Sky

Chapter 13: Eternality

"You do? That's great!" Coral exclaimed.

"Wait, back up a minute!" Chase yelled. "Why did he call you 'Magic Horsie'?"

Stardust hesitated before answering, "I'm capable of more than you're aware of." She changed the subject. "Don't you want to know what my plan is?" Chase and Coral nodded eagerly. "Chase, you run fast, right?" Chase nodded. "And you're strong?"

He nodded again. "Well, sometimes."

She thought a second before saying, "Great! I think we can pull this off! So, here's the plan..."

A few hours later, Garion walked into the warehouse to get something. "Ah, where is it?" He grumbled softly.

Stardust looked at Chase and nodded. She couldn't say anything, Garion would understand her.

"NOW!" Chase screamed.

To Garion, this was just a whinny. "Ah, shut up, ya stupid horse!" He didn't even glance their way.

Stardust concentrated. If she tried hard, really hard, she could do it...

The gate to Chase and Coral's pen slowly opened. "Nice job, Stardust!" Coral said. Stardust didn't respond. If she took her focus off the gas, it would fall...

It started to lower. "Oh no!" Chase rushed over and slipped under the gate, holding it up with his back. "Go, Coral! Stardust, open your gate!" Chase and Coral came over to Stardust's cage.

Stardust was getting  a headache. Must! Keep! Concentrating!

Chase slipped his head under the door to hold it open. He cried out in pain "It's heavy!"

Garion had had enough of all the commotion. "What's all the racket for, stupi-" he around just as Stardust slipped out. Garion yelled, "CODE RED! CODE RED!" The three foals ran out the door. Finally, freedom!

Not.

"There! That'll hold 'em!" Garion locked the new strong cage.

Russ chuckled. "Good luck escaping, horses!"

Stardust growled. "What, exactly, do you want with us?"

Russ giggled again. "Well, obviously we're gonna use your magic-" 

Garion clamped his hand over Russ's mouth. "Hush!" he whispered. "Come on. We need to get the transportation device. Oh, and grab the life formula!" They shut the door.  And locked it.

Coral flopped down and sighed. "Great! Now we'll be here till we die!"

Chase nodded in agreement as he remembered his last moment of freedom. He and Coral bumped into each other, he asked for help- "Wait," he blurted. "Coral, remember when we bumped into each other? What did you need help with?"

Coral glanced at him, then stared at the ground. Barely whispering, she said, "My parents- they'd both just died."

Chase opened his mouth in shock. He wanted to apologize, but he couldn't manage to say a word.

Coral looked to the door. "Not like it matters now, anyway..."

"I'm sorry," Chase finally said. "If I had known..."

"It's fine," she interrupted him. "Like I said, it doesn't matter anymore. Besides, at least we're safe here, I guess."

"No."

They turned to look at Stardust, who had been quiet for some time.

"We aren't same, and we won't ever be if we can't escape."

Chase and Coral gasped. "Whatever do you mean?" Coral exclaimed.

Stardust looked up, her eyes troubled. "I put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Think about it. The food they give us is weird tasting. And when I accidentally rubbed up against a sharp edge, I wasn't hurt at all. This formula keeps us alive forever." To prove her point, she found a sharp edge on her cage and rubbed up against it.

She was exactly the same as before.

Chase and Coral gasped again. Then Coral said, "Actually, I do remember Russ gave us the wrong food once. It tasted weird. He took it back right away, though. We only got one bite."

Stardust nodded with excitement. "You'll be alive forever!" They looked at each other, surprised. "But," Stardust thought some more. "Since you haven't eaten as mochas me, the effect might be a little bit different."

They nodded. "What else?" Chase asked.

"Well," Stardust continued. "Garion called it Life Formula. So that might be it. Anyway, if I'm alive forever, they may abuse my power. The can wear me out as much as they want, because I'll never die."

Her brother and friends' eyes went wide with horror. "And they might keep you too because they can. We'll be in these cages forever, I'll always be exhausted, and you two'll just sit there. So now, escaping is the only option."