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Becoming a Guard2,780 words
Innocence Behind Bars 2,564 words
Plan It Out1,713 words
Blueprints part one 1,388 words
Blueprints part two 1,244 words
Jailbreak! 3,070 words
A Mile of History2,864 words
Changes unedited 1,465 words
Darkness 974 words

A Mile of History

The sound of hooves splashing into the shallow but contaminated water echoed through the dingy sewers of Canterlot. The ladder which leads down to that inhospitable place was rusty and slick due the years of exposure and without any kind of proper maintenance.

It would be better if they just jumped but the fall was considerable enough that they could possibly get broken bones, so they used the stairs with extreme care.

One by one they descended into the darkness and as soon as Cloudy then Bright went down, the trio had finally ended up in the sewers. The environment felt cold and menacing to some extent, however that didn’t prevent Cloudy from frantically wiping out all those disgusting substances from his hooves, but that was totally a waste of time since they were in the sewers the most feculent place to be; realization that soon hit him when the putrid smells finally assaulted his nostrils without mercy causing Bright to gag while his stomach tried its best to hold.

The smell from there could be compared to a rotting corpse, thought probably there were rats’ corpses there which are floating around in those disgusting torrents of water. Hivie however, seemed to be completely unaffected by the smells surrounding her and her companions.

“Hivie, can’t you smell…that?” Bright asked as he desperately tried to block the entrance from the putrefaction.

“I can smell it, but we’ve grown used to the foul odors since is very common in our homeland.” Hivie explained while she looked around, but didn’t get see much since it was dark.

“Great, so we’ll be around pig crap when we arrive to the Badlands then, right?” Cloudy said showing how grumpy he currently was.

“I cannot say for certain; but if that is your best comparison then yes.” Hivie said still unsure about the smell comparison to her home.

Cloudy replied with a knowingly sigh.

“Maybe we should start walking. I know for certain that the city’s sewer systems are immense, so it will take us a lot of time until we find an exit.” Bright said as he took the lead venturing into the darkness.

Hivie and Cloudy followed suit.

Every step the trio took was squishy…

Like walking in the mud…

But is not mud what is below them…

By natural reaction, Bright and Cloudy were extremely disgusted by the mushy feeling beneath their hooves.

But to their unwanted surprise Hivie seemed perfectly fine with it, in other words the Badlands was going to be even worse than this place.
As they ventured through the seemingly endless tunnels, the smell became stronger and stronger so the ponies opted to breath through their mouths rather than their nose, hopefully they will not get the taste by accident of this pigsty. The darkness became too depth to be able to see through it so an illumination spell was casted to they could keep moving.

Fifteen minutes passed, but for them it felt like hours.

“GAH!” A yelp was heard from behind

Bright and Hivie swiftly turned back in search of the source of the sound as they became ready to attack or defend themselves. However, they noticed that being prepared to face battle was in vain since the one responsible of that sound was Cloudy who had just been spooked by a rat which crawled passed between his legs very fast.

“What? Rats carry diseases and are creepy! Just look at those eyes” Cloudy argued as he signaled to the rat behind him with his right hooves, Hivie and Bright rolled their eyes as they looked to the direction he signaled and saw two small red orbs.

Cloudy was right, those eyes gave creeps to their spines.

However the time couldn’t be wasted like this, giving an annoyed expression to Cloudy made him realize that his behavior wasn’t the appropriate for the current situation.

Cloudy sheepishly smiled in embarrassment.

Once again, they resumed their journey through the sewers however it didn’t last long; Hivie slipped and fell to the murky water; her companions noticed and immediately went to her aid.

“Hivie, what happened?” Bright asked, sounding alarmed.

Hivie grumbled as she slowly got up from where she fell.

“I slipped…” Hivie then grabbed and brought up the responsible of her fall. “I suppose it was this poster.” She said as she held up the half rotted and damp poster, her companions backed away since it was soaked in served waters. At first, Bright simply shrugged it off as normal garbage, but his eye caught something very odd. If it wasn’t for the illumination he couldn’t have noticed it before but since that’s not the case he saw it.
The ragged poster had two outstanding symbols which could be identified anywhere, the hammer and the sickle together. Bright chuckled to himself, instantly knowing where this was from.

“What is it Bright?” Cloudy asked as he made his way where Bright stood. Cloudy instantly gasped when he found out what Bright was looking.

“That’s a war poster Bright!”

“A Communist’s war poster no less!” Cloudy exclaimed in some kind of excitement. While he did so, Bright remained amused by the fact that they found a rarity in the less expected place however the excitement wasn’t shared, Hivie stood on her place with an horrified look on her face.

“Do you mean the Communist war between Equestria, Diamond Dogs, Gryphons and… Changelings?” She asked despite she knew the answer, she couldn’t believe at the moment.

“You bet!” Aftermath Cloudy realized that this was a touchy subject for her; judging by her change of mood. “Er, sorry Hivie. I didn’t mean to offend you… I-I just, got excited… That’s all.”

“Its fine”

“Why? How could he have offended you Hivie? I mean, I know the Changelings were involved with the war but… It couldn’t have been that bad.” Bright tried to comfort his changeling friend as he spoke.

“I wouldn’t be that sure Bright…” Cloudy stated.

“What do you mean Cloudy?” Bright asked as his eyebrow rose.

“Well… to sum it up, the Changelings and the Southern Diamond Dogs were the most affected. The Equestrians were too, but not as bad. Since it was one strong army and half a very strong army against two strong armies and the other half of a strong army, it wasn’t the best beginning. Hell, the Equestrians had to retreat in the end because we’ve lost too many lives, and we weren’t used to the Diamond Dog’s territory. Or the insects they had, if might I add, almost every soldier in every camp got fleas.”

Bright cringed at the news as he listened, because fleas were the most annoying insect and also dangerous since a certain type could bring diseases. Once again an story for another time.

By now the trio had already resumed their walking, but the environment felt less alive since Hivie didn’t talk much to them, there were two possibilities to explain this behavior; she was only being polite to them or she was upset of what Cloudy said.

“Yeah… anyway, near the end of the war the Equestrians had to retreat, leaving the Southern Dogs by themselves against the Northern armies.” And with that said Cloudy finished the summary.

“But how were the Changelings affected?” Bright inquired since the summary that he was given didn’t say a thing about them.
“Oh….I can’t say for sure buddy…” Cloudy replied but not answering to his friend question, however Bright got the answer which he was seeking thanks to his changeling companion.

“Because the Changeling society was already falling apart, my kind was running low on resources and the economy was falling apart at fast and steady pace.” She clarified with a sigh filled with sadness. “That war sent us over the edge.”

“But I thought you all had your own currency.” He was slightly confused at this clarification “ What happened?”

“Inflation.” She looked straight at him “We just had so many shells to the point that they became useless…” The changeling informed.

“Excuse me, ‘Shells’?” Cloudy entered at the conversation.

“Yes, as odd as it sounds, we use, or well…used snail shells as our currency, just as Equestria uses bits, we also used very specific pebbles with certain special characteristics which had more value; just as yours gemstones.” Hivie continued with her economy explanation.

“Let me get this straight, so the shells were so common that they became useless?” Bright asked for confirmation.

“Exactly. We still have our own type of currency, but now we only use pebbles, and since the pebbles as way of payment, and since there isn’t a lot of money we only use them as last resort of payment. Now we use the trade system as our main way to payment, is beneficial in some way.

“That sure helps us to understand a few things.” Bright stated.

“Very much so, but like the red one here said; there are other reasons of why my home is a ‘shit hole’; if that is how you use the term. We a vast part of the army as well good citizens in the war, and like I stated before, we didn’t possess a lot of resources. We still don’t, but it isn’t as bad as before hopefully.” She finished her explanation.

“Oh, well… I’m sorry about that.” Bright said trying to sound apologetic.

“Oh don’t be. That was like fifty years ago, I wasn’t even hatched yet so I wasn’t affected directly. So, it’s none of my concern.” She said nonchalantly.
“But it affected the elders who’ve survived the war, doesn’t it?” Cloudy said hiding his disapproval of how indifferent she was.

“Yes but, the survivors can be counted easily they don’t even fill a room, it almost doesn’t matter.” Hivie became less and less alive, the words that were coming out of her mouth sounded so dry, so uncaring.

“Doesn’t matter? Hivie, veterans should be appraised or honored for their bravery and what they sacrificed for defending their nation.” Now he felt offended, disrespecting veterans was frowned upon.

“We are very different from you, Bright alright? We don’t celebrate or ‘appraise’ our veterans unless the war is won. If the war was lost, then they aren’t heroes; they are just treated like any other civilian. Like they didn’t serve for the cause in the first place.” Hivie said solemnly while they continued their long journey.

The environment around them was cold, both physical and psychological; the responsible was the previous conversation and clash of cultural differences. While Cloudy was still pondering about the communist war, Bright was still amazed about how Changelings treat their soldiers. It just seemed wrong, in every way possible. But, it also made some kind of sense, in a twisted way.

They forgot the track of time, they only cared about the time again when they noticed the walls of their surroundings were different, they looked older as cracks fill the stoned walls and the fungus reached sizes that wouldn’t be seen at the surface and for good reasons; nobody would like that to be seen by the public eye.

But as they kept walking the noticed several objects scattered, laying on the pavement or just floating in the served waters.

At first the group didn't have the intention to touch any of them since all of those objects were covered by the disgusting layer of biological waste and stain even more their hooves; though that mostly applied for the ponies since Hivie didn’t care much about that fact.

But Bright's eyes locked in an object of his interest, quickly the dark blue pegasus left Hivie's and Cloudy’s side and galloped, or tried to gallop through the green torrents, his fur became stained by the rotted substance however he didn’t care; something was more important than his personal hygiene. By the time Hivie and Cloudy managed to catch up with their friend, he was already sitting on his haunches holding a rusty spear while whispering ancient pegasus tribe prayers to the gods in the sky.

''Is that....'' said Cloudy aloud while Hivie cocked her head in confusion since she didn’t know the importance of that spear for a Pegasus.

Only after he finished with his prayer, did he talk to his friend. ''Yes it is, cloudy it's an pegasus spear from Equestria's Third Era, the age of empires, forged by The House of Justice for Celestia's quest to fulfill the ancient High King Hurricane Equestria's first and only pegasus ruler's dream of creating a empire where ponykind could live in peace, his direct descent Princess Celestia spent over two hundred years after Princess Luna's banishment contently warring against enemies of ponykind Bat ponies; Minotaurs; Zebras; Hellhounds; Sirens; Centaurs and many others lost to history. In the end she craved the Equestrian Empire we know today with a bloody hoof. '' Bright relevantly placed the spear back down where it was found and it floated away aftermath. ''But it's strange to find an eight hundred year old relic in the sewers, even more why a weapon made by my family centuries ago is down here?''

'' That’s a tough one, let’s stick that it came here by accident. '' Cloudy then placed his right hoof on Bright's shoulder giving him comfort.
Bright needed the comfort after seeing his legacy wasted nothing more than trash.

''Bright, I didn't knew that your family used to forge weapons. '' Hivie also gave her comfort to her friend, making him give a faint smile.

'' Well, my family haven't touch their forges over a hundred years, now days Pegasi prefer to race or work in the weather arts, besides return to the old ways is difficult; you can’t be considered proper Justice unless you know how to work in a forge and craft a single type of weapon.'' Bright was sad.

Hivie as she heard his explanation she picked up a shiny object which after some cleaning resulted to be a gold coin, the coin itself had a form of a mismatch creature it warped around three ponies protectively with the words In chaos there is peace under the odd creature. Bright didn’t go unnoticed by this ''A royal crown coin from Equestria's First Era or also called the rule of the mad king Discord; fallen hero of the old pony kingdom. The story tells that after the war of the Theastrals, ponykind was nearly drove to extinction by dragons and all manner of creatures to punish us for the Noble’s houses wicked ways and teachings, so Discord; the God of Chaos, in his own way took pity on the ponies and with a single snap of his paw he claimed the leadership of the ponies and with a simple action he saved the three tribes from an assured death.''

Hivie visibly shivered, Discord was a subject to do not take lightly '' E-even in the badlands that name is known and more feared than Celestia's, you can predict her punishment but with Discord.....it was like jumping off a cliff blindfolded, you just didn’t know what will happen. But what do you mean with about the war with the Theastrals?''

Before another story could be tell Bright abruptly stood up cutting him from continue the history lessons. ''Come on, we wasted enough time mourning about the past, Celestia's guards could finds us at any moment.'' Hivie and Cloudy realized their mistake and immediately resumed their journey with haste.

The time passed.

The group felt tired of the constant movement without rest since they held the belief that the guards were near their position.

But to their utter relief the light at the end of the tunnels was ahead and the distance was getting shorter every second, it was the last effort.
The friends forgot about their exhaustion and galloped.

But what they didn’t expect was that behind the curtain of light was a cliff, but a very small cliff which at the bottom is a lake depth enough to soften their fall.

Actually they were glad of this surprise; it was a refreshment of what they had to endure for hours, as the personal feeling of satisfaction returned to them; they swam to the coast where they shook their dampened coat of fur but for Hivie she tried to dry her insect-like wings.

A small migraine assaulted her, she had used too much of what was left of her reserves, and love was difficult to gather she only could hope to find another source soon or she will be unable to use magic.

The Pegasus whistled when he looked at the night sky.

But he was interrupted by his friend who nudged him to keep walking, and leave behind the proud city of Canterlot and Equestria.

Author's Note:

edited by xluferx

Me and GodBBQ had planned this chapter for the story's anniversary but due to RL it was postponed and special thanks to xluferx for taking time to edit this

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