Magnets in a Mare's World.

by Triple-Rainbow

Chapter 15. The World Behind Cement Walls.

My rush to gain Zephyr's help has greatly hindered my plans to escape. During breakfast, I was able to finally talk to Zephyr and learn more about him, earning a valuable pawn for my plan to escape this insufferable prison.

As usual, I was content with only an apple as my first meal. I had gotten sick of the comments made about how there was, “something special,” or “a bit more love” in whenever the Dazzlings were in rotation for serving us. Sonata, abandoning any sense of subtlety, would usually confirm or deny any tampering by loudly announcing it as if I didn’t understand the art of subtlety.

Some of the other inmates wisely avoided the oatmeal, milk boxes, and such, with one of the few exceptions being Zephyr. It disgusted me how well he and Sonata got along, like a pair of dogs that were all too eager to shag in a public park.

In fact, I’m not too sure what’s actually stopping them from just skipping the banter and slipping away to have sex already.

When Aria, somehow acting as the voice of reason for once, finally made him leave, he began walking towards me with a smile that was too cheerful for the morning. I choose a more secluded table, one that I made certain no one else would sit at after an “episode” as the doctors here like to call it. Personally, I called it justifiable beating, but it’s all a matter of perspective.

Idle threats were usually enough to chase off anyone who thought of sitting at my table, but Zephyr was a rare type of stupid, the kind that wouldn’t understand the concept of death if it were holding him over a volcano. At least, that’s what I had thought before my conversation with him.

“Sup, Mags? How you doing?”

“Suppressing the urge to strangle you.”

“Great, keep that up by the way. Me? Oh, I’m doing great! I,” I cut off whatever annoying drivel he was preparing to launch into with a bold fact.

“Your sister and her friends came to me yesterday.”

A refreshing silence filled the air as I bit into my breakfast.

“So, you, uh, you know about my sis, huh?”

“I do. I’ve also been told that you know how to break into Starswirl’s Vault in Canterlot.”

The surprise and worry that covered his face easily melted away at my latter comment, causing the teal stallion to blink owlishly as he turned his attention back to his oatmeal.

“Huh, I thought everypony in here knew that already.”

“I’m not a pony, Zephyr.”

“You get what I mean. No need to be so sensitive about it.”

I resisted the urge to slam his face in that oatmeal and drown him in it. My humanity meant more to me than their idiotic vernacular. During my entire time as a hero, I had given up my title as a human to blend in with these creatures. I'm not about to let go of it again now that I have the freedom to share who I am.

“I’m not wasting my breath on this again, Zephyr. You’ve been inside Starswirl’s Vault. How did you do it?”

“Because I’m awesome.”

“For once, take something seriously.”


“Seriousness is for business, Mags, I’m on vacation right now.”

“Vacation? We’re in prison, you idiot!”

“Yeah, I’ve never been to prison before, so I’m counting this as a vacation,” he shrugged steeling a glance at Sonata as she winked at him. “Plus, the company in here is nice too.”

I snapped my fingers next to his ears to grab his attention again. “Hey, Romeo, focus. The Vault, how did you of all creatures manage to get inside it.”

“My name’s Zephyr,” he corrected with the same stupid innocence of a child.

I groaned into my hands as I lied my elbows on the table, already regretting that I had decided to get out of bed today.

“Zephyr, you broke into the vault, right?” I asked, slowly lifting my head from my hands.

“Yup,” he proudly stated.

“Well, if you could break into the Vault, why haven’t you tried to get out of here?”

“Like I said, company in here is nice.”

He threw another glance at the teenage looking earth pony and I couldn’t help but feel a bit more disgusted. I knew she wasn’t a teenager, and I also knew that she was older than Zephyr by at least three years, but I couldn’t help but feel revolted by the colt sitting next to me.

Another series of snaps brought him back to our conversation and partially out of my discomfort.

“Focus. If you can break out of here, then I want you to go to Canterlot and bring me my helmet.”

“Mags, I’m on vacation.”

“You are eating oatmeal that a psychopath probably spat in at best, and at worst did something that would lengthen her sentence,” I reasoned.

I felt absolutely revolted when he stared me dead in the eyes, never breaking contact, and ate a spoonful of oatmeal without a hint of worry. I would have gagged if I hadn’t been numbed to a number of repulsive things in Terra.

“You disgust me.”

He only shrugged in response before finally breaking off eye contact. “What can I say? I was never raised to with ‘social etiquette’ or whatever. Plus, the only mares in my life were my ma and sis. Excuse me for enjoying having a mare or two glance my way.”

“How in the world did your sister become a raging monster while you,” I suddenly felt a handle plastic spoon press against my jaw

“Word to the wise, Mags, don’t piss off the stallion that can break into Starswirl’s vault.”

“Are you threatening me with a piece of cheap plastic?” I asked incredulously.

“A piece of plastic that would hurt like a mutt if it went in your eye,” he countered.

The handle quickly ran from under my jaw to the bottom of my eyelid, digging into my skin as it pressed against my socket. I wasted no time smacking his arm away and growling at him.

“Don’t do that again.”

“Don’t insult my sis and I won’t,” he offered.

“I hope you realize that the only reason you’re not dead right now is because you’re useful to me.”

“I’m useful to everypony, Mags. I’m practically immortal,” he boasted, taking another spoonful of his disgusting breakfast as he continued talking. “I get it mags, you’re mad that you got busted and thrown in here with us, but you really need to lighten up. All that anger isn’t good for you, dude. I mean, I think I’m starting to see a few white hairs on your head.”

“Your attempts at comedy are appreciated as always, Zephyr,” I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose to focus on the slight pain.

“Aw, thanks. I’m glad some one can laugh at my jokes every now and then.”

Ignoring his remark, I went back to my earlier question. “Zephyr, how did Saddle Ragger become a hero,” I emphasized. “while you became an insufferable prick who calls a prison cell his vacation home?”

Zephyr gave me a scrutinizing look, likely debating how much to share with me. To my great surprise, he apparently thought he could trust me with his entire life’s story. Maybe it was because I worked alongside his sister once, or maybe he actually thought I was his friend. Either way, I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Saddle and I had a good childhood, I guess. It was,” he paused to maul over his thoughts for a moment. “safe. Safe and boring. Our parents were always too scared to go outside, heck, they were too scared to even join a herd. When my sis was bullied at school for having mono parents, ma and pa started homeschooling her. And then, when I was born, they homeschooled me from the get-go. No family trips to the amusement park, no Nightmare Nights, no action figures because then they’d need to actually go to the store.

“It wasn’t their fault. See, before my sister was born, my ma was a hero named Sphinx, I actually took a bit of inspiration from her when I made my identity. Anyway, something bad happened and somepony found out about ma’s identity. Pa… They never told us what happened, but I could guess. They went into a protection program for heroes and just started jumping at every shadow. It’s not their fault, I know that, but, I wanted more.

“So, a year after sis left, I did too. I wanted to explore the world, see everything and anything. Eat new food, sit on beaches, try everything!” He recited with a child-like excitement. “But… but money doesn’t grow on bushes. I blew through everything I had in a week. Then I ended up getting into some debt with some bad mares. I learned I was really good at not being noticed, and I had a knack for memorizing schedules and patterns. I robbed those creeps for everything they had and got the ponice to nab ‘em.

“I felt so alive, then. Sneaking into buildings, collecting money and valuables like they were just points in a game, going to expensive restaurants and private beaches. When I got a taste of that, I couldn’t let go of it. I finally had what I never knew I really wanted. I had a life, freedom, I had the world in my hands. And… and my Sis just wanted me to let that go. Maybe I could have been a hero or something, make… Make ma proud, but… I don’t know. I just know they’re both really disappointed in me.

“I could try at least. Try to go clean, maybe help out the heroes. I just don’t know. I want to be with my family out there, not have to talk to my sis through a window.”

“So, you’d really give it up for your family?”

“Family’s important, Mags.”

I had to agree with him on that. As a man from another world, I have no family here, and I could respect Zephyr for for his decision. He was willing to give up everything he had made for himself to be with his family again.

In a way, it was admirable. It was also a great hinderance to my plans.

Zephyr was the only pony who knew how to break into the Vault. Sooner or later, someone would seek him out and break him free from our prison so that he could work for them. And, if I wanted to escape without revealing the true nature of my powers, I would need him to get my helmet back from the vault.

Besides, if he helped me, then could have all the money he ever wanted. It was a small price to pay for ensuring this world’s safety.

Thinking for a moment, I tried to find something to sway him to my side when a thought suddenly struck me.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can respect that, Zephyr. I can see I don’t need to keep my promise to your sister.”

“Promise?”

“To keep an eye on you. They wanted me to make sure you didn’t get hurt in here. There are a lot of big bad mares in prison, after all.”

It lasted only a second, but the sound of silent disbelief and surprise was glorious to hear.

“I can take care of myself,” he stated coldly.

“Well I know you can, but the others? Well, they told me to protect you, so I’ll protect you.”

“I don’t need protection, Mags. Nearly everypony in here owes me, I’ve got feathers in about every pillow,” I think that means that he has connections? “I’ll be fine without your help.”

“Well I know you can protect yourself. But the others? I don’t want to be a liar, Zephyr. So, if they ask, just tell them I protected you from all the scary mares.”

I was never happier to have my arm slapped away when I placed it on his shoulder.

“I know what you’re doing, Mags. You think I haven’t been played before?”

That had unfortunately thrown me a bit off balance. I had put too much of my hope into planting seeds of doubt in his mind, and I needed a more direct approach if subtly and deception weren't options.

“I know you’re smarter than you let on, Zephyr. Just think about this for a moment. What’s going to happen when you ‘go clean’? A lot of ponies in here won’t be happy to hear that, you know. That means they’ll drag you back in, they’ll find out who’s close to you and they’ll hurt you. You go into hiding, though. Spend the rest of your life inside your house, giving up your whole life because you’re afraid of some would-be villain finding you.

“I want to make a world where what happened to your parents can’t happen again, Zephyr.”

“By killing ponies?”

“I’m not a serial killer, Zephyr. I don’t go hunting down innocent ponies or kill others on a whim, I just do what needs to be done. What happened to the villain that hurt your dad, huh? They’re probably locked up, right? But then they escaped or they will escape, and then what? You want to go ‘clean’? Do it by helping me. Help me make this world better, Zephyr.”

“Mags, you can’t make a better world by stacking corpses. Come on dude, you were a hero.”


“I am a hero!” I yelled, causing the ambient noise around us to die.

He stared at me like I had lost my mind. A judgmental gaze that screamed disbelief and morbid wonder. It all melted into a look of abject disgust before picking up his tray and looking down at me.

“They were right about you. You’re actually insane.”

As he turned to walk away, I stood up from my seat and shouted at him in, what I wish was a rare moment of rage. In truth, I was very easy to anger at times, but tried my best to hide it. This was not one of those times.

“Don’t act like you have the moral high ground, Zephyr! How many times have you helped someone that killed others? How many of those enchantments that you stole were used against ponies like your dad, huh?”

His steps slowed to a crawl as his wings began to shudder. It was the only warning I had before his fists came flying into my face.

It wasn’t the elegant type of battle that heroes and villains would preform on television. It was raw, nearly animalistic rage as we punched, scratched, and bit and any part we could latch onto. The only thing that quelled our blind fury with each other was the sudden pressure around our necks as the collars began to strangle us.

Once I passed out from being chocked by my collar, I woke up in my cell once more, where I can do nothing more than toil away in regrets as I write this journal entry.

I’m almost certain that I’ve lost Zephyr as an ally now. If this continues, then I may have no choice but to reveal my true abilities to escape this hell hole. It wouldn’t be much of an issue if it weren’t for ponies like Nightmare Moon, who would easily deduce a way to stop me once she learned of my secret. What else could I expect from this world’s answer to Batman?


I think I’ll take this time to rest my mind for a while. If Zephyr was right about anything in our conversation, it was that I needed a moment to relax.

Comments

[Orrm]

A little too fiesty compared to our Magneto, but if I'm being honest, I doubt Erik would be half as amicable as he is in the comics if every single hero and villian threw away any use of their power capable of solving 'mundane' problems like 'World Hunger', 'War', 'Famine' and other mortal woes.

[PixelatedPerson]

10829436
True. Erik was really chill whenever he talked from what I've seen, yeah clearly he got angry but he was more monotone ish

[Prince Jules Moonshade]

Interesting story so far I can’t wait to see more and where this goes.

[Golden_Reflection]

I can’t wait to see what happens for his escape, and I also want to know what happens during his time with the ‘heroes’, which I’m sure we will have to get through first before his inevitable break-out.

I wonder if Nightmare Moon would figure out those x-gene suppressing collars, or a spell with similar effects, from the prison in Deadpool 2.