A/N: Okay, if you seen the movie, you known we'd reach this part eventually. This chapter contains fictional ponies getting killed.

Don't say I didn't warn ya.

Chapter 5

Derpy finally comes too, back in the enclosure. She's on the ground. She licks her dry, blood-caked lips. A sudden movement startles her- it's Big Macintosh, shoving her a battered cup of water. It's like he's been keeping watch. She's suprised, a little suspicious, and very grateful as she gulps the water down. She looks around, Bill is nowhere to be seen.

"Where's my brother? Have you seen him?"

Big Macintosh shakes his head.

"Did I win?" Derpy asks.

Again Woody shakes his head.

"I tried to tell him..."

"Say it again." Big Mac asks him.

"Say what?"

"The words you said in town. About the wind blowing and the rest... Say it again."

Derpy thought back recalling the words. "Blow, wind. Come wrack. At least we'll die with the harness off our back?"

"What's it mean?" Big Mac asks.

"Live free, or die, I guess."

Idaho's voice suddenly echoes over them and the entire enclosure. "You can sleep or watch a movie. Tomorrow we run. Twenty miles, with full saddlebags, in three hours. Everypony makes it. Or nopony eats."

The next day:

Derpy and the rest of the recruits trot briskly along the rim of the open pit mine. As they pass next to the kitchen, a few turned to look at the food being prepared. SLUNK! went a butcher's knife through a hunk of meat, severing a limb. The butcher tossed it into the boiling pot of water that was nearby. Then they moved on.

Two small ponies, stunted in growth, tried desperately to keep pace, and failing to do so. Derpy had seen both of their cutie marks and still had no idea why a pony would have scissors or a snail as one.

Derpy breifly looked back. The short chubby one was way behind, their was no way he would be able to catch up now. A Lunist soldier galloped past her, and she quickly turned her head forward.

A shot rang out into the air, and she didn't dare look back at the brutal truth she knew.

At the other side of the mine they finally reached the finish line, back where they had started. Derpy and the rest fell weakly to the ground, baked by the harsh glare of Celestia's sun.

The last pony, one with a snail on his flank as his cutie mark, stumbled exhausted past Idaho.

"Alright, up at 'em my little ponies. Dinner time. You all get a treat. Meat tonight."

The ponies quickly scramble into line. The cook pony dumps gray slop into the tin bowls that were part of their gear in their saddlebags. Behind Derpy is Snails, the pony who made it back last.

Derpy holds out her bowl, but Idaho puts out a hoof, blocking her. Idaho turns to the cook. "Why don't you tell Shakeshoof over here, what kind of meat that is."

The cook looks up, emotionless. "Mule," he says, dumping gray slop into her bowl.

Derpy's stomach churned, and she tasted bile. Luckily her stomach was empty; so she didn't vomit. They cooked up her brother- and there was nothing she could do about it. If she tried anything, she'd wind up just as dead as he was.

"Mule," Idaho said curtly. "A godawful animal. Sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey. Can you imagine that? There's no room in this new world for a bastard like that."

It was all Derpy could do to not punch Idaho in the face then and there. She trots off wearily to the stable, and just sits there, trying not to think about the bowl of gray slop that a few days ago used to be her brother.

Snails holds out his bowl, but the cook doesn't move to fill it.

Idaho smiles wickedly. "Uh uh." He raises his voice loudly so all the recruits can hear. "Anypony last in line ain't hungry enough. You show up last, you don't eat."

Snails steps away in disbelief, in the stable, he angrily kicks over a bucket filled with urine and feces. "I'll die before I'm last in line again." His voice is frail and weak, like it would break at the slightest gust of wind.

"That's what they're hoping for." A pony says.

"Well at least you're eating!" Snails yells back in a rage. The other pony doesn't reply.

Derpy can't stand the sight of the gray mush anymore and holds the bowl with an outstretched hoof.

Snails turns and sees Derpy's outstretched hoof. Gingerly, he takes the bowl. "Serious?"

Derpy doesn't say anything. It's all she can do to keep from vomiting.

Snails digs his hooves into the grey mush greedily, not even bothering to use the provided spoon. He sticks his mush covered hooves into his mouth and beams. "This ain't bad."

He slurps his hooves. "This ain't bad," he repeats.

Lost in despair, Derpy stares out at the dreary palette.