They Walk Among Us

Twilight woke up with a jolt.

She was having the strangest dream, an awful dream. The moment she realized that it was nothing but a dream, she swore not to think of it ever again.

Twilight, however, knew how to differentiate memory from dream. She remembered everything- The Supernova, the Black Hole, the crash, everything. It was all etched in her brain- just like her dream.

But Twilight didn't want to think about anything right then. She was lying down on something soft, and comfortable. The air was cool and nice. She was in total bliss- no worries, no problems. In fact, the nightmare was no longer a problem. All she wanted to do was fall back to sleep.

Twilight yawned. She tried to cover the yawn with her hoof, but she wasn't able to move.

Not surprising, she thought, considering how tired I am.

But then she yawned even more. It started to hurt her jaw. She tried her hardest to keep her jaw shut, but it was very difficult to do so. It was extremely painful. Twilight wished that the pain would stop.

But the pain had another effect on her.

It woke her up.

The feelings of bliss and pleasure immediately disappeared as she snapped back into consciousness. She felt the fatigue and the pain start setting in, not to mention her mental stress. She breathed heavily and she opened her eyes. Her eyes quickly grew accustomed to the bright light (being a magical pony and all), and she took a look around. Everything was white. Very unnaturally white.

She tried to rub her eyes, but her hooves couldn't move. At first, she thought she was too tired to move. But even when very tired, she could at least lift her hoof by a millimeter or two. This time, she couldn't move at all.

Twilight tried to see what was wrong with all four of her hooves. But in place of all her hooves, she saw...

What was that?

Large, thick pieces of steel covered her hooves. They held her hooves down in place so that she couldn't move them at all, and it seemed as if they were made to fit her hooves. At the surface of that steel, she could see grooves and lines, and a few of them emitted bright blue light.

She tried to get a closer view, but she then realized that her head was also held down by a steel strap tying her forehead down. She couldn't move a single muscle.

Even her horn was strapped to something above her head, and she could only see what's in front of her face.

Twilight quickly grew panicked. She hated not being able to move. But there was no other choice. She had to escape- escape whatever this place is. She could only do one thing. It was a stupid thing to do, but she had to do it. She had so much frustration and anger in her heart that she couldn't hold it for much longer.

"YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" she screamed.

It was then that she started hearing signs of other life forms. Their sounds were very faint, but she could hear them easily enough.

"Subject Zero is awake. And conscious."

"No, that's impossible. That much of dopamine in her would keep her as happy as a dog getting a new toy everyday."

"It's heart rate is rising, and the scan says that every part of her brain is now active."

"I didn't want to do this, but we'll have to for now. Double the amount."

"But sir, that might-"

"Understand one thing, lady! We need to find out what exactly this thing is, and how it came here. We need to find an explanation as to what the hell is going on right now."

The other voice sighed.

"Understood"

Twilight heard a sudden buzzing, and she managed to look up. Two contraptions holding injections of some sort were coming to life, and they reached down to Twilight's neck. She tried to struggle, but it was futile- she couldn't move at all. She tensed up, and both contraptions managed to inject her. She felt a sudden rush of pain, immediately followed by a sensation of waves crashing against her skull, and then everything seemed peaceful once again.

She closed her eyes and went back to sleep...

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight slowly opened her eyes once again.

It was just like before. She had the same awful nightmare, only now it was more vivid than before. She tried to take her mind off it, but she just couldn't. It was too awful to bear.

She waited for the bliss that was given to her before, but it never came.

In fact, everything suddenly seemed different.

Twilight's eyesight was still blurry, and she could barely see anything. But she knew that she was not in the bright room she was in the last time she awoke. She could hear lots of commotion, but she couldn't make out anything anypony was saying. She could also feel one other thing.

She was moving.

She wasn't walking- she couldn't even twitch! She was still lying down on the same machine as last time, but this time, that machine was moving.

As she regained her consciousness, she started to see strange creatures- lots of them. They were akin to monkeys, or more specifically apes, but yet they still looked different. They stood and walked on two legs, they didn't have any hair on their body except for the top of their heads, they stood upright, and worst of all...

They could speak.

Perfectly, no doubt. Twilight didn't know how, but these 'evolved apes' learned their language. Maybe they downloaded the information from her brain. Twilight didn't like people messing with her brain.

Again, Twilight tried to move her body. But it was still neatly trapped in place. She also seemed to have gained enough strength now, and she could most possibly attempt an escape. The problem is, she didn't know if her magic... No. She didn't know if any type of magic could still work after the crash.

The crash. How was she still alive? That crash would've completely destroyed Equestria, and the other stellar body that crashed it. Did Princess Celestia manage to transport all of them into another planet? That would've made sense. The inhabitants of the other planets might have been disturbed by millions of ponies coming into their planet or something. Oh wait... If she could've done that, wouldn't she have teleported them from the Supernova in the first place? Nah. Maybe it was a last resort.

Then... Where were all her friends? Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike? They were all together outside Quills and Sofas right before the crash. Were could they have gone?

Wherever they were, she still needed answers. And since she cannot answer the question herself, maybe she should ask someone else.

"Excuse me..." she whispered.

The creatures guiding her to wherever they where going did not seem to hear. Twilight still needed to sound feeble (for the escape attempt, if she needed it), but she needed to speak up a little bit.

"Excuse me..." she said, raising her tone.

One of the creatures looked at her, but whatever it was thinking, it discarded it and looked away.

They could hear her. Just a little louder...

Twilight faked a cough. Both the creatures guiding her looked back. They stopped moving.

"Excuse me... Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle. If you don't mind me asking, could you please tell me where I am?" she said, in the most innocent and weak voice she could manage. It sounded just like Fluttershy's normal voice..

One of them stared at her, as if he could not believe what he was seeing. The other one looked at his partner, as if expecting something from it. In the end, both of them just looked away and continued their journey.

So much for politeness...

In the end, Twilight just relaxed herself. She needed answers, and wherever they were taking her to, there should be answers there. If not, then she could just simply teleport from there.

After around 5 minutes of daydreaming, Twilight and the two guides reached a small room. It was smaller than a regular sized Equestrian bedroom, but she could see why they didn't need all that space. The walls of the room were made of glass, and there were all different types of 'evolved monkeys' looking into it. She honestly had no idea what was going on.

The guides released her from where she was lying on, but kept the hoof guards in place.

"Stay here, horsie. Don't get any ideas about running." one of them said.

As both of them exited the room, the other one looked at her and said: "Them fancy hand shackles of yours can release about 600 kilovolts of energy into you. That's enough to maybe paralyze a little horsie like you."

Horsie? They really were rude. She was practically already a mare. Even 'pony' would've been fine for her. 'Horsie'? That's just mean.

And what the hay is a hand? They're called hooves. Hooves.

Just then, another of those creatures entered the room. This one was dressed better.

He moved just like the two guards did, but he looked older. His face was shaped very strangely, and the wrinkles on his skin stood out greatly. His expression was all smiles, like the face a shark would wear when luring fish into its mouth.

"Hello, miss." it said, as it took a seat. Judging by it's voice and physique compared to some others she managed to observe, she had to assume that this one was a male.

That's a relief. At least this is a one who's polite

However, Twilight remained silent.

"Take these damned hoof- I mean hand shackles, or whatever you call it, out. Please." Twilight said. She hadn't planned on taking an annoyed tone, but she was really ticked off at the time.

The polite monkey in front of her did a shoo-ing gesture, and the hoof shackles immediately came off. It was then that Twilight realized how heavy those things were. It was a real relief to finally get them off.

"Whew." Twilight said.

"Great. Now, let us introduce ourselves first. My name is Adrien Ramses. I am the owner of this fine establishment." he said.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle. A unicorn." she said. She couldn't reveal too much about herself, yet she needed to be nice.

"OK, Ms. Sparkle, was it? Let's play a simple game. Do you want to play a game?"

OK, now he was being deliberately condescending.

"Please don't treat me like I'm a lost child. I am Twilight Sparkle, apprentice and protégé to Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria."

Ramses now looked lost. He chuckled a bit, then he said: "Well, Ms. Sparkle, what I'm going to do now is this. I'm going to let you ask me three questions. But in return, I have to ask you three questions."

Twilight couldn't say no to the offer. Maybe now she can finally know something about what was going on.

"Sure." she said.

Ramses smiled.

"OK, you can ask your three questions first."

Twilight took a deep breath. Whatever she learned now could change her way of life forever. Plus, she needed to think of an escape route.

"Sure. Number One... Where am I"

"You, Ms. Sparkle, are in an underground science facility known as Black Wesa. We specialize in finding out the natures of specific problems who no one else has the answer to."

Twilight looked at him. He seemed very experienced in these types of conversations.

"OK, next question. Where are my friends?"

"Your friends?" he asked, giving her a quizzical look. "Haven't seen them. They might still be on the surface."

The answer she expected, but not the one she needed. Twilight was very worried for her friends by now, but she knew that until she escaped, all she could do was trust them.

"Okay, last question. What happened? Weren't we supposed to have died from the crash?"

Ramses looked down, and sighed, He was obviously disappointed with the question.

"This one's useless. Bring it back."

The Hoof Shackles came back into position, covering all four of her hooves.

"Hey!" she shouted.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Sparkle. You see, that's the very question we've been trying to answer. No one was supposed to have survived the impact. And you are of no use for the investigation." he said, as he put on some kind of mask.

"Gas her." he said.

Gas? This is not good.

She concentrated all of her magic on teleportation, but she needed time and the right amount of concentration in order to teleport only her body, and not the shackles.

She started to hear air coming out...

Come on, come on...

There! The exact amount!

And in a flash of purple light, she was gone.

Twilight reappeared right outside the room. She didn't remember anyplace else, and she needed to be able to visualize where she was teleporting to.

From there, she quietly sneaked away. Because of all the commotion in that other room, no one noticed the little purple pony  slowly trotting out of sight.

She easily managed to get away from the place, until someone shouted:

"Okay, everyone spread out! We need to find that purple horse. Set phasers to pierce."

Uh oh.

Twilight immediately broke into a full run. Everypony (or everymonkey, in this case) had noticed her by now, but she couldn't take the chance of them being fully prepared when they eventually found her.

"There it is!"

"Quick! After it!"

Twilight ran as fast as she could, nimbly avoiding obstacles and easily turning when required. She ran very quickly- there was no way they could catch up to her.

And then it hit her.

Something that could ruin the plan...

She didn't know the way out.

She normally would've remembered this sort of thing, but the shock of the impact and the stress of the moment must have got to her reasoning. But there was no backing out now- she needed to find a place to escape.

And then appeared another complication.

The monkeys appeared to be able to hold something in their hands that was able to shoot out beams of light. And according to the markings it left on the floor when it hit it, she knew that she couldn't let those beams touch her.

Knowing full well that it was take up a lot of energy, but presented with no alternative, Twilight quickly formed a magical barrier around her. As she expected, the barrier kept the beams out.

However, for every beam that touches the barrier, more of her energy was absorbed. This was a strange phenomenon, but Twilight had no time to think about it. So she did the only things that was sensible at the time. She shrunk her barrier so that it fit her exactly, and she turned at every turn possible.

She didn't know where she was going, but she had to at least try to escape.

Then somepony (or somemonkey) shouted:

"It's heading for the holding cells! Quick, stop it!"

But Twilight didn't care. She just had to run.

When she reached the Holding Cells area, she stopped.

The Holding Cells were just one very long corridor, and it was very easy for the monkeys to aim at her like this.

Come on, Twilight, think! Clock is ticking...

The shouts were getting louder...

What to do... What to do...

They're getting closer...

Idea, Twilight... IDEA...

It was one straight line, with prison cells at the sides. How is she going to lose them like this...

Of course!

Twilight quickly teleported to one the nearest cell, not caring whose it is. She glimpsed a man taking a bath at this cell, and he screamed. She was going to have to send him an apology letter later. Just another small errand.

She moved quickly, in a zig-zag pattern, through the holding cells. No one else seemed to bother with her teleporting through their cells, so she just kept moving. She was confused.

Why wouldn't they bother with me nicely teleporting through their rooms? Sometimes, she just hated her scientific curiosity.

Then she someone shout: "Please, oh please be QUIET!"

She then heard something rambling on about something, but her adrenaline rush was too high to make out what was being said.

She kept on jumping through cells, too busy to think about anything else.

That was when she heard a very familiar voice.

"Twilight?"

Twilight immediately stopped. This was the voice of a friend. A voice she had to listen to everyday. A voice she would've hated to hear when she was busy back in Ponyville.

"Pinkie?"

"I'm hear, Twilight! Come here, quick!"

Twilight teleported a few cells back to where Pinkie was.

"TWILIGHT! IT IS YOU!" Pinkie screamed in delight, then proceeding to hug her tightly.

"I was so worried that I was all alone in here, so I tried to talk to my neighbours, but they didn't seem to want to talk back, so I tried laughing, but I just felt so ALONE, and now I'm so glad that you're back with me, Twi! I'm so really really happy that you're-"

"Ssssh!" said Twilight, putting one hoof in Pinkie's open mouth to stop her from speaking any further. Pinkie stopped talking, smiled, and said a muffled "Okay."

Twilight smiled and hugged Pinkie back.

"It's so great to see you Pinkie. I missed you too." Twilight said, tears in her eyes, happy upon learning that at least one of her friends were safe. As she saw Pinkie again, she remembered all the happy memories of them together, and immediately regretted doubting her or being mean to her in the past. Right now, Pinkie's voice was very comforting to her.

Pinkie smiled, and in a soft voice whispered: "There there, Twilight."

In a second, Twilight remembered the emergency situation she was in. She complete forgot about the crazy escape  where crazy monkeys were trying to kill her and whose result could either leave her free or dead.

"Come on, Pinkie." she said. "We're escaping."

Pinkie nodded, and happily bounced to Twilight's side.

"Do you know the way out?" she said.

"Nope!" Pinkie said, face still happy and smiling.

Twilight sighed. Typical Pinkie.

"Okay, follow me." she said.

Then, she performed a teleportation spell that brought her back to the start of the Holding Cells corridor. From there, both of them ran (or in Pinkie's case, bounced) looking for a door.

They ran (and bounced) through many different winding corridors, looking for the exit. Twilight was deep in thought. Where was the exit? Where could she go?

It was then that Pinkie shouted, "There it is! That's the exit!" as she pointed to a door.

"How do you know?"

"There's a sign there that says 'Exit'!"

Go figure. It really was the exit.

But there were a lot of monkeys there walking about. Most of them with large stick-like things that was able to shoot those beams of light.

"Looks like we're going to have to run for it, Pinkie."

Pinkie nodded.

"Okay, on the count of three. One... two..."

Twilight took a deep breath.

"Three."

"CHAAAARGE!!!"

Everyone's head turned their way as Twilight and Pinkie Pie ran (and bounced) to the exit. Their reaction time was slow, however, as they had already reached the door when the first one started understanding something.

"Quick! Get them!"

The monkeys started shooting at them. Twilight and Pinkie Pie easily managed to avoid them, and they were out the door.

They emerged in a desert-like area, just full of plain, old nothingness.

"Okay Pinkie, we get far enough, then we have to teleport away from here."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said, smiling.

They were almost out of range, when suddenly...

"Ah!"

Twilight tripped on a dune of sand. As she was running at full speed, she didn't notice it, and lost balance. Now a clear target, one of the beams of light managed to pierce through her hind hoof, shattering her bone. It was blindingly painful.

Pinkie looked back, and quickly came back. She helped Twilight up.

"Are you okay, Twilight?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Aah!" Twilight said, falling down again.

"Just don't put too much weight on that hoof, Twilight."

The monkey's voices were coming closer.

Pinkie looked back at the facility, then at Twilight.

"Run, Twilight. Don't worry about me, just run."

"No, Pinkie! You're coming with me. I'm not leaving without you!"

"Twilight, listen to me! It's no use for both of us to be recaptured again!"

"But Pinkie-"

"I'm scared, Twilight." Pinkie said. "Please don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"Pinkie..."

Pinkie Pie embraced Twilight for a last time. They remained for what felt like hours.

Twilight choked up. She couldn't say anything anymore.

"This is for the best, Twilight. Go now."

Twilight hesitated. Pinkie Pie was her best friend. There was no way she was leaving her behind.

"I love you, Pinkie." she said.

"I love you too, Twilight."

Pinkie then pushed Twilight away, and the ran back to the monkeys. Twilight couldn't look, but she heard Pinkie's signature party cannon going off, followed by screams.

Pinkie was sacrificing herself for Twilight. Suddenly, all the times they spent together came back rushing into her head- the good times and the bad times. Twilight felt regret. Regret flooding her mind when she realized that she may never see Pinkie again, and that she could've spent more time with her. But Twilight needed to be strong. Not only for herself, but for Pinkie as well. Twilight took one last glance at Pinkie.

"Goodbye, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie looked back, tears in her eyes. They exchanged meaningful glances.

"Go."

At that exact time, all the monkeys fired on her, spilling blood everywhere. Then she fell down to the ground, lifeless.

"There's the other one! Open fire!"

Twilight felt rage. A lot of rage. Fury took control of her body, and she felt strength in her body, going above all normal levels. The anger she felt overwhelmed her, and she felt herself growing. Her mane and tail transformed into fire, and her body tuned white. Her pupils rolled back inside her head. She needed a release. Any more energy like this will kill her. White-hot fury had shorted her ability to reason, and she screamed before feeling herself explode.

The last thing she saw was the creatures being blown back by the energy she released at that time, before she finally disappeared.

She reappeared again, not knowing where she was, and not caring. She fell down to the rock-hard floor, crying uncontrollably. She buried her face in her hooves, and just kept on crying. She couldn't stop.

"Pinkie... Pinkie... Please..." she said, among sobs.

Then, with fatigue slowly setting in, she felt one last pang of regret before she collapsed, remaining perfectly still.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Steven walked slowly, lagging slowly behind Rainbow Dash.

"Come on, Rainbow. Don't get so ahead of yourself."

Rainbow Dash was running around on two legs, enjoyment etched on her face as she felt pleasure from running so fast.

"Can't help it! I feel so alive! I could be the fastest, most awesomest runner ever!

Steven chuckled. Despite her age, Rainbow Dash was really a child at heart. She seemed to enjoy absolutely everything.

He then ran to catch up to her.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

"Nope! Try and catch up, then maybe you can be the second fastest runner around." said Rainbow Dash.

Steven ran as fast as he could. He closed his eyes to focus all his energy on his legs, and face contorted with concentration, he ran.

Rainbow Dash looked back, and seeing Steven quickly catch up, she also started running more quickly. But her human legs were no match for the full sprint of the horses. In no time at all, Steven overtook her.

"Hey! No fair!  I'm supposed to win!" said Rainbow Dash, laughing.

Steven just kept on running, never having desired to win this much. He ran and he ran, but suddenly...

"Ouch!"

Steven fell, having tripped on something huge. Falling on the asphalt face-first really hurt, but he managed to quickly pick himself up and rubbed his face.

Rainbow Dash caught up, laughing very loudly.

"Hah! I beat you!"

"No, I tripped."

"Sure you did! But I still won!"

Steven cursed. He quickly went back to where he tripped, planning to destroy whatever rock or squirrel he tripped on.

But what he tripped on was much larger than that.

Steven glanced at it, and then quickly shouted:

"Rainbow Dash! Come here quickly!"

For what he tripped on was no small rock or tiny critter. It was about the same size as he was.

He checked to see signs of life. he could hear a faint heartbeat.

"What's up?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Do you know this one?" asked Steven.

"What- Oh Celestia."

"What?"

Both of them were staring at what Steven tripped on- Rainbow Dash surprised, and Steven confused.

It was definitely not a rock.

It was a purple pony.

And it was alive.