeing that there was nothing else to do but wait, I nodded and started making my way there. The last thing I heard from the bathroom was a warning telling me not to go on the couch as I was covered in blood.

I arrived at my destination by descending stair that were way too steep for me and layed down on the floor. I was tired and I had passed my limits by a long run since I woke up in that forest. The tiredness quickly made itself known and I slowly fell asleep naturally, the first time in days.

=====

After what looked like days, but was only about three hours, I was woken up by the kid whom front legs were covered in blood. “You should come with me.” He simply said before leaving towards another room that I assumed was a bedroom.

Arriving there, I saw the limp body of the Espeon on the bed, breathing slowly. On her side was a large wound mark where wire was holding it together. She looked like hell, but at least she was alive.

“Look, let me be blunt here. She is really weak and injured. I will need special medication from the Zebra tribes located south from the village.” She explained to her son and I. Her kid, however, shook his head.

“You can’t leave! I heard from Nail’s worker that they’ll try to prove that you do business with them. By leaving, you give them enough proof to get us kicked from the village… maybe worst now that we have those two under our wings.” He pointed me with his arm, feeling a bit guilty that I was making their life harder.

“I know. That is why, after he takes a good bath, we’ll send… uhh… what’s your name again?” She asked while cutting her own sentence. By reflex, I answered Tenebre, but it only came out as Umbreon. I knew I should have seen this coming, but I was so scared of what was coming up in the mother’s idea that I simply didn't care.

“Okay. We’ll send Umbreon to the tribes to get the medicine.” My eyes grew wide as I started backing off. The mother was staring at me, not with hate, but with hope. “Listen to me. Your friend’s life is in danger and you are the most agile and nimble here… Well, since your a cat thing, I guessed you were nimble.” I shrugged, still backing up slowly.

“Anyway, just go south, give the Zebra leader the order I’ll give you and bring the pots back with the bags I’ll lend you. Easy, isn’t it?” I was about to say no, but remembered that a life was at stake here. I sighed and turned around to get out of the room. When the mother saw me leaving to the bathroom, she smiled and nodded.

“Perfect! Let’s get to business.”

Author's Note:

I can't believe I wrote 7/8 of the chapter in one night. 2500 words! I broke my single-try writing record.

I would like to thank tndpony for ~~forcing~~ helping me to write this chapter. It would have come way later if it wasn't for him. And the readers who are used to my stories know what 'way later' means.

Anyway, this chapter has the 'Dark' syndrome. You know, the same syndrome my torture chapter in my Five Score story had. Last time I wrote a chapter as dark as that, it was when my grandma was diagnosed with cancer... I guess I finished the full circle with this chapter.

A small BTS. The 'cutting Espeon' part was actually planned since the beginning, but maybe not as gruesome as I did...

Anyway, enjoy the fact that I made a chapter in under 5 month.

Ta ta~!

-StrawberryFrosting

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