Sup guys, Another Hopeless Writer here, been doing my best to pound out as much as I can as fast as I can to make up for the huge cap between updates a while back. I don't know if anyone actually reads this story, but I still feel bad about it. As promised this is a somewhat longer chapter than the last one, and I hope you enjoy it.
P.S. if anyone is reading this story, constructive criticism is much appreciated, whether it's in the form of a pm or a review or whatever.
"... You're fucking kidding me, right?" I asked blankly, not taking my eyes off of the black collar the mare now held in her hoof.
"I'm afraid not." Came her reply, not sounding the least bit upset or empathetic. There was a brief moment of silence before I spoke again.
"Yeah, I'm not wearing that." I said, doing my best to not show how much I wanted to shoot her in her damn face.
"Excuse me, but would one of you please control your pet." The mare said, causing one of my eyes to twitch.
"You must really have a death wish." I mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear. Despite my hopes she didn't seem the least bit phased.
"Will, it's late, will you just wear the collar?" Star whined cutely.
"...You two are lucky you're so cute." I grumbled loudly as I reached out and snatched the collar out of the mare's hoof, putting it on like a bracelet. As we headed up to our rooms I looked back at the mare, pulled my gun out, and shot a pencil she was reaching for before she could touch it, though once again she seemed unfazed as she simply pulled another out of one of the drawers on her desk, much to my annoyment.
After a short walk down a hall and up a flight of stairs we finally arrived at our room. "I am going to kill that mare." I said as I took the collar off of my wrist and threw it in the trash.
"Sorry Will. We'll think of something to make it up, don't worry." Star said as she laid down on one of the beds. There were two beds in the room, and since I didn't feel like being a bother I simply laid down and fell asleep on the floor, while Night took the other bed, giving me an appreciative smile.
That night I dreamt about being back home, in the Colony, but it quickly shifted to Ponyville, and all of the friends I had made in such a short time. I felt bad since I hadn't been able to spend much time with the girls, but I knew I planned to change that as soon as I got back from this mission.
"I don't remember falling asleep with a blanket..." I thought as soon as I woke up. Slowly lifting my head and opening my eyes I realized that Star and Night were on top of me, soundly asleep. Not wanting to wake them up, I decided to just lay there until they woke up. I carefully put my hands behind my head and laid it back to the floor, thinking of what might happen today, and more importantly, any way I could get revenge on that stubborn mare who made me wear the collar.
"Really I wasn't too upset by the collar, but when she called me a pet, even after I had told her I wasn't." I thought to myself. "I really should talk to Celestia about how racist the ponies are." I absentmindedly added.
As soon as I thought that last bit I felt something shift on top of me. "Morning." I greeted, getting a small 'eep' out of Star.
"H-hi Will." She responded nervously as she quickly started scrambling to get off of me.
"You don't have to move if you don't want to." I told her, bringing a hand down and scratching behind her ear, knowing the affect it could have on ponies. As expected, she let out a quiet moan and, unexpectedly, one of her back hooves began kicking, much like a dogs would.
"We never speak of this." She said between pants as I chuckled, accidentally waking up Night.
"Mmmm. Speak of what?" Night asked as she lifted her head and shook her mane from her eyes. She only smirked as she saw Star, tongue lolling out and hoof kicking as I scratched behind her ears.
Before she could say anything I moved my other hand and began scratching behind her ear as well as Stars, earning the same reaction minus the hoof kicking. After a few more minutes I stopped, much to the displeasure of the girls, if their upset groans were anything to go by.
"So what do we have planned for today?" I asked, picking up the girls and placing them next to me before I stood up.
"Well, we aren't in Riyde, so we are going to keep heading that way." Night said as if it was obvious, and honestly it was.
"Ugh, couldn't we just teleport there?" I asked, trying and probably failing to hide the annoyance in my voice as we left the room and started heading down to the lobby after I grabbed the collar out of the trash. As a last second thought I cast a small spell on it that would shock the next person to touch it.
"No, unfortunately not. To teleport somewhere you have to have been there, or know enough about it to be able to picture it in your mind." Star said, sounding equally as annoyed as I felt, until I felt something click in my mind.
As we approached the front desk Star put down a small bag of bits and I tossed the collar to the mare I despised, watching in joy as she jumped slightly as she was jolted with electricity when she caught it.
"Wait a minute, so if you could say, see a picture of somewhere in Riyde you could just teleport us there?" I asked once we got outside, going for my phone, and thanking the annoying lady who sold it to me for persuading me to get a waterproof case.
"Well yes. Do you have a picture?" Star asked, sounding excited.
"More or less." I spoke absentmindedly as I Gizoogled 'Riyde' and hit 'Images fo' Riyde'. After I clicked it I started scrolling through the pictures until I found a nice picture of what appeared to be a Town Square of sorts. Holding the picture up to an amazed Star, she began focussing and after about five minutes we appeared in the location the picture had been taken of. Sadly, we may have gotten the place correct, but the timing, it would seem. could have been better. As soon as we appeared there was a loud collective gasp.
Looking around briefly I noticed two things. One, there were lots of ponies surrounding us, and two, it looked as if we had appeared right in the path of a big ass parade. After about a minute I noticed a third thing; there were armor clad ponies drawing their weapons and approaching us.
"Halt! You are under arrest!" Called one of the ponies I could only assume were guards.
I quickly glanced at Star and Night, silently asking what to do, only to receive a sad nod from Star. Since apparently we weren't going to fight our way out of this, I slipped my phone into my back pocket of my pants. That done, I did my best to look as nonthreatening as possible.
"Guards, take them to the castle prison. I will be there shortly after the parade is finished." Came a thick Saddle Arabian accent from a large wooden cube with what appeared to be silk draped down the front and back. A few guards moved in and made a small prism around us, with the unicorn in the back, some earths in the front, and a few pegasi hovering above.
After we had been walking for what I estimated to be ten minutes, we arrived at a palace. Upon entering Star, Night, and I all had the same reaction; total awe. This palace, with it's marble brick walls and white tile flooring, high domed ceilings, highly detailed tapestries, and golden vases, among other things, made the Canterlot Palace look like a rundown house on the shady side of Manehatten. The guards seemed to notice our gaping mouths and all smirked, and stood to their fullest height in pride.
"Nice place." I said, prompting one of the guards in front of us to turn to me with a smile on his face.
"The palace was made centuries ago, constructed using only the finest of materials available to the world. It is easily one of the most luxurious buildings out there." He informed us.
"Yeah, such a shame it was built under the circumstances it was." I replied, causing a raised eyebrow from a few of the guards, as well as Star and Night.
"Such as?" The same guard asked.
"You can't tell me you didn't know this place was built by slaves?" I half asked half told. This statement made everypony around me gasp, and the guards specifically to become angry.
"How dare you tell such a lie!" Came the infuriated response of one of the pegasi above us.
"Look buddy, it's not my fault you don't know the history of this place." I said, causing him to glare daggers at me, as well as a few of his comrades.
"I am not the one who doesn't know the history. Who are you to make such claims?" He snapped back.
"Well, if you must know, you are looking at one of those slaves." I replied, causing more than a few ponies to gasp, while remembering the time I spent working on the very building I was walking through. "I was on a scouting mission and I was caught. Since I was here illegally, I was put to work as a slave." I explained.
"That's impossible! This castle was built hundreds of years ago!" One of the earth ponies behind us spoke up.
"I can prove it to you." I replied calmly. "But you have to trust me for a little bit." I finished, causing the guards to all look around to one another before looking to me and nodding.
"Alright, just follow me." I said, taking lead of the party of curious ponies. Making my way through the halls was easy enough, since I had long since been forced to dedicate them to memory. After a few short minutes we stood outside a door with two guards standing outside.
"You're going to need to get them to let us in." I spoke to the group of guards as we made our way towards them.
"Are you mad?! That's the king's bedroom!" One of the pegasi spoke.
"I know. I helped build it." I said. "It's a huge room, with a balcony to match facing the city, with golden trim going up and down the marble pillars holding the railing, which is enchanted to stay cool even on the hottest of days. The walls are marble too, but not enchanted. The floor is a modified material that is known as Mineral Wool Carpeting, and is an amazing insulator, which helps the room stay cool for the most part when the enchanted glass doors to the balcony are shut." I said, remembering the masterpiece of a room I was charged with completing. By the time I had finished, we had finally made it to the door.
"We were told by King Abdullhoof to escort these new maids to his room." Said one of the unicorn guards.
"We have heard no such news." Said one of the door guards skeptically.
"Oh man, what is that?!" I suddenly said, putting on a horrified look while staring at the door. As soon as the door guards looked I brought my hands up and nerve pinched both of them, causing them to collapse. "You ponies are way too gullible for your own good." I said, stepping over their bodies and entering the room.
"So? Where is this 'proof'? Asked a nervous sounding earth pony guard.
"The one place you would most expect it." I said, walking over to a bookshelf and pulling out a book titled "The History of Riyde". Turning to the last page I read aloud. "To open secret door, place book back on shelf." I read before placing the book back into it's spot. As I did so, the fireplace began shifting, becoming wider and taller, the empty fire-pit lowering as a stone path appeared over it. The path began opening up deeper and deeper, creating a set of stairs.
"Where does this lead?" Asked one of the guards, shock easily distinguishable in his voice.
"This leads down to the archives." I said, beginning to walk down the stairway. Once we were down the fairly short flight of stairs we entered a large room, filled with bookshelves. "These are the record books they used to keep track of all the slaves." I said.
"So Will, your name is in one of these books?" Asked Night.
"No, they didn't use names. Instead they used numbers. Each slave was given a number they were required to dedicate to heart. That way, with no names, there was no proof of it happening. To most ponies these would just look like books of random numbers scribbled down in random order." I said. "... 639." I whispered, just loud enough for everypony to hear.
"Will, we have got to do something about this!" Star said, sounding infuriated.
"Nothing we can do. Besides, everyone who worked on this place is dead, other than Me, and I have long since put this behind me." I said.
"But Will, this palace was built using Slave Labor!" Night commented.
"Yeah, but it's not the first time it's happened. Honestly, this was one of the nicer times slaves have been used. We all got a good seven hours of sleep a day, two hot meals, five minute breaks every other hour, and they didn't even take kids. Compared to most other places where slavery has been condoned, those are damn fine conditions." I retorted.
"Other places have had slavery? Where?" Asked Night.
"Most countries in the world. Only ones I can think of that didn't are the Dragons and the Minotaurs." I replied, causing Star and Night to both slightly pale.
"E… Equestria had slaves?" Night asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, nobody really saw that one coming. After Luna was sent to the moon Equestria was sent to a dark place for a while, and Celestia decided that the best way to keep things running smoothly was with mandatory labor. That's actually why Cutie Marks became a thing. They were kinda like brandings, showing what that pony would have to do. She magically added them into the genes of the adult ponies, and they eventually became a genetic inheritance that was passed down through generations." I explained. By this point the room was absolutely silent, both parties in the room feeling some kind of shame in their countries history.
"Hey guys, don't worry, your countries were among the nicest when it came to slaves. We humans were absolutely horrible. We'd beat slaves, starved them, hell, we even invented ways to torture them without actually damaging their bodies just so we could punish them while keeping them in working order." I told the room, my own country's history popping up in my mind. I had never owned a slave, but I also never tried to treat them as equals, which to this day made me sick to my stomach.
"Hey! Who's down there?!" Called a voice from the top of the stairs, breaking everyone present out of their thoughts and causing a panic. Thinking as quickly as I could, I ran over to one of the guards and socked him in the jaw, causing him to stumble back slightly.
"Get some shackles on them." I whispered to the other while pointing to Star and Night. The guard seemed confused but quickly did as I said.
"Hey man, sorry about tha-" I began before I was tackled by the stallion I had punched in the face. As he sat, pinning me to the ground, I looked up at him and winked before swiping my hand out of his grip and grabbing his hoof before slamming it into my head, knocking me unconscious.
"Oh shit." I groaned as I woke up. Taking in my surroundings I noticed that I was chained to a wall in what appeared to be a dungeon.
"Will! Are you awake?" I heard a familiar voice call.
"Star, is that you? Yeah I'm awake. Where are you guys?" I asked.
"We're in a cell to the right of you." Night answered me.
"They didn't hurt you did they?" I asked, suddenly worried.
"No, we're fine, thanks to that move you pulled back there." Star said.
"The guards said that you had broke free and ran off to the Archives, and that they dragged us off after you in an attempt to get you to calm down, but you started attacking them before they were able to knock you unconscious. After that they brought us back here and left. Apparently King Abdullhoof is on his way to personally see who managed to make it into his archive." Night relayed to me what had happened.
"Ahh, I had a feeling I would find you here, number 639" King Abdullhoof spoke as he entered the dungeon.
"I take it you've heard of me?" I spoke nonchalantly.
"Of course. You have become somewhat of a legend to my family. 'The one that got away' as it were. The one slave to escape. I must say, based on what I have heard of it, I am quite impressed." The King said, stepping closer to me as he continued talking until he was right in front of me. "You know, I hate to have met on such poor circumstances, but I think we both know what must be done here, today." He spoke calmly, drawing a small dagger from a sheath on his side.
I did know what must be done. Can't have anyone who knows about the dark past of his family. "You know, I haven't said a word about what happened since the day I escaped, but seeing as how hospitable you are, I think I just might start." I said as he cleaned the already pristine dagger, more than likely to hear if I have anything to say that he might want to hear.
"Ahh, what a shame. Not that you will be talking, as we both know that won't be happening, but a shame that you have to die. I could use a new jester around the castle." He spoke, apparently finally happy with the condition of his blade.
He put the blade to my chest, over my heart, and thrust forward, only to his the wall behind me as I turned my torso to the black mist, my arms and legs following suit as I slipped from the shackles that held me in place. Floating past the shocked king, I made my way over to the cell Star and Night were being held in. Turning solid again, I walked over to the king, lifted him into the air, and locked him into the shackles I had just been a few minutes earlier.
After that was done, I searched his pockets, much to his disapproving shouts as he regained his composure. I quickly shut him up by taking the dagger from him, as well as the keys I had finally found. I took the dagger and put it to his throat. "That is not the only trick I have up my sleeve. Try to pursue me and you will quickly learn the rest. Now be quiet." He shut up right fast at that, so I went over and opened the cell holding Night and Star.
"M'ladies." I said, mocking a bow as they exited the cell and passed me, heading towards the door, but not before walking up the the king and socking him in the gut and head respectively.
As we left the dungeon we were greeted by some surprised looking guards. "Hey guys, what's up?" I said to the guards that had been tasked with escorting us earlier.
"W-we thought he was gonna kill you." Said a pegasus guard.
"Nah it'll take more than a snobby king with a vendetta to take me down." I said, walking past them. "Care to join us?" I called back, not turning around. My answer was in the form of several hoofsteps following behind us as we walked. "Umm, Will? This isn't the way to the exit." Star said.
"I know. We aren't leaving just yet." I said, continuing to walk. Eventually we made it to the end of a hallway, guest rooms on either side. Walking up to the end of the hallway I took down the painting on the wall, revealing a rune slightly bigger than my head. Placing my hand on it allowed it to magically scan my hand, which caused a door in the wall to begin sliding open to reveal a stairway leading up.
"Had a feeling they were too lazy to change the runes." I said, beginning to ascend the stairway I had used many times during construction of the castle. After we had made it to the top we were welcomed to the sight of the King's bedroom. Removing and replacing the same book as before the stairway in the fireplace opened once again, as we all began descending the stairway.
"Will, what are we doing?" Asked Star.
"We're grabbing a few books. Think of it as a self-given parting gift." I answered. Once we made it to the archives I instantly made my way to the back of the room. Looking through the titles of the books I finally found the one I was looking for. It was a fairly thin book, with no title, the only book in the archives without one. "This is the journal of the chief slaver. He was the only pony allowed to use names, and I know for a fact mine is in here more than once." I said, taking the book before heading back up the stairs.
"Will, why do you want that book?" This time it was Night who asked the question.
"Insurance. To make sure that the King gives us no trouble while we're in the country. This book could single-handedly get him removed from power, or worse." I said simply. After that we made our way back to the dungeon.
"Hey King-y, just want you to know that I am taking the Chief Slaver's Journal, y'know, just to make sure you don't try anything funny while we're here." I said, smiling at his horrified expression. After that we just left the castle, the guards coming with us, not that I was complaining since they are probably the only reason we weren't attacked when we tried to leave.
"So, I take it you guys are with us from now on?" I asked the group.
"If you'd be alright with that, yeah. We've never seen this side of our kings family, and frankly it's not what we signed up for." Said one of the unicorns.
"You two cool with this?" I asked Star and Night, both of which nodded. "Sweet, you guys are in. Might actually be helpful having some authority figures around." I said.
"So, why are you guys in Saddle Arabia anyways?" Asked one of the former guards.
"Classified." I said suddenly serious.
"Oh, I get that. I was just curiou-" The guard started before I cut him off.
"I'm just fucking with ya man, we're here tracking down a notorious illegal things dealer. Real meany. Gonna sucker punch his face in the face if we find him." I said, causing everypony around me to facehoof.