Heroism

by DiveBomb

Zero - The Shadow Light Casts

Heroism

By: DiveBomb

I wish I could tell you that I didn’t know how it happened, I really do. But that would mean that I wasn’t the one to blame in the first place. No, I did this. I made the decisions that brought me to this place; that made me into the pony I am today. I used to have one dream and one dream only. Now that idea is nothing more than a memory of my past life, and I couldn’t go back if I tried.

Even when the moon was full and at its brightest, its pale blue light still failed to reach the darkest parts of the city. Manehatten had its fair share of finer districts and tourist attractions, but all the lights and feigned smiles couldn’t hide the more foreboding corners of the metropolis. Their existence was well-known and feared, but very seldom were they acknowledged for longer than a paranoid glance over the shoulder. The wealthy ignored them from their self-constructed pedestals while the less fortunate mulled through the dark underbelly of society. There was no law in these places; no order in which to keep the innocent safe while the guilty thrived in the darkness. Least of all was the will to purge the city of the outermost edges of its boundaries; to put a stop to the senseless acts of violence and bring justice to those who deserved it. They were the streets that the law had simply given up on, and they were growing every day, spreading across the map like a virus.

Nothing was ever silent in Manehatten, least of all in the backstreets of the island-city’s shorelines. One alleyway in particular was alight with the sound of hooves galloping on the old and withered cobblestone. Discarded trash flew on either side of a panicking earth stallion, his breath quick and haggard as he ran at full speed between two foreclosed apartment buildings. His eyes were wide and alert, constantly peeking through his long and matted bangs to cast brief glances over his shoulder. He saw nothing but the gloomy alleyway behind him, but kept running as if some sort of monster was hot on his tail. His breathing climbed in pitch as he turned a corner down another alleyway, heading north as the sound of his frightened panting filled the cold night air. Only when his lungs were on the verge of tearing did the stallion slow down to a stop, collapsing against the alleyway wall to painfully catch his breath.

The earth pony sat on his haunches, his hindlegs stretched out in front of him with his hooves unintentionally dipped into a puddle of stagnant rain water. His head dropped forward with his chin barely an inch away from his heaving chest, the rest of him shivering from the cold of the night. He had to be quiet, but his body simply couldn’t allow such a privilege after running for so long. Once he started to tame his breaths, the stallion took a moment to cast a half-lidded eye open to take in his surroundings. He lay slumped against the brick wall of the east harbor, an empty building forgotten long ago. Its only purposes those days were to provide temporary but illegal shelter to the homeless as well as house a few shady deals and meetings. It was considered a dangerous, crumbling place and was ultimately condemned.

The stallion clutched his sides as they burned like a blaze had been lit inside his muscles, nearly doubling over as it struck. His lungs felt similar, exhausted from overuse. He prayed that he had somehow outmaneuvered his pursuer, whispering incoherent words of hope to himself. However, it didn’t seem as if his prayers had been heard.

Glass shattered from a window in the opposite wall, three stories above. The stallion found his panic once again as he spotted the dark silhouette of a pony tumbling head-first through the air, raining shards of glass down upon the alley below. For the briefest of moments, the earth pony froze as he watched the shadow fall toward the ground, his dreary brain tracking everything in slow motion. In the faint lunar light, he couldn’t make out any discernible features. To him, it was his most recent and most frightening pursuer to date. The stallion wasn’t certain if it was male, female or even alive. In his wide, fearful eyes, it was only a looming phantom bent on his demise.

The specter landed as if it hadn’t just leaped from a three-story window, its knees barely buckling as it hit the ground. No sooner had its hooves impacted with the cobblestone was the quivering stallion back up and running. The earth pony bolted down the North end of the alley, ignoring the searing pains all throughout his body. His muscles screamed in protest, but his mind was focused on staying alive. His thoughts raced inside his head, fear nearly crippling his entire being. He wasn’t sure if his words of sheer panic had escaped his lips or not, but he never once looked back as he turned right and burst through an unlocked door on the rear of the East harbor. He tore through the old caution tape, and plunged into semi-darkness.

His immediate surroundings were pitch black, but far ahead was the moon’s light shining brightly through the high, foggy windows of the bay. The stallion galloped forward, nearly tripping over unseen obstacles and protrusions. His eyes almost immediately adjusted to the lack of light, for there wasn’t much more outdoors. He couldn’t see much, but what his vision took in reflected the status of the harbor. Everything that the moon illuminated was clearly left unattended for years. Cobwebs and dust coated the walls, railings and everything else in between. Nothing but a few scattered boxes and discarded trash were left inside, along with a few empty shipping containers. Darkness shrouded the high ceiling, visible from the lack of a complete floor separating the two stories. Instead, the second floor was nothing more than a large catwalk hugging the inside walls of the enormous building. There were three water gates at the front of the building, but were closed and allegedly locked tight. After a moment, he spotted a metal stairwell leading to the upper level, and bolted for the landing.

As he ascended the iron steps, he cast a glance to the door he entered through, expecting to find the specter. To his confusion and utter fright, he spotted nothing but the tattered remains of the yellow caution tape. Faster and faster he climbed, gasping for air as his head became alarmingly light and dreary. At the top of the stairwell, the stallion yelped in fright at the sight of movement to his left. He turned around the railing and galloped down the upper level, dodging opened crates and debris. Another shadow danced across the floor ahead, and the earth pony skidded to a halt, his hooves grinding against the creaking wooden catwalk. He had been certain that he ran in the opposite direction of the shadow, but now he had seen it in front of him. He whipped his head from side to side, whimpering as he spotted more signs of movement all around him. The stallion gasped at the sound of clinking chains from above, hanging precariously over the open water of the closed-off bay.

He stood there, frozen on the catwalk with his eyes quickly traversing his dark surroundings. There was no way that he could have been flanked so many times in such a short amount of time. The only theory he could think of was more than one pursuer, but that alone was an impossibility. He took a few slow, quivering steps backward, flinching violently as his flank hit the wall behind him. The shadows danced all around him, but all he could hear was the dripping of water and the clinging of chains.

“Wh-Who are you?!” the earth pony shouted into the darkness, his high-pitched voice cracking as several emotions overtook him. “What do you want from me?!”

Not a moment after he closed his mouth, the stallion screamed in terror at the sound of a low, grunting voice: “Answers.”

His cry of fear was lengthened as something cold and metallic quickly snaked itself around his right hindhoof, pulling him forcibly toward the ceiling. The world spun around him as he was flung across the length of the building by the leg, swinging dangerously through the air. The chain holding him snapped tight somewhere above, but his momentum hadn’t yet died out. The sudden tautness of the chain threw the stallion into the Eastern wall of the building, the impact forcing the wind from his lungs. After a few terrifying swings back and forth, he finally caught his breath and focused his eyes. The earth pony now hung directly over the bay, around ten yards above the water. He looked up to find himself and the chain attached to a crane of some sort, its base hidden in the shadows. His greasy mane hung loosely from his head, allowing him to completely view his captor.

It was shrouded in the stallion’s own shadow, but he could see two fearsome eyes reflecting in the ambient moonlight. It looked like a pony, but he refused to believe that a mere pony could do what it had done to catch him. The outline of a large hat with a wide, swaying brim was seen atop the specter’s head. The rest of it, however, was shrouded by what looked like a cloak. If it had any color other than black, the hanging stallion wasn’t able to make it out. He stared at it with large eyes, their pupils reduced to mere pinpricks. It took a moment for him to spot it in his upside-down position, but he saw a foreleg withdrawn from the depths of its cape, clutched around a crank next to a couple of rusted levers.

“Tell me where she is,” called the specter, its growling voice heavy and androgynous. Its words echoed throughout the interior of the abandoned ship house, resounding in the stallion’s head like the memory of a horrid nightmare.

“I don’t know who you’re-” but his reply quickly turned into another scream as he was suddenly dropped over the bay. He hit the water with a painful amount of force, his body completely submerged in the murky water. His open mouth allowed a torrent of water to flow down his throat, nearly gaining access to his lungs. He choked on the large amount of stagnant water that was forced into his body, not knowing how much time had passed before he was yanked back up by the leg. Once his head emerged from the water, the stallion gasped in a lungful of air as his thoughts raced with fear. He rose quickly, choking back another scream as the blood in his veins rushed toward his head. The chain snapped tight again, leaving him to hang even higher than before. His dwindling momentum flung him from side to side for a moment before he came to another stop, dripping wet over the bay.

“You know exactly who I’m talking about! Now where is she?!” bellowed the specter, a considerable amount of hate lacing its words.

“I-I don’t-” he started before dropping into the bay once more, this time long enough to bring him to the verge of drowning. The specter brought him back up, cranking the chain to its highest level directly underneath the ceiling. The stallion gasped for air, gagging on the water pouring from his lips. He looked down to gape fearfully at the water below, not knowing if he would even survive the impact from such a height.

“I’m only going to ask you once more,” growled the specter. “Where is Trixie Lulamoon?!”

Comments

[Didlsbrony4evah]

O_O The Mysterious Mare do Well is looking for TRIXIE?!

DiveBomb, you have dazzled me yet again with your storytelling skill. I eagerly jump towards the next chapter!

[Pashoo]

Wait...

[q97randomguy]

Ooh. OOOoooOOOoh. I'm liking this. I'm liking this a lot!

I made the decisions that brought me to this place; that made me into the pony I am today.

Either a period or a comma depending on how you want this to sound. A semicolon's halfway between the two and here that isn't doing you any favors.

Least of all was the will to purge the city of the outermost edges of its boundaries; to put a stop to the senseless acts of violence and bring justice to those who deserved it.

I'd recommend a " , and" as opposed to the " ; to"

old and withered cobblestone.

"weathered"?

[SuperChaosKG]

Aw man, what did she do THIS time?

[MellowMabari]

Oooh, intriguing. I just spent the last half hour searching for a promising adventurey fic that I haven't already read (something that was surprisingly difficult. I think I read too much pony ) and this caught my eye. Glad I decided to check it out, as the premise seems really interesting, and your setup has me hook, line and sinker. I checked if this was in any groups to maybe figure out who the whole romance thing was going to be between, but so far no hints.

So yeah, rambling aside, great start!