P.O.W.

by Bandit Blue

Chapter 2

I don’t know how long I’ve been in here. Sleeping is no longer a problem, I’m so tired all the time it became easier to sleep than to stay awake. I can’t see the sun setting or dawning, it’s always silent and pitch black, save from a few times where a torch or another is lit on the corridor. I tried to tell by the meals they gave me but it didn’t help. Sometimes it felt like they gave me 3 meals one days and none in the other, always the same thing: A tasteless ration bar and a big glass of water, in the beginning I could barely eat half of one, now I wished they gave me two or three instead of one, not because they were good, but because I felt ever more hungry. For all I know, I could be sleeping all day and staying awake all night, probably something in between. In such boredom, sleeping was the best way to pass the time. And strangely, I stopped having bad dreams or nightmares, I started to have good and pleasant ones instead. Every time I woke up, I just wished I could go back into the dreams I quickly forgot about when I awoke.

The mare never showed up again, good thing I was able to sleep and eat without her help. I honestly thought she would show up with corn, pillows or even get me out of here at once. Ho naive, I should know better at this point I’m not a lucky one. At least I give her the benefit of the doubt, she was only a low ranking soldier who had lost her horn, she might have tried to help me only to be pushed away. She was nobody before the war, now that she had lost her magic she meant even less to them. Despite all I hope she’s okay, she did a good job keeping up the positivity mask when she was last here, but it was obvious she wasn’t well. Maybe she even knew then she wouldn’t come back and was just trying to give me hope, if that was the case, I think I’d prefer if she hadn’t done that.

All I knew is that it’s been a while since I went through an interrogation session, I suppose they gave up getting any info out of me. My whole body still aches though, they were very effective in hurting me in a way that would only inflict high levels of pain but no serious wounds. Once I wondered why they hit me with their bare hooves before since their magic was so much more effective in torture, the answer came quickly to me, I was a griffon, their enemy. I was the perfect target for them to take out their frustrations.

It was terrible, of course, but nothing compared to this silence. Shouldn’t there be other prisoners in these cells? Griffon or otherwise? In this complete darkness, it felt like the silence got louder and louder until it was indistinguishable from the screams of agony in the medical bays. My heart would try to beat itself out of my chest and I would bang and shake the cell’s bars while screaming from the top of my lungs for help until I fell to the floor, exhausted. I don’t recall how many times I did that, all I remember is that somehow I felt the silence was louder than my screams, and no one ever answered, not a single noise of a opening door, sound of hoof steps or wing flaps, not even the dim light of a far away torch. They should’ve done this from the start, this was worse than any torture they had put me through, this made me wish I was never born.

The sharp talons on my claws that they clipped when I got here were growing again. The talon of my index finger was big and sharp enough to end my suffering. Three times, I touched one side of my neck with it and tried to muster the will power to make it pierce my skin and slide it to the other side. I was never able to. Even in this situation, I didn’t want to be in it for a second longer, but I couldn’t bring myself to end it all. The fear I felt whenever I tried, I can’t tell if it’s worse or less worse than others, but it certainly was unique. When I screamed for help, there was always hope that someone would at least hear me, even if no one ever did, in this, there was no hope, there was nothing. The furthest I got was shedding a single drop of blood, In that warm and stuffy place, I felt ice cold every time, my body would simply freeze. So I couldn’t forget if I wanted to, it happened 3 times.

The guards that brought me my meals never opened their mouths, even in my most desperate moments, where I claimed I’d anything for them to let me out, their muzzles remained shut, their gazes stoic. The only phrase they ever said was: “Back away from the door.” They would then pull the tray with food and water through a hole and leave. I tried not eating and drinking in hopes of getting any results, obviously I never endured long, I was always hungry, always thirsty, it was simply impossible to ignore. My mind kept going back to the fact that I was apparently alone in that dungeon. It probably had to do with the mare I helped. Maybe they didn’t want to know that griffons had hearts so their troops wouldn’t feel any remorse when ending the life of one. Their propaganda depicted us as baby eating monsters, this theory wasn’t so far fetched, which worries me, because if it’s in fact true, this is where I’ll spend the rest of my days.

Could that also be the reason why Moonflower never came back? Would they lock up one of their own kind to maintain an image? No, they probably just gave her a lot of money to keep her muzzle shut and sent her home as a war hero. I can’t blame her for that. In a way that should make me happy I suppose, I traded my life for her’s, if she’s well it was worth it. With or without the war it was never going to end up well for me, so that was probably a good deal.

I laughed thinking about how I don’t even know why this war is about, I’ve been told more than one reason by my people, and apparently so did the ponies. Money some said, don’t both sides have enough money? Why do they need gold so much? What could they possibly need to buy that they don’t already own, and who was selling something so expansive that justified not only the price but also the spilt blood? Maybe land? There was at least enough fertile land to grow food to feed the royals, so that couldn’t be it. Considering that the monarchs cared at all about anyone other than themselves would’ve made me laugh even harder. If they were worried about food before, there’s probably half less creatures to feed at this point, so surely by now there would be enough food.

The only consistent information was that we started it, we attacked first, but then it became ethereal once more, some said they forced the king’s hand by invading griffon territory, others claimed it was because the ponies kidnapped several griffons. I laughed even more when I realized that no matter any of the reasons given, none could justify the war. All the deaths, all the bloodshed… It became funnier and funnier. I’m going to die in this little piece of oblivion for saving the life of what they told me was an enemy, and that is hilarious, I can’t stop laughing.

---

Two unicorn guards stood in front of a cell where the brown griffon apparently passed out on the floor. One of the unicorns opened the door of the cell and stepped in, calling for the griffon to wake up. The griffon remained immobile as the guard kept calling for him with an increased tone every time, he could see the griffon was breathing and therefore not dead, out of patience, the guard poked the griffon’s ribs with his hoof with significant force as he called for him to wake up one last time.

The griffon shot himself backwards with widened eyes, half in confusion, half in terror.

“You’re being moved, get out.”

After a moment of hesitation, the griffon slowly exited the cell. He wondered why no cuffs, no restraints, no ropes, no magic was being used on him this time. He was kept on a very tight leash from the second he arrived in pony territory, why did being “moved” excused the use of those things? The unicorn left the cell right after him and stayed behind him.

“Private Fury will lead the way, you follow him. I’ll be right behind watching your every movement, it’s not in your best interest to try anything foolish, so I advise you to behave. The day might end up well for you.”

“What’s happening? Where am I being moved to?”

The unicorn identified as “Private Fury”, started to walk, the unicorn on the back simply refused to answer the griffon’s question and told him to move. He walked between the two unicorns past other empty cells, past the door that led to the place where he was thoroughly interrogated, and walked up a very long staircase until they reached a door. The staircase kept going up, but the unicorn opened the door in front of him and stepped out, holding the door open for the griffon and the other unicorn to pass through. Once they did, he closed the door behind him and resumed his position in front of the griffon. They were once more in a corridor, but this corridor had several doors on it’s left side, various decorative cloths but most importantly windows, where Leone could the sky, and the sun shining brightly up above.

Leone didn’t care about what was about to happen, he was breathing fresh air, seeing the light of the day, to him if felt like he was in the land of the dead and came back to the land of the living. Even if these were one of his last moments, he was glad to be able to experience it one last time. Despite the presence of the guards, it all felt so calm, the silence was no longer one that screamed terror, but it was filled with noises from small animals, he couldn’t remember the last time he was in such a peaceful place. He didn’t realize he and the guard had walked a good part of the corridor until Private Fury stopped in front of a door and simply pushed it open. Leone entered the door that led to a large hall, with many decorations, some doors and stairs on both sides that went upwards and downwards. Private Fury passed in front of Leone and used his magic to open the two doors on a big doorway in the middle of the hall. Leone could see a huge table, full of food, on the other side and confusion struck him once again.

“Go on.” Said the unicorn behind him. He walked inside as the unicorn followed him. Once inside, he studied his surroundings, but the first thing his eyes gazed upon was the unmistakable white alicorn, the monarch and goddess of the ponies, Princess Celestia. She sat on the edge of the table and looked at him with a kind smile. Leone’s beak was hanging open, unable to avert his gaze and decide whether he should be happy or terrified. He felt a strong impact hitting him, making his heart skip a beat as he let out a short scream of terror. After a short while, he saw the broken horn mare hugging him.

“I’m so happy to see you.” She claimed with watery eyes. The ambient was warm, but Leone could feel the body heat of the mare that had him in her arms, it was different, it was warmer but something more, something comforting. He snapped out of his shock and gently hugged the mare back, feeling even more of her body heat. He didn’t understand what this was, he only knew that he wanted this. He needed this.

Comments

[Poofy_Poof]

Woah
I am so intrigued
and very very very much excited to read more!
I seriously hope this isn't one of those stories that ends up left to rot

[Bandit Blue]

10789365
I'm very happy you like it!

I seriously hope this isn't one of those stories that ends up left to rot

To be honest, me too.

I'll try to finish it, but I must say it probably won't be a long story with several chapters. I'm not great at "novelization" so I'll try to keep it as short as I can, and try to finish it, even thought it make take a while from one chapter to another sometimes. Good news is I will post a new chapter tomorrow or so, I hope you enjoy it as well. ^^

[Poofy_Poof]

10789481
I definitely will!

[Thundercloud93]

amazing story is like you to work on it till it is complete.

Ps loved the story

[Silentwoodfire]

Pretty sure the guy was suffering mentally there