Equestria: The Fallen Utopia

I woke up a few minutes later in the pit of young Pegasi. My wings felt sore, so I opened them up to stretch them out. I walked over to a corner and sat down, observing what I could see from the hole. A Pegasus stallion walked over and sat down next to me.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to find an escape route,” I said. “I need to alert the princesses about this place.”

“I hate to break it to you,” the stallion said. “But there is no way out. Many a Pegasi have tried to leave, but never made it out.” We were silent for a time, watching the Pegasi around us get murdered one by one.

“So how did you get here?” I asked while still looking around.

“I failed my flight test,” the young stallion said. “Everypony in this pit failed the flight test.” I looked at the weak and starved ponies.

“These are all flight test failees?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” the Pegasus answered. “We're considered a disgrace to Equestria, so we're sent here. To die.”

“Well you know what?” I said. “I don't believe in the word 'disgrace'. I think that all ponies deserve a second chance, regardless of pass or fail.” I stood up. The tan Pegasus with the green and yellow mane looked at me. I walked to the center of the pit and stared him in the eyes. The blue pony with the yellow mane noticed.

“I think he's volunteering as tribute,” he said.

“How noble,” the tan Pegasus said. “What does he think to accomplish from his 'tribute'? He'll be next to die.” The Pegasus nodded at the worker at the controls. The arm with the claw lowered. As it was about to grab me, I turned and bucked as hard as I could. I overloaded the hydraulics of the arm and the machine snapped. It fell into the pit with a crash, nearly crushing me.

“Let's go!” I yelled to the captive Pegasi. “Now!” The captives took off and followed me. I led a crowd of Pegasus Ponies out of the Rainbow Factory, but none of us made it. Every single one of the Pegasi were recaptured in a matter of minutes, myself included. As the Pegasi were thrown back into the pit, I was brought to a wide open area and held down by the wings. The tan Pegasus was up atop a catwalk with a cleaver in his hoof, aimed at my head. I gulped and waited for the worst. The Pegasus threw the cleaver, and missed. It went clean through my right wing, cutting it off. I screamed in pain as the worker holding the wing attempted to hold me down. The blue Pegasus lashed out in rage.

“You missed you idiot!” He yelled at his partner. He gave him another cleaver. The Pegasus heaved it at me, missing again. The cleaver cut off my other wing. I cried out in agony. The Pegasi holding me down foolishly decided to throw the bloody wings into the grinder, giving me the opening I needed. Ignoring the immense pain in my sides, I bolted for the opened air vents. I jumped inside and quickly crawled through them. A worker started to chase me, but the tan Pegasus stopped him.

“Let him go,” he said. “He'll never make it back to his home alive. He'll bleed to death.” The Pegasus workers got back to extracting Spectra.

Outside the Rainbow Factory, I made a jump for the ground, breaking my left hind leg in the process. I had been lucky enough to make it out, but now I had to get home, or at least to Ponyville, which was closer and easier to get to. As I jumped from cloud to cloud down to Equestria, I began to feel lightheaded. I was losing blood, and fast. When I had made it to Ponyville, I tried to find Twilight's library, and I had to do it quickly. I ran as fast as I could to where I thought it might be. As I ran up to Twilight's door, I managed to knock 3 times before I passed out from the loss of blood. Twilight came to the door. When she opened it, my hoof that was leaning on the door fell at her hooves, startling her. She noticed my bleeding sides.

“Oh my gosh,” she gasped. She used her magic to pull me inside. Spike came downstairs.

“What's going on Twilight?” he groggily asked. “It's the middle of the night.”

“This pony is seriously injured!” Twilight said. “Get me my first aid kit.” Spike ran off to find the kit. Twilight lay me down on the floor. When Spike came back with the first aid kit, Twilight bandaged my sides where my wings had been. She noticed that my left hind leg was bent the wrong direction, so she snapped it back into place and put a cast on it. She took me up to her room and laid me in her extra bed. She watched me until I woke up, which wasn't until morning.

“He's waking up,” Twilight said. I sat up in the bed and groaned. Twilight looked at me with curiosity.

“I've never seen you around here before,” she said. “Who are you?”

“My sides hurt,” I said, not hearing her question. “Are my wings OK?”

“Wings?” Twilight asked, confused. “You're a unicorn. You don't have wings.” Ignoring Twilight, I limped downstairs to the library area. Twilight followed. I looked around, then at Twilight.

“Are you OK?” she asked. I didn't answer, as I had started to remember last night's events. I sat down. Twilight sat next to me and put a wing around me. I sighed.

“I haven't felt that in a while,” I said.

“You don't look so good,” Twilight said. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” I said. “But I need to get to Canterlot. I need to see Princess Luna.”

“You can't just walk into Canterlot Castle without authorization,” Twilight said. “Stay here for a bit, and rest. I'll fix you something to eat.”

“Thanks,” I said. I limped to a window and looked towards the sky. I sighed, thinking about Rainbow Dash. She was probably looking for me. I started to wonder. Wonder about the Rainbow Factory, the captive Pegasi, the bloody machines, the cleavers; I suddenly felt sick. I ran inside the restroom and threw up. Twilight knocked on the door.

“You OK?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. I looked in the mirror and wiped my muzzle clean. I noticed the bandage around by waist. I took it off and studied what remained of my wings. The bleeding had stopped, but the cut was clearly visible. The cleavers had made clean cuts through both wings. I put the bandage back on and walked out of the bathroom. Twilight had set up a table with some food on it.

“Why don't you sit down,” Twilight offered. I limped over to the table and sat down. I ate slowly.

“Twilight,” I said. “I need to show you something.”

“What's that?” Twilight asked. I stood up and removed my bandage. I opened up what was left of my wings, which wasn't much, just the base. Twilight studied me.

“You had wings?!” she asked, astonished. I sat back down and explained everything. My backstory, how Luna found me, and how Rainbow Dash had cared for me. But I didn't tell her about the Rainbow Factory or how I found it. I was too afraid to tell that part of the story. Twilight listened intently. When I had finished, I got up and limped outside. Twilight followed me.

“If you will, send a message to Princess Celestia,” I requested. “But address it to Princess Luna. Tell her these exact words.” Spike ran up with a quill and paper. I didn't notice. I proceeded to tell Twilight my message, unaware that Spike was writing it down as I spoke.

“Dear Princess Luna, This message is from the colt you found on the streets a few years back. I need to request an audience with you and Princess Celestia immediately. There is something you need to know. Please do not decline my request, it's very important. This information may surprise you and Celestia.”

Spike sent off my letter. I whipped around to see the last bits of the letter fly off to the Princess. I gave Spike a lopsided smile. Twilight gave me a saddlebag as I limped off to the train station.

“What is it that you need Princess Celestia and Luna to know?” Twilight asked.

“I can't talk about it,” I said.

“Can't or won't?” Twilight questioned. I gave her a glare.

“Both,” I angrily retorted. “I just can't bring myself to talk about it.”

“I see,” Twilight said. “When you get to Canterlot, let me know. I don't want you to get any more hurt than you already are.”

“All right,” I said. Twilight gave me a book.

“Here,” she said. “It's a book on basic spells. Study and memorize them. They'll prove useful. One of them is the spell Celestia uses to send me letters. I suggest learning that one first.”

“Thanks,” I put the book in the saddlebag Twilight had given me. When we reached the station, I waved goodbye to Twilight and got on the train to Canterlot. As the train pulled away, I looked toward the big city.

“I hope Luna got my letter,” I thought. Since I had nothing better to do, I pulled out the book Twilight had given me and started to look through the spells. One strange looking one caught my attention. It was written strangely and looked foreign. I looked at the page. The words seemed to be written in claw marks. Green magic flowed through the words on the black paper. I looked at the back of the strange page. It was empty. I took that page out of the book. Instead of tearing, it slid right out. It wasn't attached to the book at all. I hid the page in my saddlebag and continued to study spells on my way to Canterlot.