Mocha's Story

by Mocha Star

Chapter 25

I was terrified. A minotaur was walking pace with my slow moving cart, being pulled by two ignorant mules who would walk over a cliff, and my girls were within reach of his battleaxe.

All I have to do is play this cool. “So, where’s a good place for a human to find out about other humans, mister Minotaur?” I asked smoothly.

He smiled, showing those bovine teeth with carnivore canines. I heard Lom whimper, she knew what it was like being on the other side of the hunt.

“What will you offer me in trade?” he retorted.

“Well, let’s set some ground rules,” he nodded, “you ever threaten my family again, and if they find any pieces of you, they won’t know who you are.”

He grunted in response. “Agreed. Next?”

I leaned back and slid off slowly, touching the dirt and keeping pace with him and the cart as I sided along with him. “Second, I need a bodyguard while I’m here. If you’re interested I’ll pay you all the coinage I got from that fight, plus a few hand fulls of gems.”

“Ah, the rumors are true then, you twist any situation to serve yourselves.”

“If you’re not interested,” I shrugged tossing the bag of coins onto the cart, “then maybe I can find a female who is.”

I quickened my pace to hop back on the cart when he snorted, I felt the hot air from his snout on my neck. “Deal,” he whispered harshly, “what are your terms.”

“Terms? I dunno what you’re talkin’ about, bub,” I smiled wide and sided with him again, “we’re just two old friends, hangin’ out. So, buddy,” I handed him the bag and he wasted no time fitting it into his grasp. “So, let’s go find a place to catch up.”

“My name is Taurus. It is a common name here, call me Rus.”

“Well, I’ve known a few Russes in my day and they’ve all been good. Call me Mocha.”

Introductions aside he told me the safest places to park a cart, I chose his house. Why spend unnecessary money when I could just bribe Rus into letting me and Heart crash in his living room while Lom got the grownup responsibility of watching the cart, and the mules… Well I didn’t really care what happened to them.

I’m sorry, really I am, but at the time they were a little less than they are now. Think of a donkey, now make them smell worse and twice as dumb. That was a mule. I had two, I was offered forty coins for them both. Still, I’m not in the slave trade, so I turned it down, but if they chose, while everyone was sleeping, to gallop off into the night...

A while later we were in one of the residential areas. The mules and Lom were outside guarding the cart, and by guarding I mean the house rule was no large animals, which I argued the irony of. I was able to take Heart in though, she was small enough to fit in my arms still and a little more time with my little pink pony was always a plus.

Ever since she called me dad, even now all these years later, I couldn’t risk her being hurt. Lom was tough. She was raised in a forest with a herd, weather beaten for her whole life. Heart, you know her story up until I got her. I just wanted to keep her safe, like a good protector should.

The residence Rus had was pretty simple. An apartment complex style of housing, he was on the sixth floor, hence the no large animals, in a small one bedroom apartment. A bachelor's pad. Darts stuck in the wall without a dart board, empty jugs of ale, cider, and other alcoholic drinks littered the corners. There was a table, but it was a wooden board balanced on two legs, one side of the table was in the wall, just smashed into it.

Various weapons lined one wall while a sink basin was full of dishes, mostly market plates, encrusted with food that had long since packed and left itself from the conditions of the area.

That was just the entryway-slash-kitchen-slash-dining room. The living room and bedroom were just as bad. No windows, just axe marks in a wall that let light stream in and a board covering several holes in the wall where a window should have been. His bedroom was little more than a hammock in the corner of the living room and a large stack of adult magazines.

“Well, you live in a latrine.”

“Heart?! Don’t say that to the nice man, obviously someone thought his apartment was the local dump and-”

“Shut it you two,” he growled, “I know my place sucks, but it’s all I can have with my job and what I make. If you want to sleep in the street, go right ahead,” he said taking his battleaxe off and dropping it in the center of the kitchen floor as he walked to his hammock. He turned and fell onto it.

It broke, sending him to the floor with a few local curses. He got up and kicked the cloth and placed his hand on the wall, grumbling to himself.

“M-Mocha, I hafta pee.”

“Heart, um, okay, hang on a second. Rus, where’s the bathroom?”

“Nextdoor, just go to where your cart is,” I cursed lightly, “turn left, you’ll see a one story house that smells like it should just a ways down.”

“Wait, this’ for her.”

“Then let her go in the street like all mules.”

“Hey-” I started but heart lived up to her name.

“Hey! I ain’t a mule, I’m a pony and you better not forget it.” Crap, she’s getting my bravado.

He turned and glared at her. She trembled in my arms but stayed as still as she could. I decided I’d see how it played out, even though I felt like backing away slowly.

“Little horse, know your place. Go in the streets like a mule or on my floor, where I will use your mane to scrub it clean.”

Oh shit, I’m gonna step in and-

“You wouldn’t dare hurt me, I’m a filly and I’m cute,” she said with a flip of her mane in a dignified way. I snickered, but covered it with a cough as he looked at me with that raging bull stare.

“Cute won’t win in a battle.”

“If you’re cute, you never have to badel.” She stopped trembling and I felt her tensing.

“If you never enter battle you’ll never become a warrior!” He shouted.

“And my daddy will make sure I’m safe so I won’t need to fight.” she screamed back.

He leaned in close to her, his damned horns coming too close to me.

“Your daddy is not even your kind, little horse,” he said slowly, egging her on.

“My daddy is my kind,” she turned and hugged me looking back to him, oh, my heart was choking me. I almost cried. “he saved me, he gave me a name, and he loves me,” cue slow violin, “and I’m his little pony.”

That was it. The moment I fell in love with her.

Before, it was just breaking her free from slavery. I was gonna let her live at the inn for the rest of her days. She might even take it over, I’d thought. Now she was my little pony, in my arms, staring down a creature that could kill me in one swipe and then eat her if he felt like it.

He laughed and stood tall, hands on his hips as he laughed. “Very well, pony. It isn’t much, but you may use my bucket. I will empty it in the morning with the others.”

“Others?” I asked.

“Yes, why make one trip every time? That’s foolish. Two buckets will last me a week.”

“A-a week? You let your buckets sit in here for a week?” I sneered at the scent, but then I relaxed and sniffed.

“Yes, fool. We don’t keep them in our rooms,” he grunted and went to the boarded window, pushed it open slightly, and pulled in a sturdy wooden bucket, wider than round.

“Aw crap. I, I don’t know if I can use that.”

“Well, the offer isn’t for you, human. That pony has a stronger heart than you do,” he pointed to Heart and I looked at her. She turned her head to look at me, eyes wide, she understood her name. She gasped as she squirmed in my arms and then looked to the bucket and whined.

“Oh, fine, but I’m holding you, Heart.”

She blushed a bit as I lowered her onto the bucket, she braced her hooves as best she could, Rus and I averted our eyes, then she went. It was an uncomfortable moment for us all but that made it a little less bad, just awkward.

“Well, anyway,” Rus cleared his throat as he returned the bucket to its perch outside the window, “what inspired you to name your, daughter there, Heart?”

“Actually-”

“My name’s Strong Heart, cuz I’m tough.” Is she going to keep talking over me?

“Well, that’s a happening, eh? Well, Mocha the human, tell me of yourself and I will see if I can help.”

“Well, I haven’t much to tell. I was a soldier and got blown up. Instead of dying I was here. I got to this place a few months ago and met Lom, the horse that’s guarding my cart,” he chuckled, “and then I bought Heart. Her name was Pinkie,” he burst into laughter; I waited for him to calm down, “then here I am. Looking for any others of my species.”

He grinned and walked to me, Heart was in my arms scowling at him. “Well, you’re in luck. There are a few humans at the top of the mountain, ripe for the plucking.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Heart shouted. For a nine year old filly she had spunk. At this rate I’ll just let her do the asking of the hard questions.

“It means, Heart, that there is a pack of humans that live on the mountain. I would never be able to go myself, but now that you’re here you’d have full access to the upper mountain,” his eyes widened in realization, “and then I might be able to swipe a gem or two.”

“What? What gems are you talking about?” Ha, got that one in.

“Acanacite. Your kind came in, bought a house on the mountain and within a week had a hoard of those gems raining across the mountaintop. They purchased and evicted the whole top half for themselves. Now they have a pegasi army up there, guarding the paths and air routes. All it takes is a gem to change the world.” he said sullenly.

“What happened?” Heart asked, she pushed from me and reached to him. He took her like he would a cat, her flat mane flowing into his arms from mine. I felt empty without her close by.

“Well, little pony,” he said turning and walking to a wall, then sitting on his bottom. He took a knife from his pocket and scratched a triangle into the wall. “This was the mountain. Before the humans came, I lived here, just about half way up with my family. Then the humans bought a home two levels above us.

Then,” he drew a line from below where he marked his house at, “they bought all this. They moved in, bought us all out from the city government, and bought an army to keep what they’re doing a secret. None but humans come and go with supplies by the roads. There is one airship, a bladder of air with a boat of some type under it.

“It flies with a large pegasi guard to and from above the cloud cover with supplies and other unknown things.”

He’s quite the artist, simple but gets the point across.

“Well, let’s go see what’s going on then.”

He looked to me with a frown. “None shall pass. That’s what is written a dozen times along the path. Get to close and the birds with strike you with lightning. That’s the warning, if you survive.”

“Woah, cool. They use lightning?” Heart asked, ears perked up. He pet her and she cuddled into his arms. Bastard, give me my daughter back.

“Yes, little one. They are weather masters. The weather works by nature itself, but they can make the weather do what they want. If you owe them a debt, they can make the crops die in a drought, or drown in a monsoon. If you cross the line in the mountain,” he pointed to and stabbed it with his blade, “they strike you.”

“Well, what next? Do they make a tornado or something?” I mused. He deadpanned me back.

“If you’re lucky, you might be able to survive that. No, pegasi are warriors. They never touch the ground, riding the air and nimbus clouds to stay out of reach. Powerful and fast, well armored with the sharpest of blades. To kill one is to win the envy of all who know you, and the wrath of all the others.

I had a friend, many years ago. His uncle killed one once that was pestering him with fly by’s. There were a dozen in the clouds that he didn’t see, and they leveled his farm and ruined his home. Over the loss of one of theirs they laid waste to his entire family legacy.”

“Woah, that was an over reaction by every means, why not just find a way to make peace with them? I’m sure you can bribe them, right?”

“Hrmp, typical human. No, they’re loyal to their commander without a fault-”

“Then kill the commander,” I interjected, thinking I was smart.

“Then they would kill every last child in the entire city, and every adult who protected them. Fool, you aren’t a warrior, are you?”

“I was born a soldier,” I really was, pretty much.

“Then what happens when someone kills your commander in battle?”

“Oh, I get it. There’s another to replace him all the way down to the last soldier. Then there’s the code.”

“So, some humans have a code? That’s news to me. When you readied your weapon I was ready to die.”

“Some of us have codes, give me Heart back,” I asked extending my arms. She was asleep when he passed her back. A snuggle into my chest brought a smile to us both, he returned to a more stoic expression when he saw me look at him. “Others have guidelines.”

“So it seems,” he hummed. “Anyway, let’s rest and get ready tomorrow. It’s midday, you must be tired from traveling.”

“Not tired enough to sleep here. Not yet. I think I’ll sleep in the cart tonight with Lom and Heart.”

“No, she can stay here, I’ll clean a space for her.”

“I don’t trust you yet. You tried to kill me.”

“If I’d wanted to you’d have died by my blade without a chance.”

“True, so why spare me? You had me dead to rights.”

“I prefer not to kill unless in battle. A street fight isn’t worth the fine.”

“A fine? That’s all that was holding you back?”

“A fine would cost me my palace here,” he gestured to his apartment, “and then I’d have to move away, with only what I have on me. That would lead to the sadness, then maybe I’d fall on my axe. Worse ways to go, but I’d prefer it not to happen.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes until he got up and went to his sink. He flicked a plate and a cloud of mold spores greeted him.

“Perhaps I go out for dinner? You have given me two weeks worth of pay so I needn’t return to the factory yet. What have you to offer in your part?”

“Would you accept the cutest face in the room?”

“She is asleep.”

“I meant mine,” I said seriously.

We shared another laugh. I liked him, but trust wasn’t there yet.

Comments

[Mix-up]

finally Mocha is going to see more of his own kind, and might find out what happened to his teammates And Cadance. All doe, given how the story is revolving around slaves at the moment, I some how know that the humans are probably the biggest dealer of slaves this side of the region, and Mocha is not going to be happy about that. I suppose that the human have slave labor champs mines, and don't have much in the way of good working condition. The problem with fighting fighting about slavery is that you have to convince the local population to share the value of an individual right to be "free" and not be owned by anyone is mouth wiled cause to believe and defend as well as having laws and the infrastructure to defend those individuals rights.

[Mocha Star]

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