Stations

by Mint Essence

Day 3892

Positive woke up the next day with a pleasant heat surging, or rather resting throughout his entire body. He felt as if he had been sleeping right next to a warm fireplace, and struggled to get himself fully up and alert as a result.

Waiting for the rest of the house’s occupants to wake up he settled down to a nice breakfast of goats cheese and wild berries that grew around the mountain. As with dinner they spent much of their time talking amongst themselves, with Positive asking all sorts of curiously posed questions about their little village.

Shortly after which Positive was brought outside into the village to have a good look around and introduction to its inhabitants.

However not too long after they had left the house a loud series of sudden bangs alerted the entire village towards their gates.

A single cat, not much larger than a kitten approached the gate, opening it only to be barraged by a large mob fifty or so ponies who all stormed into the village, forming a large multilayered semi circle that extended from the village’s walls to the first of its houses.

A single stallion stepped through crowd wielding a large threatening pickaxe in his hooves. “We’ve tried a hundred a times over to negotiate, but this is a step too far. Take our gold, take our gems, take our food, take it all, but when our own start to go missing we can’t afford to just fight with our words!” The stallion aggressive put forth, a loud almost ear piercing cry of approval and hatred quickly following his short speech from his fellow ponies.

“Please, please, try not to be so hasty in your condemnation of us as you have in the past. Let us first hear your complaint.” Another young cat shouted as he bravely approached the mob.

“Our complaint is that we’ve had enough of you!” The stallion shouted, pointing his pickaxe mere inches away from the young cat’s face. “You know that you’ve been thieving from us for months, and only recently quite a few ponies who we hold as treasured friends and family members have gone missing. You’re the only thieves in a good few dozens miles from here, tartarus, you’re the only other intelligent species in such a distant.” The stallion continued.

“So we’re giving you an ultimatum. Return our friends and family and never show your sorry faces anywhere near our town again and you need not worry about us ever again. Do otherwise and we’ll drive you out and return what is rightfully ours to ourselves.” He demanded.

“Look, they have a pony amongst them, and they aren’t of our community. They must be taking ponies from elsewhere too.” A young mare from the crowd surmised, shouting over the crowd as she pointed directly at Positive.

The whole crowd then stirred into an uproar, descending on Positive’s hosts as they took hold of him, carrying him off into the centre of the crowd to “protect” him. He naturally tried to protest, but was unable to speak loud enough or put up any physical resistance to the large swarm of bodies.

The cats made no attempt to stop the mob in their actions, not wanting to harass them into a greater fit of vitriol, although they were clearly distressed by the whole incident.

The head stallion then made a gesture for the crowd to clear out, which it did, carrying Positive off through the gates, making sure however to not stray too far from their leader.

Said stallion then spoke up a final time. “We’ve been nothing but fair and patient with you, so we’re giving you one last olive branch. You have exactly five days to return any ponies you’ve taken. If every single one isn’t returned safely by that time we’re laying siege to this village and claiming it all as our own, without a single cat left in or anywhere near these mountains alive.”

“You’ve seen our numbers, and our rage. Don’t think we’ll just back down, this is too far, not when our own are at risk!” He commanded, violently waving around his pickaxe.

Driving his pickaxe right into the ground the stallion turned his back and quickly scampered off, following close behind the long train of fellow miners as it wound down the mountain.

Positive had been swept away by the large herd of ponies, being dragged down the mountain at first kicking and screaming, before quietly resigning himself to his fate for some ten, maybe even fifteen minutes.

When they finally arrived at their destination he was roughly dropped onto the hard rough rock floor in the middle of what he would have called lines of small dingy huts, but were more like shabby masses of rotting wood haphazardly scattered about the large plateau, gathered particularly tightly around what vaguely looked like a few small cave entrances.

“Unf! Where am I?” The stallion simply asked in bewilderment, immediately retreating back into his shell as he scrapped himself up off from the ground and looked back up at the fifty or so ponies all gawking down at him.

“You don’t need to worry about that right now son. All that matters is you’re safe.” The lead stallion from before said, patting his back as he approached him.

“I-I, sorry. I just don’t quite understand what is happening?” Positive asked again, more than confused.

“What’s been happening is we’ve been being robbed the past few months. Gems, gold, bits, food and water, even our tools and the very wood from our houses has been taken by those damned cats, and now ponies such as yourself.” The stallion explained, gesturing towards the clear deprivation of their surroundings.

“Our very homes are crumbling down upon us, and we’re losing both the tools and strength from hunger to fix them back up. But as bad as that’s all been we ain’t just going to stand by as we watch our own be ponynapped! Ain’t that right?” He put forth very authoritatively, pointing towards his ponies in wait of their inevitable clammer of approval.

He then went on to give Positive a very brief tour of the town, which was mostly a an excuse to drag him through the depressing catalogue of everything that had been taken from them, and every wrong done.

Positive did try to argue back that when he had been in their company the cats had been nothing but amicable and kind to him, and that he was by no means ponynapped, but whenever he tried to open his mouth he was immediately silenced as the other stallion burst into another tirade about some other travesty that had befallen their little town, his own personality being overblown by that of the much more bombastic and charismatic colt.

Soon after his tour around the town he was brought up to the entrance of one of their mine shafts and taken inside along with the other stallion who proceeded to lead him down its long and increasingly dark passage, the two lit up by nothing more than a small lantern that the stallion wielded.

It didn’t take long for Positive to become more than a little concerned as they winded their way further and further into the darkness. But once again this charismatic stallion stood as a constant distraction, seeming to have a story to tell about every little nook and cranny of the mine system that they past by, ensuring that Positive didn’t have too long to mull over exactly how deep they had gotten into the system or exactly how they come to be there.

No more than what Positive judged to be fifteen maybe twenty minutes into the mine had past when four looming figures suddenly appeared behind them, casually approaching the two stallions, albeit with a menacing little glint in their eyes.

“More ponies?” One of them asked.

Turning around to see their new companions Positive was immediately taken aback as he saw four very bulky male cats, far less elegant than those he had met the previous day, with flat almost gremlin like faces and brawny arms that monotonously dragged along the floor like a deformed orangutan. They weren’t cats, they were Diamond Dogs!

“Only one today I’m afraid. But he’s not from our town, so you can consider him a freebie as a sign of my good will.” The stallion responded, his tone far less lively than before, more calculating but equally authoritative.

“What’s happening here?” Positive simply asked, taking a few steps back from the stallion as he was in utter shock at how fast this whole situation had suddenly befell them.

“You really can’t be that stupid? Surely you know the infamy and rumours of the Diamond Dogs, and you know fully well just how amenable our cat friends are.”

“An almost cult like leader rallies his troops around a harmless threat while his entire base and everypony in it slowly go missing? Meets up with all sorts of suspicious characters in secret? You should be able to piece it together from there.” The stallion bragged, seeming quite pleased by his little scheme, and possibly even more so by his smug sense of self awareness.

His suspicions being confirmed and seeing one of the dogs playfully wave about a pony sized metal collar and chain Positive backed up all the more, his mind firing with a thousand different anxieties.

“But, w-why would you do this? What do you gain from it?” Positive simply asked, failing to reason with him.

“It’s simple. I septuple their workforce, meaning that they’ll make many times what they could have, and in exchange I get a 25% cut, in comparison to the messily 5% I was getting with my ponies. The more ponies they have, the bigger that cut will be.” The stallion continued, a wide smirk parting his face.

Acting on impulse in a sudden unexpected bout of courage Positive sprang forth, smashing the stallion’s small lantern with his right hoof, causing it to burst open upon him, large shards of glass cutting right into his skin as the lantern’s oil spilled all over his furry coat, instantly lighting much of his body on fire.

He then made an immediate dash away for what he hoped was the exit. Looking behind himself he saw that he wasn’t followed, the four dogs all very humorously stamping all over the stallion’s body to try and put out the fire, burning themselves in the process. He’d probably be fine, and the fire would hopefully give Positive long enough to get away.

Positive continued to run down the mine until he luckily came to it’s entrance. Slowing down his mad sprint to a slow trot he came back into the light.

However he must have still looked quite distressed as a mare approached him to ask what had happened to get him into such a fright.

He lied, explaining that their leader had gotten one of his forelegs stuck under a big rock that he couldn’t move and would need quite a few ponies to help him out.

Hearing this a good majority of the mining town immediately leapt into action, thundering right down into the mine with great speed in pursuit of their dear leader.

Positive used this as a good opportunity to silently slip away from the town before once again making a mad dash away for his life, practically flying right down the mountain and across the long derelict path to the smooth white concrete of the station.

For some reason the coldness and perfectly flat surface of the platform brought him great comfort. It was the only real sign of civilisation, or at least the civilisation that he was familiar with, in this vast expanses of alienness and at least on his own people’s side, barbarity.

Luckily he had to wait for no longer than two hours, having thought that he might need to wait through the night and well into the next day for the arrival of his train.

Getting onboard he took his usual seat and one long look out towards the mountains, swearing never to return to this station ever again. The catharsis he felt as the trains kicked into gear and slowly began to power its way down the tracks was unreal.

He had no idea what might have happened in either town. Had the stallion been found out and ousted by his followers? Had any of the pony slaves the mines held been freed? Would the village of the cats be attacked? Would things simply return to normal?

He did feel guilty for having abandoned both the cats and his own brethren to the fate of that cruel slaver and his dog’s, but he was no hero, and he had no doubt that if his schemes hadn’t been found out a fast series of lies would have been spun about him by their leader to the effect that no-pony there would have let him leave alive if here was caught.

Author's Note:

I know that this one was fairly short given how much could have been covered in terms of the town and its lore, but this is all told through Positive’s perspective, so by no means can anything outside of that be covered.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

again, nice job!

[Booster Spice]

Hopefully his escape was the pebble that changed the avalanche of the region from so much death and destruction.

[Mint Essence]

11146098
>Cat Bureau
Ha ha, that does sound like a really interesting idea, although maybe just a bit too silly for me.

11146102
Yeah, I’ll need to fix that. One of my funnier mistakes anyway.