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by Northguard

Chapter 4

It had been a few days since Lightning Dust had been put under medical attention at Snow Hill and her condition was improving greatly. She was regularly put in a lukewarm bath to subside her fever and it looked like the fever was gonna break at any minute. She was given plenty of food and water, and her ribs were no longer visible under her skin, her eyes were no longer bloodshot and her frostbites would not cause permanent damage. After four days of medical care, ponies were allowed to visit her and it was not hard to guess who.

"Hello, Lightning Dust. How have you been?" Rainbow Dash said as she entered the room.

Said the turquoise mare looked towards the door to see the rainbow-maned Pegasus.

"I haven't felt this good since I was a filly! Finally some free time and actual food, seriously this is a thousand times better than the shit I ate back at that damned place!" she ranted as she leaned back in the hospital bed. "And a comfortable bed at last."

Lightning Dust's little rant spiked Rainbow's interest as she walked up to the bed the mare was lying in.

"'Damned place'? What place is that?" she asked as she sat down beside the bed.

"It's Filthy Rich's slave camp. I've been there for fifteen years!"

"You're a slave?" Rainbow Dash asked, taken aback that living proof of the rumours she was sent to investigate was right in front of her.

"Yes. I was. I escaped, that's all I can really say for sure." Lightning Dust answered as she sat up.

"How was it there and how did you escape?" Rainbow further asked.

"It was Tartarus! We had work until either we fell unconscious, broke our hind hooves or were too sick! The list just goes on and on! We slept in what was once a farm storage building. Paper-thin walls with no isolation, windows with no glass and no source of heat. The beds were poorly made, they had no mattresses and they had only one blanket per bed, that were actually cheap curtains!" Lightning Dust explained with Rainbow Dash taking in every word.

"The tasks were endless and if we didn't do what we were told to do then we got the whip, I actually have a few scars to prove it." Lightning Dust continued as she turned to expose her back where several scars could be seen.

"As for my escape, I secretly dug a hole from under the floor beneath my bed that would end up outside that concentration camp." Lightning Dust finished as a curious look grew on her face. "Why did you want to know?"

Rainbow didn't hesitate to tell the truth. "I was sent to investigate some shady rumours about Filthy Rich's success and everything I've found and or discovered so far has all led me towards the abandoned farm that Rich bought a few decades ago, but I seem to have stumbled into a living proof by coincidence."

This explanation made Lightning Dust's eyes grow as wide as dinner plates. "You're trying to blow the whistle on him?"

"Well no, but actually yes. It depended on whether or not I found proof, but then again, you are living proof that the rumours are true. So, yes. I am going to blow the whistle on him." Rainbow Dash said as a new question entered her mind.

"How did you manage to dig that tunnel without being spotted? If you don't mind me asking," she said, making Lightning Dust's smile fade slightly.

"I learned that the guards would lock us in the barn for a certain amount of hours, the amount of hours depended on the day, but I managed to memorize them after a few months. Soon I accidentally discovered a trapdoor under my bed. There was nothing but dirt beneath it, so I guessed it was a project that the previous owners had given up on as soon as they cut the hole in the floor, but didn't bother patching up again. Anyway, after some time I managed to get help from a mouse that lived in the walls. During the day he would go out a look for a feasible way of escaping and during the night he would be my guide when I was digging the tunnel." Lightning Dust explained before a question crossed her mind as well.

"Speaking of which, where is he?" she asked while looking around the room.

"The little critter is in my room at the inn here. Since it looked like you two were close, I decided to take him in until you had recovered." Rainbow Dash explained while looking at the recovering frostbite and the many scars across the mare's body. "You better be careful from now on. With those scars, the stallions will be drooling over you. I have no idea how that's a fact as it's usually the opposite of what I've read in a few books, but whatever."

Lightning chuckled lightly at that statement. "Guess they just can't handle the Lightning Dust style," she said in a mocking tone.

They both looked at each other for a few seconds before they both broke into fits of laughter.

Comments

[Darthzelda]

when you thinking on making another chapter

[Northguard]

10632079
Dude, I just published this a few hours ago.