Thunder Rain wakes up to a bright light, shining harshly on his seemingly paralyzed face. He struggles to move, and only causes himself more pain. Finally, he manages to turn his head, only to see a rainbow-maned Pegasus and a white Unicorn, both in the same-if not worse-condition he was in. He tries to think, but then realizes he doesn't have enough energy. The light was so bright, Thunder couldn't help but squint his eyes at this seemingly makeshift sun. Finally, out of exhaustion, confusion, he doesn't even know what, Thunder can't help but fall into a restless, dreamless sleep.

Thunder Rain wakes up to a wide room, completely dull, with no signs of life. He makes an unsuccessful attempt to set up, and realizes something: He's in a bed. But, this wasn't any normal bed. Something was tugging on the ends of all his hooves, making him sprawled out like a frozen eagle. Realizes he has much more energy than before, he darts his eyes to the left and right to find the bright ponies sitting in beds next to him, wide awake, and talking about something he couldn't make out.

"Um..." Thunder begins, and the trapped ponies turn their eyes towards him "Uh...hello?" Thunder tries and slowly gets a response from the other ponies.

"Hello, my name is Rarity...I suppose I'm sorry we had to meet like this, and unfortunately, I'm not too sure how I got here..." says the white Unicorn. Now, it's the rainbow-maned pony's turn to speak.

"Hey, I'm Rainbow Dash, probably heard of me, right?" Thunder Rain just stares at her from his bed. Like he was supposed to know?

"Sorry, I don't think I have..." Thunder responds. Rainbow Dash simply shrugs.

"Oh well...but, one question, how do we end up here? Last thing I remember was flying around Ponyville." Rarity nods her head.

"And I was simply making dresses, like always...and I do apologize I don't believe I caught your name." Thunder hesitates. He doesn't even know where he is, why, or how, and these mares were already making introductions like the situation was some walk around Sugarcube Corner? Well, these were the only other ponies he could see...or even know existed...might as well get to know them, right?

"Oh, I'm Thunder Rain and...honestly I don't remember how in Equestria I got here but I-" He is abruptly cut off by...something opening what sounds like a door into the room. Thunder struggles to catch a peek at his captor...or captors...and fails..then a voice says,

"Oh, you're awake...well its time for test one, but I'm afraid resistance might be a problem here due to your study results, so I'm just going to make you a little dizzy." Before having a figure with goggles leave through the door, and fill the room with purple gas. Thunder watches the other ponies cough, and what looks like die. Oh how he hoped they weren't dead...his last thought before he too, did the same.

This time, Thunder does dream. How could he not after an experience like that?

"Thunder Rain! Get your flank over here and help!" Thunder hears a shouting voice say. Thunder Rain looks at the sky to see that it has turned a viscous blood-red color. Finally done staring, he responds to the voice.

"Okay! But what am I supposed to do?" The pony simply stares at him, dead serious in a situation appropriate for it.

"You are a bucking archer! Shoot the cursed things!" After the pony said this, Thunder looks to the ground to see his bow. He picks it up, and the guard points a hoof to the sky. Oh Celestia...what was going on? Up in the sky were...Changelings? No...these weren't changelings, the unmistakable holes in their body were non-existent, same went for the razor sharp teeth. No, these were...something far worse. These things, their weapons looked much higher tech than Equestria standards...! Their weapons...what their weapons doing to the place? Curious, Thunder watches one fire, and it shoots what looks like a glowing orb. Finally, the orb smashes into ground, and shortly after, causes the ground below it to turn...green? What? Just then, the pony shouting at him was too busy shouting orders to the other ponies just as one the orbs shot into the ground below his hooves.

"Sir, look out!" Thunder screams at the pony.

"What in Equestria is it now Thunder-" Then the glowing orb glows that bright green color, and the ground below him disintegrates, but it doesn't stop there. No, the green color rushes up the pony's legs, and then the rest of his body. Finally, the pony, vanishes. Just like that. Instantly turned into a glowing green pile of dust, ready to infect other ponies that dare came near it. Thunder stops there, and screams. "This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't...be...real..."

Then. Thunder snaps awake. He places a hoof to his forehead to feel beads of sweat on his forehead. He must have slept hard. Then he opens his eyes to see that he was in a bright white room, lit with harshly bright lights. This time, thankfully, he wasn't chained down to any beds or anything. Just free to walk around in this annoyingly bright room...but where were the other two ponies? Thunder really didn't like being alone in a situation like this...he hated being alone. Little did he know, they were in rooms right next to his. That's when Thunder noticed the glass. The glass in front acted almost like a viewing screen...a viewing screen? Why would they have that? Thunder walks up to the glass and looks down through the transparent glass to see what seems like a thousand rows of high-tech buttons, levers, and other trinkets mostly foreign to pony kind.

"What in Equestria is happening," Thunder wonders, "Where am I? What am I doing here? Why-" That's when Thunder licked his lips. Completely dry, and bleeding. Thanks to that he began to notice he was extremely dehydrated. Still, he wondered what was going to be done to him, and to Rarity and Rainbow Dash? Finally, he heard the sound of another door opening and closing. Then, finally, he clearly saw his captor's face. Immediately before he wished he hadn't. What he saw before him was viscous. A dark black pony with soulless eyes, horribly disfigured hooves, and what looked like a small version of some kind of creature that just came out of the Everfree Forest itself. Except, it was worse, this thing looked smart. It strode past Thunder's room, never taking its dark, soulless eyes of the one position it was looking at: Him. Thunder pressed his face to the glass and looked his hardest to the right after the mysterious creature strode past his room,still looking straight ahead. "Is that Rarity and Rainbow Dash in the other rooms?" Thunder thought to himself. Celestia, he hoped so.

"Good day, chosen Equestrian subjects!" said a voice all too cheerfully that came in through a speaker directly above Thunder's head, "Today is your first day of testing! Now don't be scared, we promise to try not to harm you, we do need you after all. Now, the creature in front of you is called an Sitheirian, and he is going to try a few simple tests on you, good luck, and stay alive!" Thunder just stood there. What did it mean by, "simple tests?" Before he could think of what it might mean, a duller voice came on the speaker that said,

"Test number one. Conductivity. Test subject: subject number one, referred to by sources as 'Earth Pony.'"

Author's Note

I just started this story so it's pretty short. (For now) I will definitely try to update this as much as possible, thanks so much for reading!