Accidental Ponygirl

Nicole paced impatiently back and forth outside the New Troy City train station. Where was Rachel? She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago.

She sighed. Nicole hated living out away from the city. She'd moved into her stepmom's mansion a few months ago after her dad remarried. Unfortunately her dad was redeployed back to the front lines shortly thereafter, leaving Nicole with her cold and indifferent stepmother, and a long train ride away from her best friend, Rachel.

Maybe Rachel got held up by her new friend, Circe, Nicole thought. The spoiled rich girl had been tagging along with Nicole and Rachel everywhere they went. Nicole had to admit, she was a little jealous. She'd been great friends with Rachel since before the war, but ever since she'd moved out to the countryside it seemed like Circe was taking her place as Rachel's best friend.

A car pulled up. Nicole marvelled at the luxurious auto gleaming in the sunlight. It must have cost a fortune. The passenger side window rolled down.

"Hey, Nicole! Get in!" Circe called from the driver seat.

Nicole looked inside the car, it was just Circe. She pulled open the door and sat down on the supple leather seat. The inside was even more ostentatious than the outside. How could she possibly afford to have her own car to drive? The gasoline alone must have been prohibitively expensive - it was strictly rationed outside of military use. Being the daughter of the vice-governor obviously came with plenty of perks.

"Where's Rachel?" Nicole asked.

"Sick," Circe replied, then she slammed her foot on the accelerator and the car peeled out. Nicole slumped. She was supposed to spend tonight at Rachel's apartment, now what would she do? She'd already missed the last train back to her house.

"Cheer up, Miss Mopey, I'll give you a ride back home later," Circe said as she raced through the empty streets of the city. "In the meantime, let's have some fun!"

Nicole perked up a little. She could make the best of a bad situation. Maybe hanging out with Circe would help her understand what Rachel saw in her. "We're still going to the promenade to see if we can meet some cute boys, right?" she asked.

"Pfft," Circe dismissed her. "All the cute boys have long since been conscripted. The only boys left in this city are the cripples and the rejects. I know someplace fun we can go."

The war between Aegea and Ionia had been raging for over five years now. There had been terrible losses on both sides as the battles ground into a bloody stalemate. Being far from the front lines, the port city of New Troy had been spared the awful destruction of the war, though the deserted streets were a far cry from its pre-war glory days.

Circe pulled down a street near the waterfront. It was lined with dilapidated warehouses, a testament to the labor shortages caused by the seemingly unending war. She stopped in front of an imposing compound housing a dozen hastily constructed concrete buildings surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Circe stopped the car and got out. Nicole followed.

"Where are we she asked?" Looking at the idle cranes from the deserted docks nearby.

"Didn't you hear?" Circe asked. "Third army broke through the lines in the west a few days ago. They overran an Ionian town by surprise. I want to see if we can see them."

"See who?" Nicole asked, hurrying to keep up with Circe as she followed the line of the fence around the compound.

"The captured Ionians, of course! They say that there was a girl's college there. We captured a whole bunch of college aged Ionians."

"So?"

"So?! Have you been living under a rock? That means there's going to be a big new batch of domestics! Daddy said I could get one as a graduation present when I finish my degree this semester."

Now Nicole understood. About a year back, as manpower losses mounted and labor shortages worsened, the Aegean government legalized slavery of captured Ionian soldiers and civilians. The benefits were twofold - the new slaves could be forced to work the many vacant jobs that existed; and, through the sales, the Aegean government could raise badly needed money to continue the war.

At some point an enterprising bureaucrat discovered that the rich and powerful in Aegean society would be willing to pay a tidy sum for a pretty, young, well-trained slave girl, so a special program was created to furnish just such a product. The 'domestics', as they were called, were an immediate hit. All the wealthiest families were eager to get their hands on these new toys. Anyone who was someone had their own 'domestic'. Being on the very fringe of high society, Nicole had never actually seen a domestic slave girl in person before.

Circe stopped at a point in the fence where the chain link was loosened from the support post. She peeled up the corner section of the fence from the ground. "Hold this up while I crawl through," she told Nicole.

"I don't know about this," Nicole replied. "We could get in serious trouble if we get caught trespassing."

Circe scoffed. "No we won't. First of all, we won't get caught. And second, my dad is the vice-governor. He would just tell them we were doing inspections on his behalf or something. Now come along, or you're walking home."

Nicole held open the fence and Circe squeezed under. Circe was definitely dressed for the adventure. She wore a practical, yet stylish, jumpsuit and heavy boots. Nicole, on the other hand, was dressed for meeting boys at the promenade. She wore a short sundress and sandals. Once Circe was inside she didn't bother holding the gap open for Nicole while she shimmied through.

"Shit!" Nicole exclaimed as she snagged her dress on the fence and put a long tear in it.

"Keep it down," Circe complained. "We're trying to be stealthy here."

Once inside the compound, the pair scurried from building to building looking for where they were keeping the new Ionian slaves. They eventually stumbled upon a huge excavated pit with tall corrugated steel walls dividing it into a large, confusing maze.

"This is it!" Circe whispered excitedly.

They couldn't find the entrance to the pit so they decided to slide down using a rope they found amidst some construction equipment. Nicole, trying to rappel in sandals, slipped on her way down and landed hard in a thick patch of mud. Circe nearly alerted every guard in the complex with how hard she laughed at her filthy companion.

Nicole, liking this adventure less and less, hobbled behind Circe as they navigated the maze of corridors. They found several unoccupied holding pens and empty inspection areas. The only potential sign of Ionians they saw was a pile of dirty, tattered clothing in one of the processing areas.

They were about to give up when the duo heard a gruff voice call out. "G'day, ya Ionian pigs. I got dinner for ya. Eat up! Yum! Yum!"

They waited a couple minutes until they thought the guard had left, then crept towards the holding pen where they'd heard him speaking. Just as they were about to make the final turn, the guard came around the corner. They stared at each other in shock for just a second, then the guard shouted. "Hey, you there, stop!"

In a flash Nicole and Circe took off, back the way they came, while the big, lumbering guard hurried after them, fumbling with the stun baton clipped to his belt. With twists and turns the girls raced through the labyrinth. Nicole, in her sandals, struggled to keep up with Circe. But, still, both of them were quicker than the lumbering guard.

Circe darted around a corner right as Nicole lost a shoe. She bent down to put it back on and, by the time she did, Circe was out of sight. Nicole hurried along, trying her best to remember the way they came, but nearly every area in this maze looked alike.

She finally made it out to the edge of the pit. Nicole looked frantically up and down the sheer wall of mud. She was certain that this was the spot where they had come in, but where was the rope? There was no sign of it, or Circe.

Nicole ran along the outside of the maze, desperately looking for some other way out. She rounded a blind corner, looking over her shoulder to see if she was still being pursued, and ended up running right smack into the guard. She bounced off his sturdy frame and fell onto her butt.

"Well there ya are, ya Ionian cunt!" he chirped as he loomed over Nicole.

"No, wait-"

Bzzzt! The guard jabbed his stun baton into her side and pressed the trigger at full power. Nicole stiffened, her vision faded to black, her body shuddered as she collapsed back into the mud. Her mind was in a daze and all her muscles went limp. All she could remember was the warm, wet sensation between her legs as she pissed herself. The guard picked her up and threw her over his shoulder to carry her away.

Nicole came back to her senses as she was brought into an inspection room. "Stop! Please! You're making a mistake! I'm not an Ionian! I'm an Aegean!"

The guard dumped her face down on a metal table. Nicole turned to plead with him. The hideous guard's face was covered in scars, the largest of which ran from his forehead to his cheek through an eye that was covered in a black, leather eye patch. His jet black hair had splotches of white throughout. He slammed her back down onto the table.

"Shut the fuck up, Ionian pig! You think if you speak with an Aegean accent that you can trick me?! I've probably killed more Ionians than you've ever met in your whole life. I'd still be out killing 'em right now if I hadn't taken a blast of shrapnel to the face from your comrades. How did you get out of the holding cell?"

"Please! I'm telling the truth! This is all a mistake! My dad is Colonel Rick Burton, 4th infantry division."

"Yeah, right, and I'm drinking buddies with the king!" the guard mocked her. "How'd ya get out of your restraints?"

"I'm an Aegean! You have to believe me! That other girl I was here with, she's the daughter of the vice-governor. She has my purse with my ID in her car."

"What other girl? I didn't see no other girl, and all I gots here is you. You think the daughter of the vice-governor is gonna hang out with a mud covered cunt like you? Ya smell like piss and your dress is torn to shreds. Now quit making up stories or I'll have to gag you."

The guard pressed her down against the table and pulled her arms behind her back. Then he slid a pair of zip tie cuffs up over her elbows and pulled them tight. Nicole groaned as her elbows were drawn together until they almost touched. Tears formed in her eyes.

"I'm not an Ionian," she pleaded. "The Ionians killed my mother in the bomber raid on the capital in the opening days of the war."

"Yeah, you Ionians killed a lot of people," the guard growled as he pulled another pair of zip tie cuffs tight around Nicole's wrists. "My buddy, Sal. My cousin, Lou. My first commanding officer. Actually, that guy was a prick - good job on that one." He pulled Nicole up to her feet.

"Please, just call my stepmom. She'll explain everything."

"Yeah, and who's your stepmom. The king's aunt?"

"No. She's an executive at GloboDyne, the weapons contractor."

"I thought I told you to stop making shit up, princess!" He whirled around and delivered a gut punch to Nicole. She dropped to her knees, coughing. Before she knew it he had pulled an opaque canvas bag over her head. Sewn into the material was a leather gag with straps that ran around the back. The guard forced the leather wad into her mouth and buckled the straps tight around her head.

"Finally, some peace and quiet," he remarked as the gag stifled any further pleas from Nicole. He reached down and grabbed her by the elbows, hauling her to her feet. Nicole tried to pull away from his grasp as he opened the door to the room. At the first sign of resistance his hand was at his belt to grab his stun baton. This time he used the lowest setting. Nicole nearly jumped out of her skin as the spark rocketed through her dress and into her ribs. She howled into her gag and cried, going along now as she was frog marched through the winding labyrinth. She must have lost her shoes at some point during her capture, she realized, as she felt the hard dirt under her toes.

"Here we are, Your Majesty. Back among your people." The guard loosened the buckles on the hood and shoved her into the holding cell. Nicole stumbled inside, landing in soft mud. She clumsily shook the bag off of her head and ran over to the door of the cell to try and plead some more with the guard, but he was gone.

Nicole slumped down against the wall in defeat and cried. Then she took notice of the occupants of the cell. There were about a dozen other women, all roughly the same age as her - in their early twenties. All were covered in dirt and grime, and wore tattered dresses or pajamas, much like Nicole. Though their rough condition was likely due to the circumstances of their capture and transport to this place. All had their elbows and wrists pinned behind their backs as Nicole did.

The Ionian captives looked at their new cellmate, tears streaming down her eyes. A girl with waist-length brown hair came over to comfort her.

"It's going to be okay," she said.

Nicole recoiled at the woman's thick Ionian accent. After so many years at war she was only used to hearing it from villains in propaganda films and in historical vids from school that sought to explain why everything bad in the world was Ionia's fault.

"You don't know that!" replied a skinny blond captive from across the cell. "We're in fucking Aegea! I heard they enslave our people and work them to death in their iron mines."

"I heard they fatten us up so that they can eat us!" said another captive fearfully.

"And after they kill you, they peel off your skin and turn it to leather to make gloves and hats for their aristocrats," added the first girl.

"That's not true!" Nicole retorted, trying to cease the slander of her people. The other girls gasped when they heard her accent.

"You're Aegean!" one of them cried out.

"Yes, I am! This is all a terrible mistake. I don't deserve to be here," she opined, then realized who she was talking to.

"And we do?" scoffed the girl with the long, brown hair.

"That's not what I meant-"

"We were dragged out of our apartments at gunpoint by your soldiers. They groped us. They bound us. They loaded us onto a boat and shipped us here. You think we deserve this?"

"No, no! That's different. It's-," Nicole tried to find the words to explain, but there wasn't any satisfactory explanation.

"Just like I thought," replied the blond. "Aegeans don't have to be fair, because they're certain they're always right. It's how they're born."

Nicole slumped down. It was no use arguing. She would find no sympathy for her plight here among her enemies. With nothing left to say, the other girls ignored her. The holding cell was suddenly divided in two halves, with Nicole on one side, and the Ionians on the other, talking quietly among themselves so that Nicole couldn't hear them.