Latex Gilded Cage

Lilly watched in equal parts horror and interest as her two friends were strapped tight and dragged to the uppermost level. Following far enough away from the bots to not be considered 'interfering', she felt helplessly swept away. To interfere would mean she would be joining them, in whatever fate they shared.

Why didn't they stop? The robots told them to, told them what they did was wrong. 'Cease this destructive motion, comply or be detained.' It told Skye, she was, after all, using both her hooves to pull the suit away from her crotch. It was like she wasn't there, wasn't listening.

Ticker tried to stop her from doing that, trying to pull both her hooves away. The poor unicorn's strength was no match for the determined mare. Still, he tried. 'Resident,' the bot said to him 'You are being detained for assault, comply.' Dumb thing couldn't tell he was trying to stop her. That was how he got in trouble.

Both of them had their front hooves wrapped up and taken to the isolation are at the very top of the Ark. They were put in a box, inside the wall. The panicked volume at which they were screaming was stifled by the muzzles on them. Fighting what little they could, the box seemed to collapse on them like a hungry maw. Slowly they disappeared into the expanding walls. Then the door was shut, and nopony would ever know they were in there.

But they were there; trapped in a hell that nopony knew until they were in it. Trapped in a singular experience where nopony could describe its horrible nature. They say nothing about it, nothing at all. Ponies who wonder what was done to the silent ones, something that would paralyze them with fear, as it would seem. It also may be a world of pleasure, she didn't know, didn't want to risk it being bad.

Still, it was just for a four hour session. But the bots weren't awake when they were going to need out. They all disappeared for the night, except for a maintenance crew. The maintenance crew wasn't programmed for that. So they were going to have to stay in there until morning, or longer.

Lilly knew that she wasn't going to be able to get them out. There were no buttons to open the door, no tools anywhere to crack the door open. The few heavy thuds she was able to get on it were completely lost inside the thick padding on its face. She had to run after that, the bot started talking. And she didn't want to go in the wall.

All of these events happened yesterday. Now it was past lunch and neither Ticker nor Skye had returned. It was way past the time they should be out. Then again, weren't the first time offenses longer?

She was strong, but not capable of what Ticker was, and just barely Skye. The wasteland was nothing like pre-war, the tales of Ark ponies and stories told of the pre-war ponies not wanting to read. It was possibly the single most useful tool in the arsenal. What pony would not want to learn to read? She hadn't found anypony to teach her, and that stopped her from learning much of anything in a book. This had her listening more, trying to discern what information is usable and what isn't.

There was none of that now, nothing new to take in. Still she paced slowly throughout the large halls, looking for her friends. She began to fill that space in her head with a thought she loved so much.

She imagined from tales of the old world, that she was a tree pony. The ones that knocked over trees with her hooves, then bucking the log into planks, smashing it into building material. Or whatever they did with those large trees. Massive burnt skeletons were all that was left, but they still reached into the sky. She wanted to see them in their glory tall and green, like the paintings.

It became a waiting game as she cruised around the ark. Looking in vain for something she missed before in the walls. An answer came as breakfast rolled through her system. The bathroom, the one that wasn't really weird. A robot approached her, and then the two headed to the bathroom.

First time she had a direction to go in. Get to the bathroom, get out and explore. Take anything useful that they all could use once back together, for their escape later.

It was a different one, in a different section of the Ark. She didn't know if this one was going to be different, it might not have a vent. Luck was on her side, and not only did it have a vent, the vent was stuck on the wall with nothing but tape, likely from the half used roll on the floor.

She did the business and was nosing around the vent. Lilly pried the cover off the wall and silently set it down. It was an evil villain tunnel! Like the ones from the old data crystals. The bad guys always had stupid large vents, big enough to let the good pony get through them. Except she was going to have to make it rather fast, see what was beyond the tunnel and look for an exit real quick. There were no friends waiting for her to get out, and then go back inside to rescue the others.

She carefully trotted the several pony lengths to the light source. Making sure each hoof wasn't going to step on something sharp and rip her suit. The grate on the other side was hinged, pushing open easily then swinging back so that it never looked open.

A lengthy hall extended past her on either side. It curved very slowly as it wrapped gently around the rest of the Ark in a ring. The lights were as bright as day in the service corridor. They were so bright that the glare they made hurt to look at. There was no clutter; no dirt on the floor. The paint was slick and glossy, new.

Lilly noticed that her hooves were leaving darkened spots on the perfect surface below her. A dark hoofprint was left in her stead as the rubber suit had something built into its design that caused this. The latex was cast in its form with a long forgotten lubricant mixed perfectly into the rubber cells of the latex sap that was collected. It served as a non-harmful lubricant that lasted the life of the suit and more. It's why they were always slick, always shiny; because they were always polished. Now it served as a marker, a way back to where she needed to get back to.

As Lilly saw it, she was leaving little N's on the ground, knowing that she would have to follow U's on her way back. U to get away. But there shouldn't be any problem there, the zebra said that outside the Ark, there were no tracking sensors, just the robots, and they were able of tracking her. If she was spotted that is. Hard to see a small pony who glistened like sunlight in a place that was damn near as bright as the sun itself.

Ticker had said something... something about robot sensors. There was a camera with night vision, into red mode that saw heat, and something about a fish? Seeing with sound he said. Probably heat, following the pipes a predetermined length to get to where they needed to be. Keep away from the robots.

Lilly traveled around what felt like half of the Ark, nosing into each room as it passed. There were several more bathrooms and storage closets. She kept following the curve, looking for a room that wasn't what she had seen before. It wasn't a room that caught her eye, rather the lack of one, the lack of anything.

It was a large opening in the wall. The four side-by-side pony width hallways were large, but what looked like a twenty pony gallop with three sets of lights along the roof and a railing in the center. It looked like one of the pre-war roads, paved with a mixture of asphalt and cork, traction with a springy cushion if you happen to be trotting to the edges of Equestria. No wonder the traders loved to use those roads, being able to travel longer without getting tired.

This road turned in to her right, sloping downwards towards the center of the Ark's wheel like outer tunnel. Fearing that time was edging her on, Lilly ran as fast as she could down its length. Eventually she popped into a massive circular room. The hundred or so stations that lined the walls filled with recharging bots, neatly stacked piles of parts for bots and several automated service stations told her that this was the maintenance bay.

Nothing was active, aside from air compressors running and the hum of the electric lights. As silent as it was, in an instant half the bots in here could turn on and begin to go about their business, only to see her. Likely far too many to hide from.

There were eight large tunnels that intersected here. This was the heart of the Ark. Every one of the robots returned here, was kept running and was fixed here. Each tunnel has a very helpful and large lighted sign above it. Four 'Ark Sectors' were the upard leaning tunnels, the other four all led down to other areas. 'Mining', 'Farming/Air and Water Recc' and 'Power/Service' were self-explanatory. It was the symbols she was looking at, knowing very little of how to read, the tree, nuclear danger, and pickaxe were her help to knowing what was what.

It was the odd square thing and a hammer that drew her attention. The words 'Store/Shop/Casting' didn't mean there was a store there, to buy stuff. They couldn't have one, but her definition of a store meant a pony selling stuff, and the curiosity to see what Arkitecture called a store led her down that tunnel.

It turns out that Shop was a place where they turned the smelted ore from mining into parts for anything that needed one. All automatic, all autonomous. The Store was where she wanted, there were four large open doors, a stack of collapsible bins and shelves and shelves of things she recognized.

From here she could smell the wasteland, as she bolted to the door. The grease, the blood and the sting of the dry dust that held the ashes of more than two hundred years of painful ends from the ponies who had perished there. A world imbalanced, but so much was lost in that time, this fear laden spirit in everypony out there, was normality. She realized once inside she had crossed a threshold, as her memories weren't as powerful as the aura from the clothes.

She didn't want to go further, stood just a pony's length from the racks of priceless salvation. Her breathing picked up as she realized that this... this was wrong. These clothes, the shoes, the cold steel of the weapons and warm-to-the-eyes golden brass. She stood there, shaking as something deep inside of her screamed to run away, that voice muffled by an unfelt black fog that was choking the life from it.

The further away she got, a reflex of her body, her mind wanting to go forward, the better she felt. It felt like backing out into the warmth of Celestia's sun after an age encased in ice. Her muzzle didn't show it, but she felt a smile return to her, one kind that happens deep inside.

NO! She had to collect things, get stuff ready to get out. There was enough stuff inside here for them to hold out against the bots, if worse came to worse. For now she gritted her teeth and began to push on ahead, despite the fear gutting her from the inside. She placed her front hooves on a cart, so she would have to focus on them to move. She picked out what she thought was needed, heavy coats, leather saddle packs and satchels and several small and large guns. She tipped entire contents of the shelf's width into the cart, the guns, and their magazines that were still loaded, yet to be unpacked. She made sure something was going to shoot with the options of magazines being plentiful.

They wouldn't need to sneak around if they had the guns to kill everybot in here. She pushed the cart from the store through the hall and into the large bay and up the ramp to the Ark outer service tunnel. All of this at breakneck speeds, as she was following her old hoofsteps, cast in a rich dark oily stain. She managed to give them something to aid in escape, something was better than nothing.

Her luck kept going, as no robot showed itself on the return trip. She managed to guide the cart into one of the supply rooms, hiding it near the back where the supplies were plenty. There were stacks of muzzles, hoods and other things she couldn't identify. Though the number of buckles and slack latex meant it was something she didn't want to get in.

It was safe for a while, maybe two days, she wasn’t sure. Lilly began to feel the clock start to kick her. She trotted around in circles, leaving a thick black ring in the hall, and then followed her path from the grate and quickly made it back inside, taking time to carefully and silently close the grate on both sides of the air crossover tunnel.

Her business was long done here in the bathroom. Now it was time to hope when she emerged, that a robot with one of those strap ridden things wasn't waiting for her, because she had taken too long. Her fears were put to rest when the bot spoke.

"Sorry about the time..." she said as she slowly slunk out of the bathroom, a bit out of breath from the exertion.

"Error!: User: This unit is not fitted with a chronological module, nor are this unit's sub-routines programmed to count time for external chronological functions. See supervisor for more information. Robot resuming 'assistance' routine."

"Can I be any further assistance, resident?"

Yes! A broken bot, luck holds out again, and it was time the universe aligned her for a turn of fortune to her. Twice in a row now, only got enough luck left for a few more moves, before it leaves her. She wanted as far away from that bot as possible right now.

"No, I don't need any more help." she responded back.

"Resume your day then, Resident." the bot chirped back, floating down the long corridor and into an access panel when it thought nopony was looking. Lilly saw it, and knew that was the panel just a bit further down. Escape was everywhere.

Now she had a spring in her step, pushing along the massive halls with a quickened pace, she had news for the others. Once she found them. Things were going along just to plan.

This pace slowed after dinner and almost to a dead stop when it was edging closer to bed. Now she was just sitting near a ramp to that upper level. She'd have a better chance of spotting them here as anywhere else.

Her mind wandered again, the tree ponies. Reality phased out as she devoted everything into the lumberjack pony. She didn't notice a dark red stallion come up beside her, almost on top of her.

"You've felt it, haven't you? The wasteland, recently you have touched it. I can smell it on you." The gravelly voice grunted, she looked at his face to discern between if that was a threat. His face was relaxed, almost smiling. The war that was played out across the rest of his head spoke differently; scars, and notches of his ear torn away long ago.

"You feel better in here, don't you?" he looked down on her, as if accusing her of taking a walk outside in the waste and then back in, and he was watching every bit of it.

Lilly stood up and turned so that he was viewing her flank, head twisted back so she could see if he needed a muzzle full of teeth knocked out. She waited, teeth barred in a snaring muzzle, ears folded flat.

"It's fear. That's what you feel. The feeling of normal returns, not as you remembered it though..."

Lilly dropped her scowl, unfolded her ears and turned to face him, still at a safe distance though, enough to run this time.

"And it.... it’s wrong. It almost hurts..."

The red coated pegasus smiled. His face turned from something you see a moment before you smash it, into something else. It was no longer cold; it felt as if it was a warm glow. It was a comfortable face that may have as well have been a friend. A connection that very few ponies share, one where both felt safe enough that they could be themselves, not a grizzled hoof veteran of the waste. A face older than it was, the drugs draining its vitality.

"That feeling you lose when going near the wasteland. It... it feels wrong to lose it."

The two stood side by side now, going to a lump in the floor served as a couch.

"I know, the face..." he waved his hoof around it. "That is what Equestria does to ponies these days. Live long enough and you leave an ugly corpse somewhere. This place feels different, like its uncorrupted land."

"What makes it so different in here; why did that happen?"

"The wasteland is the problem. Ponies like me turned this place into what it is. There was still stuff to loot, stuff to kill other ponies for in here when I arrived. This place was made for the richest ponies in Equestria. Everything was valuable, everything was stripped from everywhere. We all thought being here was a stopover, a night or two."

Information. Lilly stayed quiet, listening with everything she had. It could be important stuff that helps them later on. She responded to keep the conversation going with 'Oh? Tell me more', or 'Go on, this is great' conversation pieces to keep the story flowing. It was interesting to her, she needed to hear it.

"Ponies kept what they scavenged to themselves. They were living like this was still the wasteland. There was more than enough food and beds for everypony. They thought this was too good, they had to keep more for the long run. They formed groups, the first residents hiding in fear for their life. Soon, they seemed to be gone, and more wasteland ponies showed up."

"I was with a large group of ponies. We had run into another group while searching for a way out and food. We were out of our quadrant, looking for a way out and leaving any of the food carts alone. We didn't think they would understand, even if we stopped to talk and show them the food carts. It would have been a massacre. But right as we were hauling flank, a blue mist filled the Ark and we all passed out."

"When we woke, everything was… Well what it is now. The Ark had been overhauled with these pads and suits. I don't know how long we were passed out. Time stops having a meaning when everything is broken and it's about surviving to tomorrow. Slowly this new place filtered in, a place with rules and the staff to enforce them. Not much we could have done either way. We were all tied up for a week."

"Slowly, the violence stopped. The perpetrators either wising up their act, or just completely disappearing all together. We also noticed that the Ark was now smaller in size to what it was before. This whole place that we call the 'Ark', this is just half of what I knew. Other ponies said they awoke in the same place, but I have never seen them before. Maybe there were larger areas I had never been to."

"I don't know what happened to those areas, they may be other small 'Arks' like this, or still completely trashed. It's was a place to be envied. What I helped destroy was Equestria. But it's still here, in small quantities."

Lilly imagined a large brightly lit area, ponies scattered like sand on a blanket about the area. All enjoying themselves, all enjoying life as it was. That was the Equestria everypony was looking for, the one they almost killed completely.

"You think that this is sort of a punishment? The Ark preserving itself by sectioning off the violent ponies. Keeping them from destroying the rest of the place?" Lilly asked.

"It’s possible. The Ark may be keeping the pre-war ponies and their children safe from us. That means we get all of this. Everything foalproofed, strict punishments and everything else, just to keep us safe as well. That's the goal of this entire place. Don't know, could be that I am remembering stuff all wrong. Too many drugs can really wreck your memory, you know?”

"Oh. Yea, I was near some stuff from the outside." Lilly told him, feeling confident that he was somepony to trust. "They let me use a real bathroom, one that works. I went out a vent and did some exploring, found and stashed some of the stuff from a store, guns and so on."

The grizzled pegasus nodded, knowing that there was nothing he could say to stop her. "Just remember this, something to think about if you get caught: Remember that fear, the fear from the wastes and ask if you really want to go back into that."

"It is going to work." Lilly nodded harshly in disagreement, this was the way out. She felt it. "But I'll be sure to remember that question... What is your name by the way?"

"Everypony has always called me Cutter. It’s the last part of me that still feels bad, the last part I need to change."

"Well you look and talk like somepony named 'CuddleWing' He was just like you, big and tough on the outside, but a world of fluff on the inside."

Cutter chuckled "Why... thank you." He smiled halfheartedly, without knowing if that was a compliment or not. The two just smiled at each other for a bit. The stallions collar beeped, not a single or multiple beep, it sounded like several tones played in sequence, as if a jingle for a pre-war song.

"What does that mean?" They asked each other in unison.

Soon a robot appeared as they shared worried expression.

"Resident, follow me. Comply"

Cutter raised his eyebrows, and began to fall in step with the floating mechanical ball. He didn't have many strikes left to be honest, and disobeying an order was a strike. Lilly fell in stride, far away enough to talk, but not close enough to be 'interfering'.

"Hey, if I don't see you again, Think about it. Think if you really want to leave."

"Ok" she said back, the bot had opened an access panel in the wall to the service corridor and the two went inside. She wasn't going anywhere near that open door, not even if it didn't violate some rule. Everything hinged on her being as free as possible until she told the other what had been found. The door closed and it was a wall again.

She still had some time to kill before bed, so she chose to take a walk around the Arc again. Hopefully catch up to her friends if they managed to get out.

Lilly nearly made a complete circle by the time she came across one of the rather odd races that was being held. The viewers of the spectacle had backed up to the walls of the large open area. The open area around the massive padded support pillars had a rather rough course laid out. Along the outside edges was the first portion of the course, then a steeplechase laid out across the benches, with the finish line being the entrance to the canteen.

The most bizarre part of this was the fact that all the participants were 'blind' in some way. A blindfold, a hood or round ball, whatever the fetter, the race participants lined up and the laughs started rolling. Some ponies were backwards, some sideways. Soon they were all pointed towards the right direction.

Lilly found herself giggling, standing near the start of the 'race'. A large group of blind ponies running a track. She wanted to watch as much as she wanted to participate.

"I want to race!" She blurted out to anypony within earshot. A unicorn turned her head, scanning the small mare and making a rather obvious statement.

"You can't race," the vibrant yellow mare said. "Do you know what this race is for? It's for the ponies that can't see," she explained to Lilly. The unicorn's suit didn't fit right on her left flank, the latex sucked into what appeared to be a wound. Perhaps there was some interesting story for it? "You have to be wearing a blindfold or something else."

"Then I'll get one!" Lilly chirped with resolve. The unique gathering and odd placement of the ponies had several of the floating sphere bots hovering nearby. She approached the nearest one and spoke to it.

"I want a blindfold, so I can race with the other ponies."

"Resedent request accepted. Retrieving item." The bot hovered off and disappeared into a wall for a minute. Lilly had moved back to the starting line, waiting for the bot.

The bot returned, holding in its coated graspers something that looked like the mirrored lens from an ancient Wonderbolt's flight helmet. It had several more straps than one though, and was a solid piece. It was enough to cover the eyes with extra space as well.

She wriggled her hooves in delight; the anticipation of doing something began to be too much to bear. The robot approached her and she was grinning from ear to ear as it began to put the device on her. The crowd seemed to watch in anticipation, glad that somepony new was interested in joining in.

She closed her eyes as the thick piece of padded latex was pressed lightly against them. A strap went around to the rear of her head and was tugged tight. A second strap was carefully pulled under her cheeks. It was part of a pair that held the blindfold in position. The single rear strap could be pushed up or down, giving the blindfold slack to move sideways and come off. The under cheek and strap across the top of her head held in place rock solid. She didn't see any buckles on the thing anywhere, so its locking method was unknown to her.

She waited for a minute before moving, making sure the bot was done. She reached a hoof up to feel the thing. Her latex suited hooves slipped easily across the surface, though let her though it let her know it was there. Moving without the aid of sight was difficult, but the voice of the unicorn gleefully helped her to get into position. This was going to be so much fun!

Stood on the side where the other ponies were, she was ready. Soon, somepony started to count down. The numbers were recognizable, but it was the go command she was listening for.

"Go!" The voice shouted.

Fifteen ponies, ready to 'race' all moved forward at once. Lilly sprang into action, giggling out loud as it started, though it came to a sudden halt shortly after. Blinded as they were, they eventually tripped. Even Lilly went down, tripping over a large ball that was not in her path before, a hooded pony.

The only part of falling over that was painful was the burst of adrenaline, the body trying to see where it was going to land, but all she saw was blackness. The floors were soft enough to negate any impact as she landed with a squeak, latex on latex. She couldn't help but laugh out loud as she picked her hooves back up and started again.

It was everything she thought it would be. The group of ponies fell over themselves or others, only to pick themselves back up and run again. Some ponies knew the track well, or well enough to not trip as much. Lilly began to slowly trot, as running only made her trip.

The squeaks of nearby thighs and hooves on the floor let her know that she was on the right track. Once they approached a turn, the other ponies would either chant left or right, and the racers followed. Sometimes it was the wrong direction, her and the others bumped into a padded wall playfully.

The entire room was filled with laughter; Lilly was one of them. The fettered racers made it towards the last stretch, a path that led over the seating areas in the central portion of the room. They were less seats and more lumps protruding from the floor. They made for good obstacles.

The ponies began to merely crawl at a snail’s pace. Lilly was going slow, climbing the unseen hills of seats and pushing on. The crowd was cheering as she approached the entrance to the canteen. Soon the hills disappeared and her hooves failed to find ground, the slope was the finish line. The mare let out a host of laughter as she rolled harmlessly down the incline to the bottom. Soon the rest of the contestants did as well. Muffled cries of joy from under muzzles and hoods could be heard if you were close enough.

Lilly didn't know if she'd 'won' so to speak, but so far it had been the best thing to happen since their arrival. She stayed on the ground, waiting for her laughter to subside. Soon the ponies began to stand back up and move up the ramp. Most of the audience had come down to them, as they were friends and came to help them up and guide them. Lilly was cast in darkness, she couldn't see the collar on her neck blinking brightly. And despite her situation near the pony pile behind her, nopony was there to see it blink either.

"That was quite a show." the unicorn re-appeared beside her. Lilly had begun to turn in circles, try to face the pony.

"That was fun!" she exclaimed. "Can we do it again?"

"Well, that sort of thing tends to take alot out of a pony. Especially the colts that been here a while. You're still fresh, still new and well built." The unicorn moved around the small mare, looking at her. "Extremely well built."

"Hmm..." Lilly thought to herself. "Makes sense." she shrugged. "Well, I guess I should go look for my friends." she said, lifting a hoof and then realizing the blindfold was going to complicate things.

The unicorn couldn't but giggle at the mare's line. Resolved she was, capable, she was not. "Well, after dinner you'll be free from the blindfold. Did you want to stick with me until then?"

"The minute you leave, I'll probably just fumble around. So yeah. I am Lilly, by the way." She held out a hoof, as was a standard greeting.

"Nice to meet you, I am Goldenrod." She put her hoof up, curled like Lilly's and they bumped together the suits at the cannon bone, a hoof shake of differing degrees. "Best way I can lead you around is for you to keep at my side, brush up against it to make sure I'm still there."

"Ok." Lilly smiled. Moving gently along the unicorn's side, touching them together briefly. "So, how long have you been here?"

"Several years. It's hard to keep track of time down here. So, how did you come to be here?"

"Well," Lilly paused, feeling the side of the mare leave her, but found it again quickly. "My friends and I were looking for a lost Ark, made our way north and found an entrance. Ticker ran off for no reason at all, screaming. We tried to find him, but eventually Skye disappeared and I fell down a huge hole. So here we are."

"Anything worth talking about from the outside?"

"Dunno. Last we heard the Nzr were in Las pegasus, and Celestia’s Legion were causing trouble. Though that was about a month ago. How about you?"

"I... it's a rather long story."

"I have the time." Lilly said, her ears perked up for more information.

"It's... hard to talk about. I did some... things. Alot of ponies died because of me. That happened and I ran away, into the snowy north. Starving and freezing I came into the caves above. It was oddly warm, oddly calming. I stayed for a few days, unable to leave as something had me horrified. I felt that if I left, I was going to die. Something was out there."

"I could barely move near the end. I couldn't leave the cave. The closer I got to its entrance, the weaker I became. My hooves began to shake, I could barely stand. I felt sick, so I stopped moving out towards the entrance. I went in deeper to the mine, it was warmer there. Real warmth I could feel."

"Soon I was standing on an edge, looking down on a spiral ramp. I was skin and bone, only enough energy to throw myself in. It was better than starving to death, one quick impact and it was over. I jumped."

"A fitting end, I thought. I.. I was rather messed up there. I thought I could hear them. Friends, enemies, all demanding I end it all. I could always hear them. I deserved it, after all. After what I had done..."

"Is that where the cut happened? When you fell?" Lilly asked, remembering the oddly fitting latex on her flank.

"That was from bullet. I wasn't a very nice pony out there. Most of the time we got by on the rare patches of grass and fruits in orchards, grabbing a muzzleful and running off before we were seen. But it soon turned to... killing other ponies… For their stuff." Goldenrod’s voice quivered.

"Turns out killing ponies for their stuff had consequences. We don’t know who paid them. Could have been anyonboby. We saw a pegasus and somepony in power armor. They were just a distraction though. A sniper's round nearly tore my rear haunch in half. I bolted, running as far as my injury would allow, and passed out."

"When I woke up, the three ponies were gone. And so were my friends... Those that weren't caught up in the gunfire were dangling from ropes in the building we used. I took what I could and moved north, killing my way to the cave."

"It's fitting, right?" she asked "Stuck here for the rest of my life, paying for what I did. The first few weeks were the hardest. I bit, kicked, could barely think, just an animal. I don’t remember if I was trying to escape, or trying to get myself killed. After what felt like an eternity in one of those boxes up at the top, I was out. I began to have time to think, think why I didn’t die, and why I was here. At least I couldn’t kill anypony down her, even if I wanted to.”

"I guess I haven't been that bad." Lilly thought, beginning to question herself, maybe she was meant to be here too. "I have always been nice to the other ponies, everywhere I went. I mean, why go through all the trouble of being bad when I was just as well fed by doing something for somepony? It all kinda makes sense. At least in here I can see how being nice can help. Seems that anypony that is nice here doesn't get punished."

"Yea..." the unicorn thought, "I guess that is what I have seen as well, just haven't been able to put the words to it. I decided after I was 'free' from the box that I would try my best to make up for what I did. Try to help out the ponies that end up down here, try to be good to others. Doing that... has put a smile on my face, a real one. This place... these walls... They change you."

"Is it a good change?" Lilly inquired, fearing that she might not want to leave, if this change was anything like what happened earlier.

"It is good." Goldenrod smiled, yet seemed uncertain "It was good for me at least. Some others as well. Being down here, I’ve started to… to feel more like a pony. If that makes sense. But not everypony takes it the same way. Some of them are just too violent I guess. Others… Well are like you I guess, just came here to get something to survive, and don’t deserve being trapped. This place can drive a pony sane. But it can also drive them the other direction completely.”

"Hmm." Lilly paused. She had seen both sides at this point. Still it drove two ponies sane and just one zebra crazy. Though, he said he was like this before he arrived here, but who is to really know, even she was beginning to question things.

"Well, it's about dinner time. The other ponies are starting to file in. Let's go so you can have the blindfold off to look for your friends." Goldenrod said, standing up with Lilly touching her side for guidance. Heads were poked into the walls and dinner was fed to them, the mares joined them and were soon out.

Lilly gave her thanks to the mare and was off unhindered to begin another lap around the Ark. She picked the pace up in the large corridoors, slowing to a crawl as she entered large spaces, looking at each pony to see their colors, match them to her memory. Room after room revealed no friends at all. Not a Ticker, nor a Skye.

Eventually she settled down in the atrium near the bathroom they were going to use and escape. She settled near the base of the ramp that went to the 'box' as everypony called it. Now it was just a waiting game, waiting for the three to reunite and share plans. Waiting for bed time. Waiting for tomorrow in all actuality. It all came down to just sitting around, waiting.

Her mind wandered. That race was fun, the blindfold was fun too. The other ponies had fun. Was that it, was that the secret? Were all the ponies here having fun everywhere? They looked like it to her, the muzzles and the blindfolds, the jackets and hoods. Maybe that was what they found fun?

Lilly didn't want to be left out of all of this potential fun going on around her. It would be tomorrow by the time she was ready to go to the bathroom again. Anything she was put in got taken off after dinner or bed time, so she wasn't hurting their escape. She could go and try some things out that sounded fun. Anything she got stuck in, she would be free from in the morning.

She began a new search, track down any pony in something and talk to them, ask if they would recommend it. Basically, find the things that she thought would be the most fun to try out. She eventually settled on a few items and after one last look around, ascended the ramp to the very top of the Ark.

The large round room was split into four quadrants by thick walls, more thickly padded pony oubliettes. She shivered to think of how they felt as they were put inside, not knowing they would come out. And she shivered at the thought of going inside, despite her resolve to spend the rest of her night inside one.

She noticed that all the cells were different. Some were thickly padded, like the walls. Some were an empty steel box. Some had pillows inside them; some were lined with straps and had other bondage furniture in them. It was an odd assortment of cells. She stopped in front of one that looked like a sagging tent. A large ring at the very center of the limp sheet latex. Tt looked like a hole that you just hung in. In the very least it was less intimidating.

A bot hovered by, but didn't give her the usual "Move" command. Lilly looked back at the doors where her friends were. They weren't getting out anytime soon. The next sort of 'checkpoint' was in the morning, when ponies were let out. Buck it, it looked fun.

Lilly called for the bot, a smile on her face as she read off the list of what she wanted, including being in that cell she liked, she even pointed at it to make sure it was the right one. The robot sputtered out its line and left. Lilly was lost in the euphoria of this actually happening, the mind numbing before the first shot being fired. And it could be a good shot or a bad shot, holding on that precipice until the bot returned.

It brought back everything she asked for. The bot began by slipping a stiff rubber muzzle cup over her muzzle. A thick rubber teeth guard pressed into her muzzle and seating on her lower teeth. The sides began to push gently against her muzzle, pressing them inward and downward, clamping her jaw firmly shut. Despite the harsh look of a razor's posture on the outside, the inside was perfectly fine, a compressing comfort. She murmured something that was drowned in the latex locked to her face now. The port on the side of the muzzle gleamed like it was bran new. There was a reason why Ticker looked good in one, because despite its hindrance, it felt good.

This next part was going to be interesting. The robot's arms swiveled on the central axis and an odd looking latex suit. It had legs for the rear hooves, but nothing in the front portion. Instead of legs, it has sleeves, pockets for the hooves to slide into. An inflatable straitjacket.

The bot stretched the thick rimmed neck open and Lilly trotted up and started to slide in. Her suit slipped down easily into the depths of her new apparel. Her rear hooves were in, but struggling into the sleeves was a bit hard, she was fighting rather thick latex, trying to get her hooves into an area not meant for them and up into the holes was a challenge, but it was done. The bot let the neck entry shrink back down, grasping at her neck tightly, just under the collar of her suit.

The latex began to contract around her. Where there was a bit of slack, it disappeared, as every portion of her body was stuck to the latex. Her hooves wouldn't move. They had nowhere to go; the jacket had conformed to her body exactly. She felt like this was the bed she had been sleeping in, just in a different position. Inside the jacket's crotch was a small hose, it was clipped onto a special cup that carefully cradled her plot, a bathroom.

The bot then took her rear hooves and applied thick rubber straps around them. One just above her hooves, one halfway to her ankle, one around her ankles and one right at the top of her thighs. Her legs were locked together, held downwards away from her body. She was then lifted into the cell and placed inside the small sack, held there as cables and air were fed into the jacket and the cell. Soon both were full.

The cell pressed in over her entire body, the air pressure curving the latex around her tail, hooves and upper torso. The jacket was full of air as well; it was squeezing so hard, she began to struggle to breathe.

The last parts, a hood came down into the hole followed by a set of ear plugs. The plugs went in first, as soft thin tendril snaked down the ear canal, moving to the drum and anvil and all the small ancillary passages and began expanding. The small tendrils became a very soft thick padding, surrounding the hairs, the walls and capture the ear's sensory organs. The plug made it impossible of hearing any sound, outside or inside her body. Heartbeat, breathing and mild whines of pleasure, all of these became silent. She heard nothing.

The hood was placed on, leaving the slightly blue hued world and entering into blackness. As the hoses in the latex covering were connected, her breathing became less labored; a slight increase in the air pressure was able to counteract the cell's walls crushing her lungs slightly shut. A whoosh of air filled the second layer of latex, forming the limp hood into a nice tight ball. It pressed inward around her entire form. She couldn't see or hear the door shut.

The pressure soon equalized in the cell's parts, keeping a stiff hold on the mare, but doing it as comfortably as possible. Lilly tugged at her predicament, feeling it pulse through the walls. It turned into a cycle where she pulled at every limb, feeling it just as immobile as the last and stopped. It was just wearing her out. And she felt tired already.

There was no struggle, no second thoughts, and no anguish about where she was. She was safe, warm, and well fed. When you come from nothing, from working until your hooves bleed for a meal, or trying to decide if that pain was from a bullet.

She felt as if this was the first time she could stop. Stop being Lilly of the waste, to not be on guard at all. To just simply 'be'.

Her ears began to calm down. They stopped searching for danger, stopped scanning the now dead silent area. If there was any sound, it would be the first thing they hear. One by one the always busy audio senses began to become quiet, stop feeding information into her brain.

Soon, her sight left her, smell and taste soon followed. Her body had reached a level of peace not known to many ponies. No longer was she spending so much energy to her survival, picking up all the small details of her situation. Now she was able to have all of her thought power to herself.

It was so calm, so peaceful in here. Like the forest, a faded image in her mind. She had once found a piece of paper, a flyer that was meant to draw ponies to its scenery. Except this time, the trees weren't grey and faded. The lush green leaves, the rich dark wood, it was there instead, fully fleshed out, better than she could imagine.

The more she looked left and right, the more she saw. A soft pine needle forest floor tickled her hooves lightly, flowers tickled her nose as she approached. She could smell them from here.

On her back sat a brilliant silvered axe, the edge covered by leather as it was so sharp. She drew it from her back and let the edges glisten in the sunlight. Instead of swinging at the nearest tree, she held it and listened.

The forest spoke to her, spoke of the seeds the trees had let loose, the flowers merely giggling. There was one voice, a low grumble of a tone. She moved closer and closer to it, the sound. Soon she entered a clearing, where in the center stood the most magnificent tree she had ever seen. It was a massive trunk, the seemingly separate gnarled roots giving it the very unique roundish shape it had. The branches twisted up, falling back on themselves as a great canopy emerged full of thick leaves and foliage.

With the reverberation of a thunderclap, his voice spoke out softly.

"Ah, young Miss. You have come to me at last."

"Who... are you?" Lilly asked, looking around. Maybe somepony was behind the tree. She looped around it, waiting for a response.

"I am... The eldest of ...all the trees. What have you come for young Miss?"

Lilly was taken aback; she didn't want to chop down a talking tree. "I... I don't know anymore."

"You were after wood." the voice said in a low tone, more of a statement. "But, you are looking for something else. Some other thought plagues your... mind."

Lilly remained silent, how she got here, she didn't know.

"Look around you, young Miss. What do you see?"

"Trees, lots of trees."

"All my sons and daughters. I remember a time where I was the only tree here. When the land was barren, the soil was ready for growth. There was a time when I could have branched out, sent my roots as far as the eye can see. I could have taken it all. But that wasn't going to make me happy."

Lilly had sat down, intent on listening.

"Instead, I bore seed. I sent them out into the world. As my children grew, I sung to them every night. I watched them all grow strong and tall. Soon the birds came, they brought with them flowers. Grass came with the flowers and soon it is as you see now."

"Ok, what does that mean?"

"It means that is the way things are. That the very world around you has always been shaped by what you do in it. Make sure that what you are doing in it makes it beautiful."

"Oh..." Lilly said, trying to stifle a tired yawn. The world around her had been lulling her into a deep sleep. The warm field, the soft breeze and the sunlight. Oh how she had forgotten about the sunlight. It pierced her every atom, warming them from the inside.

She yawned again, slowly sitting down and curling her hooves under her. Slowly her head nodded down and came to rest as she fell asleep.

It was dawn, or at least sleep was over. Lilly was released from the grip of the latex shell around her. The straitjacket strapped around her left as well, giving back all of her senses and control of her hooves again. Muzzle, earplugs were removed after the hood. When the world came back, the two moving blurs in the light came into focus.

It was Skye and Ticker, free and clear of any fetters that they were in since nearly their arrival. They didn't say anything about the bondage she had put herself in the previous night. They had been released just before bed and stood there and watched her ask for the items by name as they themselves were being unfettered.

That was no longer a problem, but there wasn't time to waste. They needed to know about her bathroom exploration. Petty useless squabbles can wait.

"Tell us..." he coughed loudly "...about the bathroom, what did you see?" Ticker had just gotten out of his muzzle, right after he was pulled from the 'bed'.

"There is one with a vent that crosses over into the service tunnels. From there we can get to a room where I managed to stash weapons." Lilly reported.

"What about the halls?"

"They are really wide with lots of rooms to hide in. There are larger ones, larger halls. They go down into a repair place, then from there, a farm, mining and the store rooms where I found the guns and clothes."

"Any terminals, computers?"

"I saw alot, they are almost everywhere. You should be able to get into one once we are inside the service tunnels. Then we can escape!"

"Not yet. We need to plan. If we make a plan and side plans for those, we can sure as ta-" He almost said a bad word. "We can be sure as ever that we will be prepared for everything." Ticker said, pushing his glasses back up his muzzle.

"I say we get to the guns and blow out way out." Skye smiled, harder than merited for the scenario.

"NO! No! If we vanish and kill half the bots here, what is going to take care of the ponies and the Ark? That is their food chain, their repairs, it’s... everything to them. We can't take them all with us; imagine thirty or forty ponies in the snow outside, starving and freezing. And the bots would have them starve, left in their restraints as the Ark shifts resources to make food for the ones that do survive."

Lilly and Skye grimaced, they knew in some way that he was right.

"So we have to do this quiet, we have to plan. The service bots go down to that maintenance bay and shut down, recharge the auxiliary batteries and get parts replaced. They are the only ones that have those scanners. I say we wait inside that air duct right before bed. The bots don't count ponies; they see each pony, deal with them and move on when there are no ponies. Its rather bad programming to be hoenst."

"And we can move out when they are all off for the night." Skye said. "We won't have to be quiet and we would be free all night to move around and explore, look for an exit freely."

"Yes. That is what we do. No pressure, no time limit. Only shoot them IF they spot you and start to issue commands. Nothing else."

Everypony nodded in agreement.

"Now, we need to go find somewhere to be quiet and sit today out until dinner. If we are careful, we can get past dinner without any more delays."

Once breakfast was over they retreated up to the uppermost level of one of the Ark's halls. They passed a bot that beeped cheerfully at the bottom of the ramp, moving aside to let them through. There was an area of the Ark that was not padded, a large and very thick window viewing down on the other several stories from above. It was a lounge for the new ponies, as they still had access to it. The older ponies couldn't go up there; too many strikes would bar you from the area permanently.

Ticker and Skye were just at the limit, the maximum of three strikes: no more or they would be removed from the access list. Lilly was free, zero beeps for her as the robot moved to allow her access. They were lucky, as nothing could be heard from the robot up there, the only safe place in the entire Ark where they were being monitored by the collars, not the video and audio feeds listening for seditious talking and actions.

They settled in the complete quiet, the first time any of them could remember where nothing was drawing their attention. No sounds that could, as they mostly did, turn bad on them in several seconds. It was silence that stunned them, it was alarming, as they were waiting for something to happen, return them to normality. They stood, searching for a while, making sure that this silence was normal here.

A voice drew Lilly's attention. She remembered it, the one of three ponies in the Ark she knew, and it wasn't the red pegasus. Zephyr the zebra whispered even louder, his head not quite around the wall.

"Hey, Lilly was it? Can I talk?" he asked.

"Uh... yes?" Lilly stuttered, he knew something.

"I just want to tell you that this is all ok. That everything here is allright. And you want it..." the zebra nodded in a quick motion. "This is something you want. Cause it is all going to just get better from here on out."

"What? What are you talking about?" Lilly asked in confusion.

Zephyr laid down in front of her, hooves tucked under him and his head resting on the padding. He began talking at a slow pace, pausing painfully between each sentence's end. "The walls, they are here to help you learn. Just like the floors and the restraints. It's all designed for you, and for me. For us to just be and exist. Slowly it takes over you, that feeling. Then you don't want to leave, you want to be here, in Equestria as it was. As it still is now."

"I'm trapped in a pillow castle," Lilly responded, "I can't say what I want; I can't leave when I want. I can't control my life, I can't just sit here!"

"Everypony goes through this. You will turn around soon. You are smart, and above all, you are pure. A white mark on Equestria's black face. Even if you don't see your friends again after a certain point, they will return. And I will watch you on that day, and you will laugh. This is how Equestria is meant to be."

"I'm getting out of here, with my friends. And you cannot stop me; you can come along if you want." Lilly offered, her collar dinging like Cutters, a multi-tonal ring, more or less.

"I see you are falling into it." The zebra grinned as he stared at her collar. "Remember what you did here, Lilly. It’s very important. And I can't help or try to stop you; that is none of my business. Don't worry little mare, you will be here five years from now, after that, it's your choice. What you decide now is going to dictate the next large chunk of your life and how you spend it."

"Fine... then, go away, I don't want to talk anymore." Lilly huffed in anger. The zebra nodded and started to walk away, back down the ramp.

"I think we can agree together that he is insane." Ticker said to the others, who nodded in approval.

"So, the next thing in the plan is to wait, wait for the right moment to act." Skye said out loud, both in confirmation and then to meditate on being a perfect pony until then. Then they would all be free. All they were doing now was waiting until after dinner.

Then Freedom.