The Difference in Equalityby NoobSpartaChaptersChapter One - In Our TownChapter Two - Non-Village-NormalityChapter Three - RebellionChapter Four - In Our HQChapter Five - Security SystemPrologueChapter One - In Our TownI wake up with the same feeling I have every time I wake up. Grogginess and hatred. Grogginess because it's a Monday, and hatred because I have a strong disliking of the village I am forced to live in. Unfortunately I cannot leave this village because the village authorities won't let us leave. We never get the chance to leave. If someone tries to, it's village prison for them. If I told them I wanted to leave, there would be the same result. Why would anyone listen to me anyways? I'm only twelve years old. When I grow up, I'm leaving this village behind and I'm taking my parents with me. In school I learned about an interesting place in Equestria. It is an amazing land named Ponyville. That place is a holy land compared to this poor and dusty place. The reason we are supposed to be equal in this village is because if we are all the same, there will be no different opinions. Nopony will be jealous of each other's special talents because nopony has any. If someone were to have a special talents, it would cause "disharmony". If this place contained ponies who have different opinions, ponies here would argue that there will be arguments which leads to the shattering of peace. Since we're all the same, that won't happen. But if this village represents what it's like to be equal, then I hate being equal. Us ponies are supposed to have different talents because it is what makes us unique and special. Starlight Glimmer thought otherwise, which is why she made this village. Is this rule bringing peace or Tartarus? I can't tell. My mother's voice calls to me from downstairs. "Nicky, time for breakfast!" she calls. I think "Nicky" is a cute but annoying name to address me as. "Coming!" I yell back weakly. I take slow and wobbly steps across my room to get downstairs. My legs feel like they are weighing me down every morning when I walk. I approach the staircase and look down at all of the stairs I have to walk down. I find this work tedious because my legs feel like they are made out of soggy pieces of bread. So instead, I spread my wings and fly down the staircase. My wings feel tired, too. Every part of me is tired in the morning. I sit down at the kitchen table looking at my everyday breakfast. Muffins. One time I tripped on a rock and my tongue happened to touch the ground when I tripped. The dirty ground is a very delightful meal compared to village-normal muffins. "Some ponies get nothing, you know," My mother once said. Even nothing would be better than these muffins. What would worse than these muffins? This village, of course. I'm getting tired of complaining. Avoiding the plate of muffins, I grab a glass of water. Water is the only drink this village has to offer. The only thing that doesn't taste like garbage in this village is water. I drink my water and my mother helps me put on my saddlebag. "See you later, sweetie!" My mom says as I walk through the door. She looks happy to send me off to school. She wouldn't be if she knew what I had to go through. I don't fit in because the other ponies my age act normal, or at least what this village sees as normal. Some ponies just stare at me as if I sprouted another pair of ears. I wonder what goes on in their head when they stare at me. What do they feel? Envy? Confusion? I normally just ignore it. I know I don't act like a village-normal pony. I push open the school door and walk into the beginning of another village-normal day at school. I come home to see my father sitting at the kitchen table eating a muffin with a plain expression on his face. He turns to look at me and smiles. "There's my little stallion!" he says. He walks up to me and hugs me with that same expression on his face. When he hugs me, I get a feeling that I'm safe and everything is going to be okay. Maybe living in this village isn't so bad after all. I get to spend more time with my parents. "How was school?" It's funny how he asks that. Every day is the same. Nopony says a word except the teacher. We don't have any tests or schoolwork because that means that ponies would get different grades. It's optional to take notes in class in case you need a reminder of the lesson. I haven't written that much down. I say the same answer as I do everyday. "Good," I say. The kitchen table has hay and water on it. I sit and eat my hay without saying a word. I don't talk very often because there's nothing much to say when every day is the same thing over and over again. I hear hoofsteps coming and I turn my head towards the staircase. I see my mother walking down the stairs and she smiles when she sees me. Though it's not a village-normal smile. It's a smile that would make anyone feel warm inside. "Hey, sweetie," she says with her calm non-village-normal voice. "How was school?" I decide to say something different for once, so I say what's been on my mind for years. "Mom, I don't fit in with anypony else," I begin. "That's because everypony acts the same and they all act strange." The smile fades off of her face and she assumes her lecture face. "Your father and I were a bit skeptical, too," she says. She pulls a chair from the kitchen table and sits down. "That's the rules," says my father. "Starlight has a reason for keeping that rule. It's her way of storing order." I already know that. It's a pain in the flank to think about all of those ponies forced to act that way. "That's not the issue," I say. "Everypony my age is perfect and being equal. But here I am. An outsider to a village I've been living in my entire life." My mother looks worried about something. "When we moved into the village, I couldn't help but bring a little thing to keep the memory of being at Ponyville," says my mother. She has never told me where she and my dad used to live despite the amount of times I asked. Now seemed to be the right time to admit it for her. But what was she keeping? She stands back up and walks across the room to the dusty old bookshelf. She uses her wings to assist her in reaching the top shelf and she slowly pulls a book from the shelf. This must have been to assure her that the thing she was hiding was actually there, because she nods her head when she sees it. She sets the book on the floor and takes a few more books and places it on the floor along with it. She finally pulls out a long gold picture frame that is unlike anything I've seen in this village. I have never seen an actual painting in my life. While still flapping her wings, she turns around to show the painting to me. The other "paintings" in the village only has a picture of an equal sign on it with a gray background. No additional details. The picture takes place in a peaceful field of grass with a clear and blue sky. There are two ponies in the painting that I immediately notice as my mother and father trotting happily in the field. I have never seen something as beautiful as this. My mother smiles when she sees the astonished look on my face. "Do you like it?" she asks. I'm glad she asked because I have finally seen something different under all of this equality. I nod happily. "Are you allowed to have it?" I ask my mom. Starlight Glimmer is very strict about any sign of talent or difference of any kind. When I ask her this question, her ears go down to the sides of her head and she starts looking nervous. "No," she says. "that's why I'm hiding it. Nopony except us can see it because if that were to happen, then it would mean we would be thrown in the village prison." My dad makes a small hum of approval and says, "Word's been going out that someone has gone mad in there once," He says. "Fought the guards and all that. No wonder why he's not here today." My mom scowls and says, "That's not a nice thing for either of us to know, thanks," In my bedroom that night I lay down facing the ceiling on my bed thinking about the painting. The painting is the only thing that has been in my head ever since I have first seen it. Maybe I should make a drawing of my own I think. I have to represent the ones I love the most, don't I? I reach down from my bed and wrap my hoof around my saddlebag that I have lazily thrown beside my bed when I got home from school today. I lift it up and place it on my bed, reaching for the zipper to get started. I zip the bag up and take my notebook from the saddlebag. I rip a sheet of paper from the notebook and place it on the bedside table. This room is very small so it isn't much of a challenge to reach for it. I grab a pencil from the saddlebag and go to the table, thinking about all of the ideas for drawings zooming around my head. Then an idea comes to my mind. I have always dreamed about my parents and I would one day leave the village for good and move to Ponyville. That's what I'm going to draw. At the bottom of the paper, I draw a grassy landscape just like the one in the painting I saw. I'm not going to color it because of course there is nothing to color with. Everyone's favorite color just so happens to be gray. After I finish the landscape, I begin to draw my mother. I picture her white coat and brown hair in my head. I'm not comfortable drawing this, because then I have to draw village-normal hair. For stallions and mares there are assigned haircuts that is mandatory for stallions or mares in the age of sixteen or higher to have. I draw the bases or both of my parents and smile with satisfaction. Over the years, I have practiced drawing in the basement. That's there's a lack in notebook papers. I make the bases of my parents run because that's the idea. Running away from this village and never coming back. When I think about that, I draw the base of myself flying above my parents. I imagine my mother's hair being the same brown, long, and bushy hair she told me about, so I draw that minus the brown.. She didn't tell me about her tail, but I assume it's almost the same thing as her mane. I then begin to draw my father. I draw his hair style similar to mine. Almost all of the non-village-normal stallions' hair looks like a younger pony's, so it won't be hard. My father's hair and tail is light green and he has a brown coat. I draw myself last. I draw my hair and tail with the same look as my father's. I then draw faces on all of them and notice one thing that's missing. The cutie marks. Of course I'm not going to draw the village-normal cutie marks, so I leave them blank. It's better to have no cutie marks than village-normal cutie marks. I look at the painting proudly and approvingly. "Perfect," I say to myself. I take the paper and slide it under my bed. Now I'm hiding a drawing, too. A smile comes on my face as I put my notebook and pencil back inside of my saddlebag. I then climb into the bed and wrap myself in the warm blanket and close my eyes. Shortly after curfew has passed, the lights shut off on their own. I then delve deep into a thought about my parents and I leaving the village. It's going to happen one day. No one is going to stop me. I'll never let Starlight interfere with the plan of my parents and I leaving. As I drop further into my thoughts, I slowly fall asleep. Tomorrow will be non-village-normal. Chapter Two - Non-Village-NormalityAs I sit in one of the desks in the only classroom of the only schoolhouse in this village, I feel proud of myself for drawing that picture last night. Not only have I represented my parents in a good way, I have shown that this village cannot stop me from showing my inner colors. Paul notices me staring into the clear board with a smile on my face and chuckles. Paul is my closest friend in this village. He fully understands my issues that I have with this village. It's like he's different himself. "Wh-what are you staring at?" he says with a laugh. "Nothing," I reply. Paul laughs again and says, "Why are you so happy?" says Paul. "Nothing," I repeat obliviously. Even if I was paying any attention to him, I couldn't tell him about the drawing. We were told to inform the village authorities about anything that seems beyond village-normal. I can't trust anyone. Not even my closest friend. At this point, the only ponies I can trust are my parents. Ms. A comes in the classroom with the rest of the class. I must have been early again. When everyone is seated we shortly stand to say the pledge of equality. This village has a pledge of equality because they are proud to force other ponies into acting the same in a small village in which no one can leave. Equestria was meant to be a place of harmony, not communism. Honor our little town I pledge equality to thee; village One place, under Celestia All of us the same. Paul begins to look bothered by the fact that I barely talked to him. Instead of pursuing the conversation, he stops talking to me. After that, Ms.A talks about the lesson. Paul rests head on the desk and covers his head with his hooves in frustration. "Man, this lesson is so hard. This is so raging," He says. Paul usually never pays attention to the teacher. That just goes to show how much these ponies care about our education. After school, I walk back home with a village-normal smile on my face to fit in. That's the best I can do. I lift a hoof to open the door to my house, but then I hear voices from behind the houses. That's strange because nopony went behind the houses for as long as I can remember. I don't think that it's against the rules, but it's still strange. The voices belong to a mare and a stallion. I walk in between the houses to listen in on this conversation that is taking place behind the houses. That must be because it is important. "The search has already been done overnight," Says the mare. "You would've known that if you were awake when it happened like you were supposed to." The mare scoffs and the mare's choice of words seemed to have triggered a scowl in the stallion's face. "It was two in the morning!" The stallion exclaims. The mare keeps a straight face, however. "There's always an excuse with you, y'know that?" says the mare. "It's always something with you. Every one of your tiny little mistakes has a stupid explanation to cover it up." The mare scowls as well. This is unusual. I thought that this village was supposed to prevent arguments. "I don't even know how you got hired, Sand Hill." says the mare. "I got hired because I caught a pony who looked like she was doing something that required a talent!" retorted Sand Hill. He says the word "talent" in a hushed tone as if he was saying an offensive swear. "I was the only one who caught a pony's object that represented a talent in the search!" Says the mare. "That's far beyond what you can do, and we're supposed to be equal." When she says this, Sand Hill starts looking nervous. "How dare you!" he says in an offended tone. "I am no different than anyone else, for your information! I don't know how you can falsely accuse me of being different." He scoffs. The mare rolls her eyes. "Anyways, what was the object?" The mare chuckles. "It was some kid's drawing," she says. I begin to sweat from head to hoof and my heart rate picks up at a fast pace. I quickly back away and run towards the door. I quickly open the door and get inside, slamming the door behind me. My parents look at me with a concerned expression on their faces. "What's wrong, Nick?" says my mother. "N-nothing at all," I lie. "I gotta go now. See ya!" I quickly run towards the room and up the stairs, leaping to the door of my room and hastily opening it. Heart beating even faster now, I run into the room and lower my head. I look under my bed and see that the drawing is gone. As if I wasn't in enough of a panic before, my panic gets even worse. I yank the drawers from the cabinet with so much force that it nearly falls off. My drawing isn't there, either. Where has my drawing gone? Was it found in the search that the ponies mentioned? I quickly turn around and run down the stairs to ask my parents about my drawing. "What are you talking about?" says my mother. She suddenly gasps in realization. "You made a picture? What were you thinking? Only Celestia knows what they'll do to you!" My father puts his newspaper down and looks at my mother. "What's wrong, Sketch?" says my father. "Nick's drawn a picture and the ponies found it during the search!" she says in a panicked tone. After my dad's eyes widen, I shake my head. "No, wait!" I say in objection. "I'm talking about someone else's drawing! I never drew a picture in my life!" Neither of my parents are convinced, however. My father gets up from the chair so quickly that it falls backwards. I'm in deep trouble now. After being locked inside of my room, my parents leave the house to go to the guards. I walk up to my cabinet and turn around. Applying as much force to my hind legs as I can, I kick the cabinet. My kicking had no effect, however. I sit on the bed and look at the window on the other side of my small room because there is nothing else to do. In front of me, I see a desert landscape. This entire time I have been living in this small village in a desert far away from Ponyville. By the time my parents get back, it might be too late for me. Then I get an idea. What if the drawing they were talking about isn't mine and I just hid the drawing from myself? I'll have to check the Main House tonight past curfew. But there's one problem. Everyone who gets out at night past curfew gets thrown in the village prison. And nopony wants to go there. Fortunately my parents have unlocked my door when they got back, but they did not say a word to me. I look out of my window and look at the eerie night time desert. My attention then shifts to the Main House that has lights visible in there. I slowly walk back to my door and quietly open the door. To avoid making any noise, I fly down the stairs instead of walking. I don't walk on the bottom floor, either. I have to be careful about this. I open the door and see a few guards walking about, but none of them are looking at me. I find going behind the houses to be a good idea, so that's exactly where I go. To my relief, there are no guards behind the houses. It's time to start for the Main House now. As I slowly walk behind the houses, I glance at the gaps in between the houses to make sure there are no guards looking at me. My heart is beating at a rapid pace once again as I finally stop at the last house. The Main House is far away from the normal houses. As I look at the glowing lights of the Main House in the distance, I feel the cold wind rush through my coat sending a chill down my spine. There are no guards walking about in the area between the houses and the Main House. I look around the corner to look for any guards. So far the only guards are the ones in the village. If I run across here I won't be seen if I'm lucky. I just have to get there quietly. And I know exactly how to do just that. I spread my wings and I bend down so I can kick off from the air. My heart may be racing and my mind might be telling me not to do this, but there's a tiny whisper in my head that's telling me to do it. I search my mind for the slightest bit of courage, and I end up successful. I kick off of the ground with a lot of force and rapidly flap my wings. The cold wind rushes through my face and gives me the taste of freedom. I have never done anything so exhilarating in my life. The excitement courses through my body as air rushes past my wings and makes me lift two feet into the air. That's a record. I have heard no voices from the guards behind me so I get the idea that they haven't seen me. I'm too fast for them. Looks like I have proven to be better than the rest. I softly land to the side of the Main House after the exhilarating flight. To avoid being seen by guards, I leap behind the house. My eyes fix upon the empty and dark desert land in front of me. Every time I look outside my window at night, I fear that there are monsters out there. At least that's what I feared when I was young. The anxiety from back then came back now. I take a look around the corner and find no guards facing towards the Main House. I go back to the side of the Main House and look up. On the stone wall of the Main House there is a window with light visible through it. I flap my wings as fast as I can to try to get up to the window. My wings quickly get tired and I fall back onto the floor after going only two feet in the air. Looks like I have to go inside. Noticing that the guards in the village have yet to pay attention to the Main House, I walk to the front door. I press my ear on it to listen for anyone that might be inside. The sound of approaching hoofsteps can be heard inside and before I could move, I feel a force pressing against my ear. Responding quickly, I hide behind the door as it opens. Four mares walk out of the open door, keeping their heads focused on the village. I peek around the door for anyone else, but the room seems free of ponies. I walk in the room and notice that there are a few differences compared to the normal houses. The furniture is far more detailed and fit for a pony with a million bits. I look at a table on the right and I can't help but notice a weird rectangular shaped device with a knob and a antenna on it. That's the description my mother gave me of how this device called a radio is like. It plays different songs at the turn of a knob. The only song I ever heard is "In Our Town" when we greet a new villager. I wouldn't participate in the singing and marching, however. I would just stay in my room and wait it out. The villagers never had the luxury of having a radio. But besides a radio, I have more important things to focus on. I take notice of a staircase and make my way upwards, looking at the posters of Starlight Glimmer and picture frames with an equal sign on it lined up on both of the walls. There's a door at the end of the hall which is already open, but no sign of Starlight. All I'm here for is a drawing of mine or someone else's drawing. Maybe the drawing the mare was talking about was another unfortunate pony's drawing and I'm safe. I slowly walk past the door and see a room as elegant at the first floor of the Main House. I take a glance at the bedside cabinet and I see a familiar unicorn. Starlight Glimmer. She seems to be holding a piece of paper with her magic with a look of disappointment on her face. I focus my eyes on the paper and notice that it is my drawing. Thankfully, she's not facing me. Otherwise she would catch me snooping around in her house. I focus my eyes on the paper and it looks like it's a picture of three ponies on a grassy landscape. Crap. Starlight then magically crumbles my drawing and throws it aside. Despite the anger and hatred raging in my chest, I remain silent. Starlight sighs. "Nick, I wish there was another way for you to learn," she says. I keep my mouth shut in case she's not talking to me. There's going to be a punishment for me now. But what will it be? Hopefully not death, right? That won't be necessary. They wouldn't go too far as to kill me for drawing a picture. Maybe I'll just get a slap on the hoof or something. I turn around and slowly make my way down the stairs. I fly out the door and notice that the guards are still in the village. I fly to take the same route I came in the Main House. The flight back was just as fun as the flight in. I land behind the houses and make my way back to my house. I walk through the gap between my house and another house and while I'm halfway in, I see a mare walking past. I come to a full halt to avoid the crunching sound of the sand and rocks underneath my hooves. The mare walks away, her gaze not fixed upon me. These guards are terrible. I just went to the Main House and back without being in eyesight. I silently open the door and enter my house, slowly closing the door behind me as I do so. But I still can't help my anxiety about my drawing being found. For once my non-village-normality has gotten me into trouble. I go through my normal terrible morning routine. Once I have my saddlebag on, I'm walking out the door. I open the schoolhouse door and take a seat in the ugly village-normal classroom. Early again. At least Paul is with me. I'm still scared for my life, however. My punishment might be today. The mystery of what my punishment is is scaring me more than anything else in my life. My teacher walks in with the rest of the class and my classmates have a seat. After all of the chattering, we stand to say the pledge of equality. We open our mouths to say the words, but the door opens and a unicorn with a light blue coat and hair walks in along with a mare. The stallion's eyes are fixed on me and with deep voice, he says, "Yeah, tha-" He coughs and with a softer voice, he says, "Yeah, that's the one." Everypony is looking at me now. I'm assuming that this is the pony who is going to take me to my punishment. When that thought arrives, my heart beat picks up at a faster rate. I don't want to be punished. He walks towards me and when he arrives at my desk, I see his horn glow and I am lifted into the air. The unicorn magically takes me outside and the door is shut behind me. Standing outside of my house, I can see my mother. She gasps and covers her mouth as tears roll down her eyes. I open my mouth to yell for help, but no sound comes out. The magic seems to be keeping me from saying anything. A crowd of ponies stand in front of what I recognize as the village prison and in front of the crowd stands Starlight Glimmer. The crowd seems to be of everyone in the village. I know exactly what's going to happen now. The glow of magic around me disappears and I land on the floor in front of the crowd. I'm the center of attention in the village. "Nick, you have chosen to betray us and what we stand for," says Starlight. She shakes her head and puts on the same disgusting frown on her face. She seems furious now. Sweat rolls down my head and it is soaking my underarms. A cold shiver of fear courses through my body as she looks down at me. "What has gotten into you?" Glad that the magic is gone, I use my retrieved ability to speak. "I'm sorry, I didn't know!" I say. But she doesn't believe me. I have lived in this village for all of my twelve years of living, so she expects me to know the rules. "Maybe some time in here will give you the right idea of who you're living with," she says. She magically opens the door of the village prison and two guards stand on each side of the door. Having no other choice, I walk in. When I'm inside of the prison, the door slams shut behind me leaving me inside of the prison. Chapter Three - RebellionI have been thrown into the darkest and smallest room I've seen. Almost the size of my room. There is a box of hay in the corner and a circular box of water the right of it. The room is only lit by two thin and tall windows. They don't even light the majority of the room. I feel heat through my entire body due to the warmth of the room. I am already soaked with sweat, so the heat only adds on to it. The stench is unbelievably terrible. I look around the prison to find torn pictures of posters of equal signs. Above the hay there is a large picture frame with a picture of another equal sign. These things are everywhere. At least there are no more ponies staring at me. I'd faint if I was stared at by a crowd for any longer. To my right there is a single bookshelf on the wall that consists of books with equal signs on the cover. I'm going to go mad just like the pony dad mentioned if I see one more of these. Suddenly, the distorted sound of a mare's voice can be heard in the ceiling. This makes me jump and my head immediately snaps up to the ceiling. After a few more seconds of the distorted noise, the voice finally becomes coherent. The voice does not belong to Starlight Glimmer, but some other random mare. "In sameness, there is peace," the voice says. I can hear the words throughout the entire village as well. "Exceptionalism is a lie." The word leaves me puzzled as to what it means. "Free yourself from your cutie mark." Been there, done that, hated it. "Choose equality as your special talent." Equality is not a talent for me. My entire life I have been an outcast to this village. I know I'm special somewhere outside of this village. I belong in Ponyville or any other place that is far away from here. "To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best. Difference is frustration." The only frustration I'm getting is from this voice I say in my mind. "Conformity will set you free. Accept your limitations and happiness will follow." I've been facing limitations my entire life and I'm miserable. "You're no better than your friends." Then the voice repeats its message. I get angered by the fact that I might have to listen to this all day, so I take a book from the bookshelf and fly to the speaker. "I've had enough of this," I say with a grunt. I swing the book at the speaker with as much force as I can put into my arms. Despite my great effort, it made no difference to the voice in the speaker. After I wack the speaker a few more times, I've done as little as barely make a dent in it. I grunt in frustration and softly land on the ground. Instead of trying to make further damage to the speaker, I take a pile of hay from the box and set it on the ground to use as a pillow. Then I take two chunks of hay and stuff them in my ears. It blocked out some of the noise, but not all of it. It's better than hearing that voice to its full extent. I lay down on my scratchy hay pillow and close my eyes. The next day, I wake up to the creaking sound of the prison door. A light shines in and hits me in the eye. My eyes were so used to the dark, so I block out the light with an arm. When my eyes get used to the light, I lower my arm and notice Starlight Glimmer standing at the door with a rather annoying smile on her face. "Are you ready to join us again, Nick?" she says. I feel glad that the punishment only lasted for a day. It wasn't so bad as I thought it was, despite that annoying repeating message. I nod my head and I feel something scratching at my ears. I reach for my right ear and notice I still have the chunks of hay in my ears. Cringing in embarrassment, I pull each chunk of hay out of my ear and stand up to join Starlight Glimmer with the crowd of ponies behind her. Once I exit the prison, I look both ways to check if there are any guards. Surprisingly, there are none. I scan the crowd to see if there are any guards I have happened to overlook, but there is nopony who looks like they could be an authority here. Nothing except village-normal ponies. This can be an easy escape. Once my parents see that I'm running away, they can run by my side and we can escape together. I don't have to stay here for the rest of my life. I'm going to Ponyville. Starlight is still standing there smiling. She looks very smug like she is sure that she has already changed my ways. This is when an idea hits me. If I'm going to escape, I'm going out with a bang. I'm going to show Starlight that she can never change me. I'm different and I can't be controlled. If I were to keep Starlight Glimmer stunned for a brief moment, it would make for an easier escape. The way she stands there looking cocky already fills me up with hatred. This is when I strike. It all happens so quickly. I swing a hoof across her face, triggering various gasps from the crowd behind her. Without putting much thought into it, I turn and leap into the air ready to fly away. My entire body has suddenly stopped in mid-air. Starlight lifts me up with her magic so that I'm facing her. I must have hit her hard, because I see blood seeping down her cheek and she looks absolutely furious. The anger on her face sends a spine-tingling feeling through my body. Guards start running in my direction on Starlight's right, but she halts them with a hoof. She magically throws me back with so much force that my back hits the wall of the prison, causing pain to erupt on my body. The prison door slams shut in front of me and I slide down on top of the hay box. My plan failed. Grunting with the searing pain that has hit my back, I get off of the hay box and stare at the door for what feels like a minute. I'm not going to Ponyville with my parents and I'm going to be in this prison for who knows how long? My head faces the ground in pure depression. My life is ruined and there's darn near nothing I can do about it. This is the end. Tears slowly make their way down my face as I return to my hay pillow and I lay down there. The voice message from the speaker starts to play again so I stuff two chunks of hay in my ears again. I have grown used to them hurting my ears. After what felt like an hour, I decided to stand up and look out the window due to my excessive amount of boredom. I look out into the arid desert and sigh. The thought that I might never see what's out there disappoints me. There is an entire world to be discovered but my limit is not even a few feet outside of this small village. Then I noticed the silhouettes of three ponies in the distance running to the right. I stand corrected about the few feet rule. The warmth of my hay pillow has made me relaxed and calm. It gives me the feeling that maybe not everything is going to go wrong. Maybe it's not too bad living in a small room with only hay and water to eat. Being to lazy to get up, I have eaten some of the hay pillow which is far better than muffins. My eyes shut and I try to ignore the constantly repeating message. While I'm drifting off into sleep, reality snaps at me and I wake up with anxiety in my chest. What if I never leave this prison after what I've done to Starlight? What if I never get to see my parents' faces again? I'm in a calm and quiet little room in Ponyville, sitting on a stool watching my father paint. His strokes breeze through the canvas leaving a trail of light blue behind. I try to talk, but it seems like I have no control of my mouth. I try to move, but I have no control over my body. All I can do is watch my father paint, which I don't mind. My mind tingles with curiosity as to wonder about the mystery of what he is drawing. It looks like he is covering the entire with the same shade of blue like he is creating a painting of the sky. Maybe my assumptions aren't accurate. There are a lot of things that are blue, like my coat. No, my coat is a slightly darker shade of blue that may or may not stand out to the other ponies in the village. When I delve further into my thoughts, my father dips his hoof into the black paint and smears two straight lines across the canvas. I recognize this as an equal sign. The light blue paint swirls around the canvas as if it's being magically manipulated. The paint suddenly turns into gray and the painting dries up already. An unknown force magically pushes the painting on top of my father which makes me jump on the inside. The canvas falls through my father and as it does his hair color changes into the color purple with blue lines and his coat color changes to purple. This is no longer my father. All of the color in the room starts to fall as if it turned into some liquid and what used to be a room in Ponyville turned into a flat gray land in the middle of nowhere. Starlight Glimmer slowly turns her head to face me and says, "I wish there was another way," Then the gray fades to black and I jerk awake in the middle of the night, making a small shout of panic. To take my mind off of the dream, I daydream about actually being at Ponyville and not some empty gray place. After I have spent a few seconds into my thought, the message stops playing through the loudspeaker. Thank goodness. I'm expecting the door to open, but it doesn't. I open my eyes and look around to see what has stopped the speaker from playing its annoying message, but I don't see anything that could be worthy of doing so. Without having much use for them, I remove the chunks of hay from my ears. That's when it happens. A large sound of combustion erupts from the wall to my left and it causes my ears to ring. I can feel of the rough debris hitting my face. I shut my eyes as tight as I can, hoping to wake up. This is just another dream. Everything is going to be fine I assure myself in my mind. I slowly open my eyes and I'm still in the dark prison. Except this time, there's a huge hole in the wall to the right where three stallions stand before me. I am struck with pure panic as I sit there wide-eyed looking at these three mysterious stallions. They all have something non-village-normal about them. The stallion on the left is a pegasus with a black coat and dark blue hair, his frightening red eyes staring down at me. On the right stands an earth pony whose coat is white and hair is red with blue eyes shining in the moonlight. The third and final stallion standing in the middle is a unicorn with a orange coat and bright red hair and he has astonishing green eyes. The three of them has a look of great urgency on their faces. The stallion in the middle yells something at me, but I can't hear him due to the ringing in my ears. The stallion looks like he is grunting in frustration and he picks me up with his magic. "We've got to go now!" He yells. This time I can hear him more clearly because the ringing in my ears has subsided. The ponies at his side run to the left which is the direction to the back of the houses. This is it. My one way trip out of here. But what if I can't trust these stallions? This is the first time we've met and I don't know any of the other ponies that came along with him. I trust my gut and I follow the ponies. We run behind the houses most likely because they don't want to be seen by anyone. We run past a house that I recognize as my house and I come to an immediate halt. The stallion that rushed me out earlier looks at me with a more panicked expression and says, "What in Celestia's name do you think you're doing?" My response is full of rush like his voice. "I want to take my parents with us!" I say. "There's no time for that!" He says, gesturing his head forward. "Come on!" Three guards are rushing in from behind a building and they are all equipped with bows. When a few arrows zoom past my head I get the message and continue running. After we pass the last building, we make a turn to the middle of the village where we begin to follow a path that takes us to various rocky mountains. An arrow lands close to my hind hoof and I gasp, thinking for a split second that my leg has been hit. The arrow is picked up by the unicorn's magic and it gets thrown backwards to where it came from with a lot of force. Not even a second after the sound of a gasp and choking can be heard. Then a violent thud to the ground. I do not think about turning my head to see a dead body. I never want to see one of those in my life. My ears pick up the whooshing sound of the wind but then I realize it is coming from the unicorn's horn. His head is turned backward and he is facing two mares who looked like the ones who came from the Main House. A white ring has appeared on his horn and the sound of the wind gets louder as it gets closer to the tip of his horn. When the ring hits the tip, a line of light shoots out of his horn towards the direction of the two mares. When it hits the ground in between them, the beam of light detonates into an explosion. The cloud of smoke reveals what is left of them. The four of us are running down that path over the mountains and I slowly become more and more fatigued, but I have to keep going in case we are still being pursued. "We're close to headquarters," Says the pegasus. "Headquarters is over there, kid," Says the unicorn as he gestures his head to a big black mountain which is coming nearer as we run. When the trip to the mountain ends, we all stop to catch our breaths and the sudden feeling of guilt of not going to save my parents hits me. I could have left with them if I could have gone inside the house. I fight back tears to avoid having a mental breakdown in front of the stallions. "Why did you take me?" I demand. There is a sound of great anger in my voice. I'm not happy with going with these stallions now. The unicorn looks at me and says, "We send spies to look at the village every now and then. Fortunately, we found you. You are an important discovery to us. By finding you, we found a spark of hope in this generation of ponies. You are the future of a generation who can withstand the brainwashing of equality." I am completely dumbfounded by this stallion's response. Was I really that special? "Why didn't you take my parents?" I ask angrily. "They were so close!" The unicorn shakes his head and says, "You think we could have risked our necks any more than that?" he says. "Be happy that you're finally away from that dreadful place." "Where's this headquarters anyways?" I say. "It's in there," says the unicorn as we presses on the black mountain's wall. A hole in the shape of a door is visible in the mountain as the large bit of the mountain he pressed on slid down to the ground. "C'mon, now," says the pegasus. His voice sounds like he might be in his thirties. Inside the hole in the wall is a dark and eerie staircase that is poorly lit by ceiling lights. "Well, I don't think I really trust this," I say after I hesitate. The pegasus grunts and says, "Fine, we'll go first since you think we're a bunch of foal foolers or something," The three of them walk down the staircase and I follow them down. At the end of the staircase there is a short hallway with a steel door at the end which has a camera on it. The camera scans us and the door abruptly swings open. They walk through the door and so do I. This is not the place I was expecting it to be. This is far better. A bit plain, but better. The room I entered has a large hallway which is brightly lit and there is a smooth marble floor which reflects the place. There are two other hallways going to the left and right at the end of this long and wide hallway. On the walls there are huge steel doors with square shaped buttons on the side that is lit from the inside. Both walls in this hallway has three of these and I predict there are far more in the two other hallways. An old mare with a dark green coat walks out of a door that has opened to my left and looks at the unicorn. " Ah, welcome back, Flame Lord," she says. "I see there's a new pony with ye." She looks at me and her eyes widen. "Oh my goodness! Are ye that Nick pony? The Soldiers 'ave bin talkin' about ye and the word's spread that there's actually a pony who's diff'rent in that village full of commernism and equality!" Flame Lord laughs. "It's comm-u-nis-m, Seven Leaf Clover," He says. Seven Leaf Clover shrugs. "Bah, whatever!" she says. Flame Lord looks at me and softly lays a hoof on his face. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you to us," he says. "I'm Flame Lord, as you've heard. This is Paladin." He points to the pegasus with the creepy red eyes. Then he gestures to the earth pony. "And that's Punching Bag. He'll be teaching you some self defense." Punching Bag chuckles. "You need it," he says. "You've let unicorns carry you like you were nothing." He smirks at me. "How am I supposed to prevent that?" I ask. "That's what I'll teach you later," says Punching Bag. "I'll show you where the dormitory is," says Flame Lord. Flame Lord and I walk through the crowd of ponies moving about in the hallway. "You've been through a lot today. It's needed that you get some rest." I look at him with a concerned expression. "What is this place?" I ask. "This is the headquarters of the rebellion working against Starlight's village," he says. "I'm the leader of the rebellion. We're against the village because we believe in expressing ourselves. The ponies at the village just force other ponies into acting equal, and that's not right." He looks to the right. "And plus, th- Smoke Clouds, what did I tell you about smoking in the hallways?" He shouts. Smoke Clouds, an earth pony with a gray coat and spiky gray hair throws his cigar to the side and blows the smoke away. His face goes red with embarrassment as he says, "I haven't been smoking, what're you talking about?" Flame Lord scowls. "If I catch you smoking in the hall again I'll throw away all of your cigars!" He says strictly. "I don't even know why I allowed him to have them here." He mutters. He presses a white square shaped button on the wall and the steel door next to it slides open to reveal a dark room with bunk beds and bedside cabinets next to each one. "You sleep on the third one to the right. Sleep well, because you have self defense training tomorrow." He looks rather bored when he says that. I walk to the bed that he mentioned and I flop myself on the bed with both fear and anxiety tingling in my chest. I stare at the bunk above me and sigh. All this time I've been some sort of special snowflake for a rebellion. But why me? There's plenty of other ponies in the village they could have taken. I'm very valuable as it seems. At least I'm valuable to the rebellion. To Starlight, I might be a threat that has to be rid of. But the main thing about this "threat" is the fact that I'm different. And both sides want me or want to get me off of the face of Equestria for the exact same reason. Chapter Four - In Our HQPunching Bag shakes me awake and I slowly open my eyes. "Huh?" I say weakly. "Time for training, Nicky," says Punching Bag. He yanks the blanket off of the bed and shakes me once more. That becomes a large annoyance to me and it makes me grunt in frustration. Getting the message, I climb out of the bed with my weak morning legs. The room is pitch black and I can only see the glowing square button on the wall. When he pushes it, the light from the main hallway fills my eyes and I block my eyes with a hoof. This is the village all over again. "Well? Come on, now." I try to strengthen my legs by pushing myself to walk faster. While following Punching Bag through the door, my eyes finally adjust to the light and I no longer need to close my eyes halfway. "Before we get to training, you need to eat breakfast. It's hardly possible to kick flank on an empty stomach, yeah?" His eyes focus towards me and he smiles. "Trust me, the food here is far better than what the absolute git Starlight gave you." My opinion about this pony changes when he insults Starlight. To avoid tiring my legs even further, I forcefully flap my wings and follow Punching Bag by flying. It amazes me how much effort they put into building this place. If Starlight's village is a small and poor place, why are they trying so hard? It's not like they are that big of a threat. This rebellion is exceedingly populated and they seem more richer than the village. So why are they struggling? As we approach a door in the hallway, Seven Leaf Clover walks out and squeals when she sees me which makes me cringe. When we enter the headquarter's cafeteria, I see plates lining up the silver tables and the sound of chattering can be heard throughout the place. The plates are filled with this strange flat food with square-shaped holes in them. It's the same color as the muffins in the village, so I don't trust any of them. I sit down at one of the tables and feel the coldness of the seat pressing against me. I try my best to ignore it and focus my attention on the strange food on my plate. As if he read my mind, Punching Bag says, "Those aren't muffins, Nicky," And then I remember what Flame Lord told me about the rebellion spying on the village. How much do they know about the village or me? "This is what us non-village folk call waffles." With a lot of hesitation, I grab the waffle with a hoof and slowly move it to my open mouth. I take a bite and... oh my Celestia. This is the best thing that has ever touched my tongue! By the time Punching Bag and I leave the cafeteria, my stomach is filled with waffles. I think I've gained a waffle addiction while I was in there. Punching Bag presses a button on the wall next to a door and it smoothly slides upwards. In the gray room there are swords, bows, arrow bags, and other weapons hanging on the walls. "We have a surplus of weapons 'cause our numbers were greater back then. Starlight's army always had ways to outplay us. But maybe they have something we don't. That's why we spend lots of time finding out what makes them so powerful." It must be difficult for a large rebellion with plenty of supplies to fight a small village."There used to be over forty of us. But now or numbers lowered to twenty-eight including you." That gives me terrible anxiety and I shiver in fear. "That many ponies die in here?" I ask. He nods and says, "It's a terrible war we're fighting," A smile slowly creeps onto his face. "but we're slowly getting stronger every day. Now let's get things back to training, yeah?" He reaches into a small abandoned saddlebag beneath the hanging weapons and reaches his entire hoof in there. He moves his hoof around and the clattering of various objects can be heard. I assume that the saddlebag is enchanted by unicorn magic. He finally pulls out a white life-sized mannequin out of the saddlebag. He gets on his hind legs to push the mannequin to the middle of the room and goes back to get a longbow by biting on the wooden part. With one hoof, he takes the strap of an arrow bag out of the saddlebag and lets the strap rest on the back of his neck. "Thnkflly, yer a pegashish sho dish shood be eeshee fer you." He releases the longbow from his teeth in front of me and drops the arrow bag as well. "Pegasi are able to get a better grip on weapons, so all you have to do is fly while using the bow." I haven't seen how ponies use bows, so this should be something new. I didn't see how the mare shot the arrow back at the village when I got busted out. All I got to see was how she died. "I don't know how to hold it," I say pathetically. "Simple," he says. "Just hover above the ground and let your hind legs face the floor so that you're in the proper position." I simply follow what he said and I look back at him. I coil my hoof around the longbow and then I begin to fly not too far from the ground and tilt myself so that my hind legs are facing the ground. "Like this, right?" I ask after a long struggle with the bow. Punching Bag nods and frowns in impatience and says, "Except you forgot to take an arrow." Blushing, I coil one of my hooves around an arrow and look at him. "What next?" I ask. "Put the nock, which is the back of the arrow, in between your teeth," he says. I simply obey his orders, but the plastic nock of the arrow awkwardly dangles from my mouth. "Now put the string in your mouth along with the nock. Balance the arrow on the string and grip, pull the grip away from your face, let go with your teeth, profit. Try it." I remove the arrow from my mouth and tilt my head to the left, letting the string enter my mouth. I put the nock of the arrow in my mouth and bite down on both of them. When I notice the arrow is slightly dangling, I shift my teeth so that the arrow is straight. This might be simple. Balancing the arrow isn't much of a challenge. The arrow is facing forward on both the string and bow. I completely forget about my target and fix my aim onto the mannequin's chest. Pulling the grip of the bow away from my face, I squint and focus my eyes on both the triangular and sharp tip of the arrow and the mannequin that is littered with cuts from previous arrows. This is it. The moment when I learn how to defend myself against the guards in Starlight's village. Pretending that the mannequin is a village guard makes me even more confident to unleash the arrow upon it. With determination in my heart, I let go of the string and arrow. Take that, you scumbag! The arrow lamely flops from side to side in mid-air and softly lands on the floor nowhere near the mannequin. Punching Bag rests his hoof on his face in frustration and sighs. "That was quite a start. Tons of progress." After training archery for what felt like an hour, I exit the training room with an aching left front hoof. During my hour of training, I barely got the mannequin on its neck and on its neck a few times, but the tip of the arrow only tapped on the mannequin. The only time the arrow sunk into the mannequin was when I hit in its flank. The problem was that it wasn't fully submerged like the rest of the cuts. "Where'd you get those mannequins?" I ask as Punching Bag and I exit the training room. Punching Bag laughs and says, "Funny story," He smiles while keeping his head forward. "I got them from Ponyville. A place called Carousel Boutique. The white mare there was screaming on the top of her lungs when she found out I was intruding." He laughs. "Good times." Flame Lord is having a conversation with a group of six ponies who are crowded up in front of him. I only recognize Smoke Clouds and Paladin in the group of ponies. As I approach them, Flame Lord looks at me and the ponies look at my direction at me as well. "He's Nick," He says. "The newest member of the rebellion!" A mare with white, short, and spiky hair along with a brown coat chuckles. "When I was thinking that when you guys were risking your necks to get a pony from a village, I was thinking they'd focus on someone a tad bit older," She says. "Are you kidding?" Flame Lord says. "We set our priorities just right. Nick is the only pony who shows signs of difference in the village. Something the children in the village would never dare to do!" The mare just smirks and says, "So?" She looks at me. "Some of the rather unwise ponies aren't hesitant to show 'signs of difference'." Flame Lord scowls and says, "And that's telling us something," His eyes widen and he breaks into a theory. "There's something going on with the offspring of the parents in the village. The parents can act different at their own will, but the kids seem like they can't. But Nick broke that pattern. But how?" The mare shakes her head. "Yeah, I don't think you're thinking straight," She says. "Tinks, this colt can save this generation," Says Flame Lord. Being reluctant about interrupting the argument, I finally decide to speak. "Flame Lord?" Flame Lord looks at me with a calmer expression. A green stallion with black dreadlocks frowns and says, "Aye, I think this lad wants us to save 'is parents. D'you think we should break it to 'im?" he says. He has a similar accent to Seven Leaf Clover. "I don't think he can handle it," Says Flame Lord. Suspense sparks up inside of my head. What can't I handle? Flame Lord sighs. "I'm sorry, Nick. It'll be nearly impossible to get your parents. Their defenses are too strong for us to withstand. I really am sorry." Sadness and desperateness tingles in my chest. No. That can't be right. "You're lying," I say. "I've been there my entire life and I can assure you that there are no more than just a few ponies walking around weakly armed. You can save my parents if you weren't so damn lazy!" Flame Lord takes away his convivial mood and becomes furious. "If you don't believe me, then I'll just show you," He says. "Just wait here." Flame Lord goes to the training room and the group of ponies he was talking to follows him. "What was that all about?" Says Punching Bag. "It got a little out of control," I say. "I was a little too desperate to get my parents back that I took it out on Flame Lord." Punching Bag shakes his head. "You've ticked off the Soldiers," He says. "You called 'em lazy, so now they're going to do something stupid to prove you wrong." This unfamiliar label drops curiosity into me. "Soldiers?" I say. "The folks who leave the headquarters to get supplies, spy on the village, or raid it," He says. "They're not people you want to mess with, Nick." Punching Bag tells me the duties of Soldiers and talks about the Soldiers I don't know. "The purple mare with frantically moving eyes is Mad-Eye Julie," He says. "The one with white-ish hair is Dual-Ended Dagger. The green pony with the black hair is Lucky Trots. Seven Leaf's grandson." My curiosity ensues. "How did everypony find the rebellion?" I ask. "There's two ways," He says. "The Soldiers did recruiting missions 'round Canterlot and chose the guards that looked rebellious. Starlight invites ponies into her village when ponies run into her. We chose the ponies who declined the request into the rebellion, and it was successful." The soldiers emerge from the training room with weapons in their mouths, their unicorn magic, or empty hoofed with saddlebags. The first pony I recognize from Punching Bag's descriptions is Fast-Eye Julie. The pegasus's eyes are frantically moving around in her sockets as if she's paying close attention to a fly, but they are moving quickly. She has a dark purple coat and a short dark purple mane with thick black streaks. Her cutie mark is a pair of widened eyes. A pony with a pink coat and a silver colored mane I recognize as Dual-Ended Dagger smirks and says, "I'm assuming you're our most recent celebrity, huh?" She scoffs. "The one and only different Nick." I scowl and keep my mouth shut. Fast-Eye remains silent and straight faced. "Flame, why do you want this child to come with us to do this? He's too young." Double-Ended Dagger looks at Flame Lord with a concerned expression on her face. "He's not seeing the truth," Says Flame Lord. "so we are going to bring the truth to him." The Soldiers and I are moving up the poorly lit staircase. The staircase is oddly eerie and it could make anyone not want to enter or exit. By the time we are out, heavy rain is slamming into the ground, soaking us and our saddlebags. My sight of the far distance is obscured by the thick rain clouds. We walk along the same path I came to the headquarters from and I have a good feeling that if the village isn't as heavily guarded as Flame Lord claimed, we can save my parents. As we walk along the path of the damp sand, Fast-Eye Julie's eyes focuses in one direction and twitches in place. She slows down and eventually stops. The rest of the group stops along with her and look at her in a worried expression. "Is there somethin' wrong, lad?" Confronts Lucky Trots. "I knew my mother was right," Says Fast-Eye Julie. "I had a feeling that was constantly poking at my head that maybe they did exist. Little old Fast-Eye isn't crazy after all." I think she has gone mad. By the look of it, nopony here knows what she is talking about. Flame Lord steps closer to her. "Is everything alright?" He asks. The fact that she doesn't answer gives off an ominous tone. "Hold on, what exists?" I say. In the middle of Fast-Eye's hesitation to respond to anyone, Paladin frowns and says, "I wouldn't be surprised if it was a-" Paladin's sentence was cut off by Punching Bag's shout. "TIMBERWOLF!" Yells Punching Bag as he runs the opposite direction of which we came. Flame Lord's eyes widen and his jaw drops when I turn my attention to him. The earth beneath us shakes as a nearby sound of loud thudding can be heard. I stand back behind the Soldiers in terror of what I have seen. A silhouette of a ginormous wolf's head emerges from the fog in the distance. The creature's glowing green eyes shine through the fog as if they were giant light bulbs. The sound of the loud thudding gets faster and closer. I can't move. I'm a sitting duck frozen in fear. The head of the wolf is completely made out of wood and it looks perfectly carved as if it was pony-made. Its ears are giant trees growing out of its head and its eyebrows above its eyes are thousands of leaves that look like they were ripped off from a tree. The timberwolf's teeth in its giant mouth are made out of huge pieces of wood that looks like it has the potential to cut diamond. The body and legs are completely made out of naked trees and the timberwolf has big trees growing out of its back. And that thing is running towards us now. The Soldiers snap out of their awe and get into fighting stances. Paladin flies in the air and pulls out a long spear from his small saddlebag. This doesn't surprise me because I know what unicorn magic is capable of. With a grunt, he throws the spear into the timberwolf's mouth and it hits its tongue. The spear did not did the tiniest bit of damage to its tongue as it fell back into its mouth. That makes it come to a full halt. The timberwolf closes its mouth and opens it again to spit out the spear which travels at an alarming speed through the air and submerges itself to the sand just inches in front of Paladin. A loud roar erupts out of the creature's mouth and it makes out hair fly backwards in the wind. Flame Lord gets into a fighting stance and the same white ring that appeared on Flame Lord's horn when we escaped the village can be seen once again on his horn. The sound of wind can be heard and it intensifies as the ring gets smaller as it gets closer to the tip of his horn. Once the ring reaches the top, it shoots out of his horn and hits the timberwolf in its right front leg, causing pieces of wood to fly off due to the explosion that occurred. The pieces of wood that flew off of the wolf flew up into the air and restored itself onto its leg like magic. "Don't just stand there!" Yells Flame Lord. The Soldiers snapped out of their amazement and fought the colossal creature with ranged weapons like bows and spears. I stand behind them and notice that they are keeping the wooden creature distracted. The village is right behind him, and inside of the village are my parents. This gives me an idea. If the Soldiers aren't going to save my parents, then I will. I keep my distance from the gigantic wooden wolf as I quickly run around it. The Soldiers were too occupied in their battle to even notice. I run as fast as my legs would allow. The timberwolf has yet to notice me as I quickly make my run around it. I get far enough behind of the wooden monstrosity and along the path to make out the village uncover itself within the thick fog. With not only rain, but determination slamming onto my chest, I run even though my lungs are telling me to stop. Even though my tongue is dry I run. Even though my hooves are getting dirty on the damp sand I run. Even if I get- Thud. I instantly trip over and fall over due to the large impact that my right hind leg has taken. The pain sears through my leg as if sliced open. A liquid seeps down my leg uncontrollably. My vision is fading. I weakly look behind me to see the damage. A large, thick, and sharp chunk of wood has hit me on my leg. Flame Lord swears loudly and tries to run around the timberwolf but is stopped when the timberwolf takes a swipe at him. It's getting dark. Maybe I should go to sleep. "Wake up, Nick," Is the very first thing that I hear when I regain consciousness. The voice sounds feminine and soft, but despite the voice, I keep my eyes closed. There is nothing but silence ringing in my ears after the voice. The voice spoke over a heart monitor that was not beeping, but playing out its long tone that signifies death. Curious to find out what the source of the noise is, I slowly and weakly open my eyes. Sitting upright was less of a pain than moving my leg. The pain activated itself once again when I sat upright. I remove the sheet to see a large bandage wrapped around my leg. Blood has soaked up a large area of the cloth and anxiety fires up inside of me. I look to my left and gasp at what I see. My mom is standing right next to my bed, smiling. Ignoring the pain that erupts in my leg, I get off of the bed and get off of my hind legs to hug my mother. All I can do is sob into her chest. "M-mom, I want to go home," I say through the tears. "I don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna leave." They did it. The Soldiers defeated the timberwolf and saved my parents. She holds me tightly in the hug and we enjoy each other's warm embrace for what feels like two minutes. Despite the exciting reunion, I feel like there is something missing. Suddenly, I break the hug. "Where's dad?" I ask. This is not complete without him. Life won't feel right without my father. "H-he's..." She stutters. Her voice trailed off as she looked at the floor in depression. "T-timberwolf got him." After saying that, she slowly begins to sob more intensively than she has when she saw me getting sent to the village prison. Right when the shock hits my chest, I fall backwards into the bed as if the mattress disappeared. The wind rushes against my back when I fall through the floor into the deep dark hole below. The cover of the bed wraps around me like I'm a mummy and I am blinded by it. I am struggling to get out and fly out of here, but despite by large effort, the sheet that wrapped around me had a strong grip on me like a snake that has spiraled around its victim. I cannot breathe because my muzzle is blocked by the sheet. I twist and twirl in the air in hopes that I will be released, but it is all in vain. This is how I end. Wrapped in a bed sheet falling in a deep abyss that appeared beneath my bed. The falling abruptly comes to a stop, though I feel no pain. It is as if I have come to a landing and something has broken the fall. I still struggle to get released from the sheet, for it is still suffocating me. I let out a shout which is muffled and I repeatedly twist my body left and right. I am not going to die by falling. I am going to get suffocated to death. I hear a large timberwolf-like step and once I hear it, the blanket unwraps itself and I take in a large gasp of air. The bed sheet slides away from my back and flies back up into the hole that I fell from. I get to my hooves and look at the giant hole above. There are many cracks in the hole and earth covers the walls of the hole. The light from the hole above leaves a circle of light above me, but the light isn't very plentiful. The rest is darkness. The steps become louder and faster as it comes closer. I get to my hooves and back away from the source of the sound. Now the real threat is coming. The circle of light expands larger which tells me that the same timberwolf might reveal itself in the light that is now brighter than before. But no, someone else comes. My father is on his back, shuffling his hind hooves and scooting backwards to get into the light. He is looking at the darkness and he is sweating from head to hoof. The anxious expression on my dad tells me that now is not the time to be excited to see my dad. Instead, I should be very scared. Full Canvas is backing away from something. He's backing away from the sound of the steps that are picking up and pace and getting closer and closer. He's still on his back, so I run to him and coil my hoof around his. "Dad?" I say silently. No responses come out of his mouth. Just the rapid breathing. Not long after I grab his hoof, the timberwolf emerges into the light and gives a deafening roar. My dad gets a tighter grip on my hoof as he stands up. As the timberwolf quickly lowers its head, my dad turns to look at me, gets on his hind legs, and pushes me out of the way before the wolf's mouth comes down on him and slams shut. The sound of it closing its mouth echoes through the place as I stand there wide-eyed. Just like that, he's gone. I sat up on my bed so abruptly that my blanket fell off of the bed. The blood curdling yell I gave made a mare jump and drop a silver tray of medical instruments. When she dropped the tray, she gave a short yelp. After that, she shot an angered expression to me that made me think she was going to scold me for yelling. She grunts. "Well, at least you're awake," She says. "Erm, sorry," I say awkwardly. "You were out for a day, Nick," She says as if she thought that my day-long dream were to give me amnesia. As I calmed, so did the heart monitor beside me. My leg is bandaged like it was in the dream. I'm half disappointed and half glad because it felt as if I actually reunited with my mother, but it also felt that my father was eaten alive. Maybe he was eaten in real life. When the Soldiers were fighting the wolf, my father could have saw me and came in. How do my parents feel about my absence? Obviously they are worried sick. But what are they doing about it? Doing everything they can to get out of the village? I tuck myself in bed, still shivering in fear because of the dream. Beads of sweat have dropped from my forehead. Eventually I'm going to save my parents. Timberwolf or no timberwolf, I will find a way. The wound on my hind leg has hindered my walking ability so that I have to fly most of the time to get to places. In the cafeteria, Punching Bag has introduced me to another flat food labeled as "toast" and a thick, yellow, and soft food called "scrambled eggs". Punching Bag told me that it goes good with this concoction called "butter", a rather sour tasting spread that takes the shape of a cube. You have to cut it with a knife and spread the butter across the toast. I never knew toast was such a complicated dish. I'm grateful that Punching Bag is teaching me about objects I find unrecognizable. You don't get to see many things when you live in Starlight's village. Every time I see something new, I accidentally do something stupid. Once I saw a block of soap and assumed it was food because it smelled good. When I took a bite, however, I was coughing and spitting it out. My mother informed me that soap isn't meant to be eaten, but to be used for cleaning. That would explain the hair I found on it. When I exit the cafeteria, Flame Lord approaches me. "Oh, you're awake," He says. "How's your leg?" I frown and avoid eye contact, feeling a sense of hatred towards him. How is he not dead? "Fine," I say angrily. "Nick, I know you're upset with me," He begins. "but I came to you to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken you to the path if I knew something bad was going to happen. I wasn't acting myself ever since you arrived here. I promise you there's a reason. It has to do with your parents." I then look at him in the eyes, removing the frown from my face and instead assuming a straight face. "When I was little, my dad was a drunk. He was obsessed with going to the bar in Ponyville late at night. He was stressed that mom died of cancer, and drinking took his mind off of it. He was angry almost all the time. Even if he wasn't drunk in our house." He looks at the floor and frowns. What does this have to do with my parents? "At the bar, he met someone who claimed that he could do therapy and such with him. It costed him some bits, however. He would come over to our house sometimes. He was a funny looking stallion. He had tattoos and piercings on him that intimidated me badly." He shivers in fear at the thought. "Crimson Clouds was the name, I think. He's related to Smoke Clouds. Anyways, one day he offered my dad some funny looking apple cider. Being the alcoholic he was, he accepted. And then..." His voice trailed off. It looked like he was trying hard to fight off tears. I could see his eyes watering. "He fell asleep. I tried to push him awake, but he didn't wake up. He was still breathing, but not conscious. I felt something hard hit my head and I was knocked out as well. When I woke up, my dad was gone. I was determined to find him after that, which reminds me of you. You're determined to find your parents like I was determined to find your dad." He slightly raised his voice, but it seemed unintentional. "I sneaked inside of Crimson's house and went to his basement. And there was Crimson Clouds. Burying a full body bag. I ran out and found home at my grandmother's house. I sobbed in the guest room for near an hour. I just wanted my dad back." I feel really bad for Flame Lord. Seeing something like that must have traumatized him from then to today. "Just like you, I was hopeful that I would find him. I felt it strong in my stomach that he was out there waiting for me. I was left disappointed and traumatized. That's why I'm trying to prevent your hopes from being too high. I don't want you to end up like me. He gave me a short smile. "You're a good kid, Nick. I just... Don't want you to feel like you should take the same path I did." I nod sympathetically, now with more respect for Flame Lord. He did try to save my life after all. "I understand," I say. And I meant it. Chapter Five - Security System"Let's try something new," says Punching Bag. I have been in the headquarters for two weeks and in that time I have managed to get better at archery. But a broken leg doesn't help me in any way. Flame Lord said that the piece of wood that hit my leg might have given me an infection. At first I became worried, but after two weeks the need to worry has gone away due to the fact that there have been no signs of an infection. When the nurse told me that I was out for two days, the fear of the thought that my father is dead has grew. It sometimes kept me awake late at night trembling with anxiety. All I can do is just sit here and do nothing about it. The thought of it drives me insane. Punching Bag reaches into the saddlebag underneath the weapons. As his hoof moves around inside of the saddlebag, I can hear the clattering noise of dozens of metal objects. He finally pulls out a white unicorn horn that looks like it had been cut straight off of a unicorn's head. "WHAT THE-?" I say loudly in panic. Did he kill somepony? I then remember the white mare he mentioned a few days ago. No wonder how he got away with it! "Did you kill that mare?" Punching Bag scoffs and says, "Who are you- Oh, that mare in Carousel Boutique?" He quickly shakes his head. "No, no, I just put a stunning spell on her with this horn. I kicked it off another pony's head when he lifted me with his magic. She's alive, but I heard that she's in the hospital at Ponyville now." My eyes widen when I imagine Punching Bag kicking off someone's horn. "That doesn't make it any better!" I exclaim. He grunts. "Are you going to let me teach you?" He says. "I refuse to be taught how to kick off a unicorn's horn!" I say in protest. "I'm not gonna teach you that," He says. "Hear me out: When a unicorn dies, its horn doesn't lose its magic. That's why we mostly take these off of unicorns who already died of natural causes. We use the horns as weapons." But it still isn't right. It would be like cutting off a pegasus's wings to give you the ability to fly. Not only is it unethical, but it is disgusting. "But that's wrong!" I say. Punching Bag sighs. "I know, Nick," He begins. "But these are desperate times. And you know what they say - well, you don't - but they say 'Desperate times call for desperate measures' and we're putting that saying into play." Desperate times should never call for anything as desperate as this. Why choose to disrespect the dead? "I'll demonstrate how this works. Watch closely." He walks over to one of the mannequins and pushes it so that it is in the middle of the training room to make sure that it is in range. Coiling his hoof around the horn, Punching Bag aims the unicorn horn at the mannequin. He jerks his arm in an upward motion as if recoil came from the horn. Snap. A yellow beam of light comes from the tip of the horn and it penetrates the mannequin's head, causing bits of the mannequin to violently come off. The harmful beam from the horn made a deep hole in the mannequin. "Now you try." He extends his hoof with the horn on it to give it to me, but I shake my head and back off. "I can't," I say. "This is complete disrespect. There should be some other way we can fight against them. We can continue archery, right?" Punching Bag frowns and says, "Unless you want to become timberwolf food and an easy target for those equality ponies, this is the only way as of right now," With hesitation, I coil my hoof around the unicorn horn from Punching Bag's hoof. With the horn pointed at the mannequin's chest, I focus my aim but don't coil my hoof around the horn too tightly in disgust. Am I really going to stoop down to their level? Is using the horn of a unicorn that was once alive to my advantage in a future battle the right thing to do? I think about all of the unicorns I've ever hated to justify my choice of using a unicorn horn as a weapon. Only one name comes to mind. Starlight Glimmer. The one who got me here in the first place. I think of all of the dreadful things she has done to me and my head fumes with anger. Focusing really hard on the mannequin, my arm jerks upward and I hear the snapping noise come from the horn and the same yellow beam comes out. The beam makes impact on the mannequin's chest and small debris violently flies about. There is a deep hole in the mannequin's chest. Once Punching Bag sees what I did, he laughs and says, "Excellent work, Nick!" Though I don't feel proud of myself for causing damage to a fake pony that would have killed a real pony. But in the end, it's all for survival. This is what I have to do if I want to save my parents. To stop Starlight Glimmer. Punching Bag made me practice shooting out of a unicorn horn for a while. The more times I shot the mannequin, the less sympathy I feel. When Punching Bag leaves the training room, I decide to practice my flying. Just in case I feel like getting out of here and flying over the danger, I'll know what to do. When pegasi are old enough to learn how to fly, they do a wing exercise called "Ground Flapping". It's simple. All you have to do is flap your wings over and over again but you don't fly. It exercises your wings so that your wings move more smoothly and comfortably. I begin Ground Flapping at a slow pace and then I pick up the speed as I progress. My wings quickly felt fully outstretched and comfortable. I flap even fast and I start to rise up. This is a thing that I normally let happen because I need to practice flying higher than just a few feet. It's a way to be effective when I have another encounter with danger. The calming breeze on my wings sends a sensation of slight coldness through my wings. The breeze makes me fly even easier. I feel my head bump into the ceiling and I instantly plummet back down to the floor. When I hit the fell, I went from being relaxed to being in panic for a split second. When my back hit the floor, I barely feel any pain due to the ceiling not being high enough for flight practice. When I get back up on my hooves I look at my flank and scowl. Of course. The equal sign cutie mark. "I'll have to stop you right there," Says Cross Heart. He is the head medic of the rebellion. Flame Lord advised that I go see him after I told him that I suspected that my cutie mark is the reason I'm not doing so well at almost everything. When ponies in the village get their original cutie mark removed, it gets replaced with an equal sign. Starlight Glimmer herself removes it with a magic stick. I never understood that ritual. When ponies have the equal sign cutie mark, their skills at basically anything are the same as everyone else who has the same cutie mark. "Cutie marks are not capable of holding such magic. The only magic they possess is the ability to appear on your flank." He looks at me as if I told him an obvious lie. The constant buzzing of the lights in the ceiling doesn't make this less awkward. This bald-headed and brown-coated stallion might think that I have gone mad. "No, I've seen the process happen," I say. "I'm telling the truth, sir. I know because I'm the only pony you have from inside the village." I tell him about how the ponies' talents change when they get the equal sign cutie marks. "I see," says Cross Heart. "Well, your cutie mark is going to get removed either way. With magic, of course. And by the way, you're not the only pony who's been extracted from the village. There's two others just like you." Ponies just like me? Who are they? I had a feeling that I wasn't the only one. Then a thought comes to mind that replaces worry with what was once excitement. "Did they save their parents?" I ask. Cross Heart frowns. "The Soldiers were able to do it," he says. This sends anger through my head. What was so different about my parents? When I ask him this, he says, "Because the ponies we extracted weren't imprisoned." I clench my teeth and feel my hooves slightly shake in anger. "Listen here, you bald waste of space! If those Soldiers are too lazy sitting on their flanks, then I'll save my parents by myself!" I yell in frustration. My sudden outburst does not startle Cross Heart. "I'm not a therapist, so I don't treat suicidal thoughts, but I do treat physical wounds like the one in your brain," says Cross Heart. "Because as far as I'm concerned, no sane pony would ever dare risking their lives going to that village. Especially a twelve-year-old." "And no sane pony would go near a pony whose face looks like my flank," I say coolly. After being kicked out of the "Healing Room" as the sign above the room indicates, I go straight to the dormitory to lay down in my bed and do nothing for the rest of the day. I still don't appreciate how Cross Heart pushed me out like that. It's not my fault that he's never heard the truth before. When he pushed me out, it didn't treat my broken leg very well. The pain didn't stop until two minutes. I rest a pillow on my forehead and grunt. If I could just leave and get my parents. Maybe I wouldn't hate my life as much. Right now living in the headquarters isn't as good as living in the village. My eyes remain closed as I run through multiple thoughts in my head. My parents, my uneventful life, the village, and my leg. And soon after that, the list went on. I must have closed my eyes for too long, because then I begin to slowly fall asleep. I feel lightheaded and all of my limbs feel week. There's a sour taste in my mouth that screams grogginess. The dormitory has been filled up with ponies and it seems that I am the only one awake. I hear snoring from different kinds of ponies in the room, especially the stallions. The right thing to do would be to fall asleep again, but I have already had a long rest. As I sit upright, I scan the room. The room is only lit by a very small gap underneath the steel door that has dim light shining through. In pure paranoia that someone might have seen that I have awoken, I scan the room once more. Nopony seems to be looking, however. I swing myself off of the bed, front legs first and then hind legs, making sure that I gently place my injured leg on the ground. I slowly start to move across the dormitory towards the door, gently placing one hoof in front of the other very gently on the ground so that I don't make a single hoofstep. When my hoof rests upon the square-shaped button which is not lighting up like usual, I remember the fact that the doors make a loud slamming noise once activated. Waking up all of the ponies in the dormitory is not in my best interest right now, so I just stand there and think of a different way to get in. During my thinking process, my hoof slightly pushes on the button and as it pushes, the door slowly moves upwards and it's barely making a sound. I keep slowly pushing until I hear a small thumping noise which shows that the door has reached the top. I then remember that the door stays up when fully pressed, only to slam back down after a while. I quickly move outside of the dormitory and slam my hoof on the button that is on the other side of the wall once I'm there. As I peek around the corner, I pull my hoof away from the button at a very slow pace and as I remove my hoof, the door slowly lowers. Once the door is fully shut, I back away from the door and look at the large, empty, and barely lit main hall. I then look back at the dormitory door. How do I get away with things like this? I nonchalantly move down the hall, looking both ways to look for any ponies. I seem paranoid about any ponies that might be walking about, so I put my paranoia behind me. This time I am going to replace the feeling in my chest with curiosity which got me outside of the dormitory in the first place. I want to explore the headquarters. But what room shall I explore first? The muffled sound of talking can be heard from the door that is two doors away from the dormitory. I use my slow hoof technique on the buttons and once the door shuts behind me, I can make out the sound of Punching Bag's voice in the room full of wooden shelves filled with files that contain rusty pieces of parchment and some shelves that contain metal boxes that are labeled. "Trust me, sir," says Punching Bag. "I'm trying as hard as I can. Just give me some more time!" "I've waited twelve years, John," says the voice of an old stallion. "Yet you come back every time with things that has nothing to do with him! I'm growing impatient. You know that I can't live forever, so why don't you try harder? I'll be damned if I have to wait one more year." I peek around the corner of the bookshelf and I see Punching Bag looking at what appears to be a smoke figure that is in the life-sized shape of a pony right next to a unicorn horn that is standing upright and has smoke coming from it. Right next to Punching Bag is his saddlebag which has been propped open. "You won't, sir! I have a plan! You'll just have to wait just a few more days and then I'll do it. Plus his arrival was very recent. I'm sure that I can get some more information on him. Just a few more days because there's something that I have to do that involves the Soldiers. " says Punching Bag hastily. "In the end, it'll be more than one victory. I'll have information on the boy, he'll be dealt with, and I'll deliver the documents." "Fine," says the smoke figure. "But remember: I did not send you in there just to mess around, so you shall not test my patience. You'll have two weeks. Understand?" Punching Bag gulps and nods. "Good." The smoke figure then becomes a cloud of smoke that quickly sucks itself into the unicorn horn, making it fall over. After he puts the horn back in his saddlebag, Punching Bag turns around and I gasp and pull my head back. I need to get out of here. I think Punching Bag's plotting to kill me. Without doing much thinking, I slam my hoof on the square button and watch as the door quickly moves upward, making its loud noise and triggering a yelp from Punching Bag. I run out the door and hastily move down the hall. While looking behind me, I see Punching Bag look at me and gasp. "YOU!" he yells. He charges after me and as soon as he does, the lights in the hall fully go out and I quickly fly to the ceiling and once my head bumps on the roof, I look down at the pitch dark hall. I can't see a single thing. That's when I feel my eyes slightly vibrate as I see the room being lit up by a light color of green, but still see Punching Bag moving around as if blind. "Damn it! Where are you, boy?" Punching Bag focuses his attention to the ceiling and scans it as if he doesn't see me. But why? Isn't the room lit up? But if he can't see it, that must mean one thing. I look down at my injured leg and see that the bandage is gone and it has been fully healed. No sign of a scratch or anything. I then remember the color of the timberwolf's eyes. Is this the result of the infection? At this point, Punching Bag's eyes have focused on the exact same spot where I am twice. Then he grunts loudly as an orb of light comes out of what seems to be his unicorn horn because in the second that he was lit by the orb of light, I could see him pointing the horn in my direction. The light comes towards me and when it gets close enough, the orb just stays there in mid-air. He gasps and jerks his hoof upwards as the deadly light comes from it and misses me. I then dive down out of his sight and press a barely lit square button. When it slides up, I leap inside without hesitation. I stumble into a room that is just as dark as the main hall. Punching Bag followed the loud sound of the door and went into the same room as I, unicorn horn in his mouth. As I look at him, I quietly step backwards so that he doesn't hear my hoofsteps. He looks in every direction that he hears sound from. I then look around in the room where I have ran into, and I find out that it is a long hallway with metal bars that make jail cells in which some of them contain a pony. The ponies start to wake up at Punching Bag's frantic and muffled shouts of things like "Stop hiding!" and "Show yourself!" as if he thinks that I will obey. Punching Bag then pulls the unicorn horn out of his mouth and makes another orb of light in the middle of the hall. The light reveals me, causing me to jump into the nearest jail cell to avoid the light. The door of the jail cell swings open when I jump inside and then it seals itself immediately. Sweat trickles down my back and I tremble in fear as I notice that a mare with village-normal hair and an equal sign cutie mark is in the same room as me. She smiles in satisfaction and laughs maniacally. "Finally!" she shouts. "He's finally within my reach!" Punching Bag assumes the same smile. "Good work, Sara!' says Punching Bag. "Now make sure that he stays there! Damian will be very pleased! And Nick, if you tell anyone about this, I'll know. And you'll wish you would've stayed in the village." "Oh, he's not going anywhere," says Sara. I then see purple light around my hooves and suddenly they feel heavier. I can't lift them from the ground. The spell is weighing my hooves to the ground! When I flap my wings, I don't move as if my hooves are glued to the floor. Sara laughs again. "No! I'm getting out of here!" I pathetically shout. Sara laughs again and says, "Not gonna happen, kiddo!" When the room lights up, my night vision goes away and the sound of indistinct chatter fills the prison. The steel door slams open and when it does, Punching Bag has gone missing. Flame Lord enters the room and walks down the hall of prison cells. "The hell's going on in here?" he says loudly as he walks, looking both ways into each cell. "Flame Lord!" I shout when Flame Lord looks at the cell opposite of the one I'm in. Flame Lord looks at my cell and his eyes widen. "Nick?" he says. "What are you doing in there?" I almost tell him that this is Punching Bag's doing, but then I remember his warning and I do not wish to take that risk. "I wandered out," I say, which is half of the truth. Suddenly, the soft sound of a mare's voice booms through the speakers on the ceiling. "Removal of seal detected," says the voice. "Enter the pass phrase." "Ah, crap!" exclaims Flame Lord. "One of the Soldiers have the phrase! I'll be right back, Nick!" Then he zooms to the door, presses the button, and exits. "He has a minute to enter the pass phrase," says Sara happily. "There's no way he's gonna make it." Tinks enters the room along with Flame Lord and they both look worried. "Alright, I got this," she says. "The mare walks down the mountain!" When she says that, she comes closer to the cell I'm in as all of the doors in the prison open and the light on my hooves disappear. Knowing that I'm free from the spell, I run out of the cell in an instant to join Tinks and Flame Lord. Shouts of joy fill the room as the prisoners exit their cells. Then they run towards the exit and that's when Tinks turns a large chunk of the floor into ice, making the prisoners slip and fall. Sara leaps over the ice to attack me and I flinch only to see a spell of Flame Lord's strike her across the face and causes her to topple backwards onto the along with the rest. When she and the prisoners try to get back up, they fall back over again, which makes me smile. "Prisoner release detected. T-t-taking se-" the mare's voice stutters and turns into static. Red gas erupts from all of speakers, in which point, Flame Lord and Tinks turn around and instantly run to the exit. "RUN!" shouts Flame Lord. I quickly follow the two and I look behind me to see the prisoners desperately trying to escape the ice, only to be covered in the gas. When they do, they stop moving and breathing. My heart races as I hastily run though the open doorway before the gas could fully fill the room. I look to the left and see the populace of the rebellion leaving their rooms and red gas escaping the dormitory. The gas also comes from above and covers the ceiling like a big red cloud. Ponies rush through the exit door to leave the headquarters. Flame Lord and Tinks have already rushed up the stairs and I try to follow them only to feel hooves wrap around the leg that was once injured and make me trip and fall while I was trying to run, breaking a tooth. I look behind to see that Sara was the one who tripped me and she pins me to the ground. I desperately swing my hooves at her and try to kick her, but she is still pinning me down strongly. In my attempts to be freed, my focus falls upon an open saddlebag that looks like Punching Bag's. A unicorn horn rolls out and I reach out my hoof to grab it. "If I'm dying in here, then there's no way I'm not gonna let you go down without me!" yells Sara in triumph. My hoof finally coils around the unicorn horn and I flip over and when I feel the smoke on my legs, I panic and quickly point the horn at a random spot on Sara's body and jerk my hoof upward. With a loud snap, the white light comes out of the horn and strikes Sara in a foreleg. She shouts and releases me from her strong grip. I take the opportunity to struggle my way out of her grasp and onto my hooves. I then run through the open exit door and seal it shut, hearing the clicking noise of the lock. I run up the stairs and as I do, I hear Sara's hooves banging on the door as she screams for help. Eventually the banging and screaming stopped and it slowly turned to silence. When I manage to escape the headquarters, I see everyone in the rebellion crowded outside of the giant black mountain that holds the headquarters. The door seals shut behind me and I look behind me to see a big equal sign spray painted in red on the mountain. The sound of worried chatter fills the air as I scan the crowd to look for Flame Lord. When I do manage to find him, I notice that he is telling everyone to remain calm. I approach him and he sighs in relief. "Nick, what happened back there?" he asks, looking relieved to know that I am alive. "One... One of the ponies back there tripped me!" I say quickly, wanting to get away from the topic as soon as possible. "Wait, on purpose?" he says. "Yes, and I-I did what I had to do," I say. "What do you mean?" he says. "I ran away and locked her in there," I say. Flame Lord was in shock when I told him the news. He looks like he couldn't possibly believe that I, a twelve-year-old boy, could kill someone. He turns away and turns to assist Seven Leaf Clover to walk, who is panting and currently being assisted by Lucky Trots. "I can't feel me legs," says Seven Leaf Clover weakly as she slowly limps then falls over on the rough and rocky ground. The poor old mare is helped up with Flame Lord's magic as Lucky Trots pulls out a wooden chair from his saddlebag for Seven Leaf to rest on. Meanwhile, ponies worriedly chatter about things that they might have left behind and ponies that they have seen die due to the gas. When I observe the crowd, I notice that the number of ponies in the rebellion has decreased. Flame Lord asks me about Punching Bag's sudden disappearance and I tell him everything about it, despite Punching Bag's warning. I tell him how Punching Bag was talking to an old stallion and how he was attempting to find me and possibly kill me. He shakes his head in disbelief and walks away to check the ponies who are alive. Later in the night, the remaining Soldiers have set up camp by using makeshift beds made out of bear fur rugs that they had stored in their saddlebags. It turns out that it was enough to supply twenty-six ponies with a place to sleep. Flame Lord supplied us with a fire using his fire magic. It seems like his name isn't Flame Lord for nothing. Flame Lord told us that we would have to stay here until the gas in the headquarters cleared, which would mean staying close to village territory and quite possibly timberwolf territory. A rumor spread that the Soldiers are now planning a revenge mission on the village. But I can't stand not knowing whether it is true or not. Just the thought of not knowing something very important that others do has the potential to keep me up for hours. So far I've heard of some things that I'm not supposed to, and I want to keep that going. It can even keep me alive. Fast-Eye Julie drops her saddlebag and rests on a bear fur rug, clearly exhausted from assisting ponies and setting up camp. She then falls asleep, her fast moving eyes coming to a halt. I am also laid down on a rug not far from hers and since she is the closest Soldier, she can be the solution to finding out about the rumor. Of course she wouldn't tell me about the it personally, but I would have a perfect opportunity to listen in on the Soldiers' conversations if I could climb into one of their saddlebags. When everypony seems to be sleeping, I stand up and slowly make my way towards Fast-Eye's saddlebag. On the way, I step over ponies and move my hooves slowly to avoid the crunching of the rocks. When I approach the saddlebag, I open it and slowly reach my hoof inside and feel many different objects touching my hoof and I start to question my plan of actually going inside of one of these things. After all, I might land on something sharp. Knowing that I need to take the risk, I poke my head inside and see all of the objects in the bag. But only now the bag looks much bigger from the inside than it does on the outside. I'm lucky that the only weapon is a bow and some few arrows. The other objects are eye drops, medical tools, and an anvil. I leap into the saddlebag and and land softly on the ground. Now I just need to wait. A stallion's hushed voice tells Fast-Eye to wake up. She wakes up and silently yawns. She picks up the saddlebag and all of its contents slide about and so do I. I get knocked over and get hit by bottles of medicine and poked by a longbow. It's a good thing that she's only walking because if she were to go any faster, arrows would be a problem, too. I'm just glad that the arrows are in a quiver. After a while, the items stop moving and the bag comes to a stop. "What'd you wake me up for, Flame?" says Fast-Eye lazily. "Most of the Soldiers and I are going to Canterlot, and that includes you," says Flame Lord. "Why are we going there?" says Fast-Eye, sounding more awake. "We need to go to the castle and take all of the dark magic spell books that we can find," says Flame Lord. "But isn't dark magic dangerous to ponies who cast it?" says Fast-Eye, sounding worried. "We're not going to let Starlight win," says Flame Lord. PrologueYou don't get much of a choice in our town. The entire population has to act the same. That is the village's main rule. Even parents don't get to chose what to call their children. Starlight Glimmer, the village's leader, named me Nick. It's strange that my name is Nick because ponies that are outside of this village have these long and wacky names All of the ponies that act equal in this town act weird. Actually, they are this village's version of normal. I call it village-normal. Instead of something being weird, it's village normal. I am village-weird, however. I do not live up to Starlight Glimmer's expectations. Fortunately, nopony seems to care about my non-village-normality and it has never gotten me into trouble. Everyone in this village seems happy to be here. They all have the same big smile on their faces. I don't take this as a very welcoming thing. My parents, Sketch Durso and Full Canvas, don't like it either. My parents are the ones who are closest to me. They were most likely disappointed when they found out I was going to be named Nick and not something long and non-village-normal. I'm sad I didn't get named anything else, either. But my parents and I are still very close to each other, and that's all that matters. We are still together and happily living with each other. I prayed to Celestia that my parents will never get taken away from me. It isn't long before I found out that Celestia has denied my prayers.
Chapter One - In Our TownI wake up with the same feeling I have every time I wake up. Grogginess and hatred. Grogginess because it's a Monday, and hatred because I have a strong disliking of the village I am forced to live in. Unfortunately I cannot leave this village because the village authorities won't let us leave. We never get the chance to leave. If someone tries to, it's village prison for them. If I told them I wanted to leave, there would be the same result. Why would anyone listen to me anyways? I'm only twelve years old. When I grow up, I'm leaving this village behind and I'm taking my parents with me. In school I learned about an interesting place in Equestria. It is an amazing land named Ponyville. That place is a holy land compared to this poor and dusty place. The reason we are supposed to be equal in this village is because if we are all the same, there will be no different opinions. Nopony will be jealous of each other's special talents because nopony has any. If someone were to have a special talents, it would cause "disharmony". If this place contained ponies who have different opinions, ponies here would argue that there will be arguments which leads to the shattering of peace. Since we're all the same, that won't happen. But if this village represents what it's like to be equal, then I hate being equal. Us ponies are supposed to have different talents because it is what makes us unique and special. Starlight Glimmer thought otherwise, which is why she made this village. Is this rule bringing peace or Tartarus? I can't tell. My mother's voice calls to me from downstairs. "Nicky, time for breakfast!" she calls. I think "Nicky" is a cute but annoying name to address me as. "Coming!" I yell back weakly. I take slow and wobbly steps across my room to get downstairs. My legs feel like they are weighing me down every morning when I walk. I approach the staircase and look down at all of the stairs I have to walk down. I find this work tedious because my legs feel like they are made out of soggy pieces of bread. So instead, I spread my wings and fly down the staircase. My wings feel tired, too. Every part of me is tired in the morning. I sit down at the kitchen table looking at my everyday breakfast. Muffins. One time I tripped on a rock and my tongue happened to touch the ground when I tripped. The dirty ground is a very delightful meal compared to village-normal muffins. "Some ponies get nothing, you know," My mother once said. Even nothing would be better than these muffins. What would worse than these muffins? This village, of course. I'm getting tired of complaining. Avoiding the plate of muffins, I grab a glass of water. Water is the only drink this village has to offer. The only thing that doesn't taste like garbage in this village is water. I drink my water and my mother helps me put on my saddlebag. "See you later, sweetie!" My mom says as I walk through the door. She looks happy to send me off to school. She wouldn't be if she knew what I had to go through. I don't fit in because the other ponies my age act normal, or at least what this village sees as normal. Some ponies just stare at me as if I sprouted another pair of ears. I wonder what goes on in their head when they stare at me. What do they feel? Envy? Confusion? I normally just ignore it. I know I don't act like a village-normal pony. I push open the school door and walk into the beginning of another village-normal day at school. I come home to see my father sitting at the kitchen table eating a muffin with a plain expression on his face. He turns to look at me and smiles. "There's my little stallion!" he says. He walks up to me and hugs me with that same expression on his face. When he hugs me, I get a feeling that I'm safe and everything is going to be okay. Maybe living in this village isn't so bad after all. I get to spend more time with my parents. "How was school?" It's funny how he asks that. Every day is the same. Nopony says a word except the teacher. We don't have any tests or schoolwork because that means that ponies would get different grades. It's optional to take notes in class in case you need a reminder of the lesson. I haven't written that much down. I say the same answer as I do everyday. "Good," I say. The kitchen table has hay and water on it. I sit and eat my hay without saying a word. I don't talk very often because there's nothing much to say when every day is the same thing over and over again. I hear hoofsteps coming and I turn my head towards the staircase. I see my mother walking down the stairs and she smiles when she sees me. Though it's not a village-normal smile. It's a smile that would make anyone feel warm inside. "Hey, sweetie," she says with her calm non-village-normal voice. "How was school?" I decide to say something different for once, so I say what's been on my mind for years. "Mom, I don't fit in with anypony else," I begin. "That's because everypony acts the same and they all act strange." The smile fades off of her face and she assumes her lecture face. "Your father and I were a bit skeptical, too," she says. She pulls a chair from the kitchen table and sits down. "That's the rules," says my father. "Starlight has a reason for keeping that rule. It's her way of storing order." I already know that. It's a pain in the flank to think about all of those ponies forced to act that way. "That's not the issue," I say. "Everypony my age is perfect and being equal. But here I am. An outsider to a village I've been living in my entire life." My mother looks worried about something. "When we moved into the village, I couldn't help but bring a little thing to keep the memory of being at Ponyville," says my mother. She has never told me where she and my dad used to live despite the amount of times I asked. Now seemed to be the right time to admit it for her. But what was she keeping? She stands back up and walks across the room to the dusty old bookshelf. She uses her wings to assist her in reaching the top shelf and she slowly pulls a book from the shelf. This must have been to assure her that the thing she was hiding was actually there, because she nods her head when she sees it. She sets the book on the floor and takes a few more books and places it on the floor along with it. She finally pulls out a long gold picture frame that is unlike anything I've seen in this village. I have never seen an actual painting in my life. While still flapping her wings, she turns around to show the painting to me. The other "paintings" in the village only has a picture of an equal sign on it with a gray background. No additional details. The picture takes place in a peaceful field of grass with a clear and blue sky. There are two ponies in the painting that I immediately notice as my mother and father trotting happily in the field. I have never seen something as beautiful as this. My mother smiles when she sees the astonished look on my face. "Do you like it?" she asks. I'm glad she asked because I have finally seen something different under all of this equality. I nod happily. "Are you allowed to have it?" I ask my mom. Starlight Glimmer is very strict about any sign of talent or difference of any kind. When I ask her this question, her ears go down to the sides of her head and she starts looking nervous. "No," she says. "that's why I'm hiding it. Nopony except us can see it because if that were to happen, then it would mean we would be thrown in the village prison." My dad makes a small hum of approval and says, "Word's been going out that someone has gone mad in there once," He says. "Fought the guards and all that. No wonder why he's not here today." My mom scowls and says, "That's not a nice thing for either of us to know, thanks," In my bedroom that night I lay down facing the ceiling on my bed thinking about the painting. The painting is the only thing that has been in my head ever since I have first seen it. Maybe I should make a drawing of my own I think. I have to represent the ones I love the most, don't I? I reach down from my bed and wrap my hoof around my saddlebag that I have lazily thrown beside my bed when I got home from school today. I lift it up and place it on my bed, reaching for the zipper to get started. I zip the bag up and take my notebook from the saddlebag. I rip a sheet of paper from the notebook and place it on the bedside table. This room is very small so it isn't much of a challenge to reach for it. I grab a pencil from the saddlebag and go to the table, thinking about all of the ideas for drawings zooming around my head. Then an idea comes to my mind. I have always dreamed about my parents and I would one day leave the village for good and move to Ponyville. That's what I'm going to draw. At the bottom of the paper, I draw a grassy landscape just like the one in the painting I saw. I'm not going to color it because of course there is nothing to color with. Everyone's favorite color just so happens to be gray. After I finish the landscape, I begin to draw my mother. I picture her white coat and brown hair in my head. I'm not comfortable drawing this, because then I have to draw village-normal hair. For stallions and mares there are assigned haircuts that is mandatory for stallions or mares in the age of sixteen or higher to have. I draw the bases or both of my parents and smile with satisfaction. Over the years, I have practiced drawing in the basement. That's there's a lack in notebook papers. I make the bases of my parents run because that's the idea. Running away from this village and never coming back. When I think about that, I draw the base of myself flying above my parents. I imagine my mother's hair being the same brown, long, and bushy hair she told me about, so I draw that minus the brown.. She didn't tell me about her tail, but I assume it's almost the same thing as her mane. I then begin to draw my father. I draw his hair style similar to mine. Almost all of the non-village-normal stallions' hair looks like a younger pony's, so it won't be hard. My father's hair and tail is light green and he has a brown coat. I draw myself last. I draw my hair and tail with the same look as my father's. I then draw faces on all of them and notice one thing that's missing. The cutie marks. Of course I'm not going to draw the village-normal cutie marks, so I leave them blank. It's better to have no cutie marks than village-normal cutie marks. I look at the painting proudly and approvingly. "Perfect," I say to myself. I take the paper and slide it under my bed. Now I'm hiding a drawing, too. A smile comes on my face as I put my notebook and pencil back inside of my saddlebag. I then climb into the bed and wrap myself in the warm blanket and close my eyes. Shortly after curfew has passed, the lights shut off on their own. I then delve deep into a thought about my parents and I leaving the village. It's going to happen one day. No one is going to stop me. I'll never let Starlight interfere with the plan of my parents and I leaving. As I drop further into my thoughts, I slowly fall asleep. Tomorrow will be non-village-normal.
Chapter Two - Non-Village-NormalityAs I sit in one of the desks in the only classroom of the only schoolhouse in this village, I feel proud of myself for drawing that picture last night. Not only have I represented my parents in a good way, I have shown that this village cannot stop me from showing my inner colors. Paul notices me staring into the clear board with a smile on my face and chuckles. Paul is my closest friend in this village. He fully understands my issues that I have with this village. It's like he's different himself. "Wh-what are you staring at?" he says with a laugh. "Nothing," I reply. Paul laughs again and says, "Why are you so happy?" says Paul. "Nothing," I repeat obliviously. Even if I was paying any attention to him, I couldn't tell him about the drawing. We were told to inform the village authorities about anything that seems beyond village-normal. I can't trust anyone. Not even my closest friend. At this point, the only ponies I can trust are my parents. Ms. A comes in the classroom with the rest of the class. I must have been early again. When everyone is seated we shortly stand to say the pledge of equality. This village has a pledge of equality because they are proud to force other ponies into acting the same in a small village in which no one can leave. Equestria was meant to be a place of harmony, not communism. Honor our little town I pledge equality to thee; village One place, under Celestia All of us the same. Paul begins to look bothered by the fact that I barely talked to him. Instead of pursuing the conversation, he stops talking to me. After that, Ms.A talks about the lesson. Paul rests head on the desk and covers his head with his hooves in frustration. "Man, this lesson is so hard. This is so raging," He says. Paul usually never pays attention to the teacher. That just goes to show how much these ponies care about our education. After school, I walk back home with a village-normal smile on my face to fit in. That's the best I can do. I lift a hoof to open the door to my house, but then I hear voices from behind the houses. That's strange because nopony went behind the houses for as long as I can remember. I don't think that it's against the rules, but it's still strange. The voices belong to a mare and a stallion. I walk in between the houses to listen in on this conversation that is taking place behind the houses. That must be because it is important. "The search has already been done overnight," Says the mare. "You would've known that if you were awake when it happened like you were supposed to." The mare scoffs and the mare's choice of words seemed to have triggered a scowl in the stallion's face. "It was two in the morning!" The stallion exclaims. The mare keeps a straight face, however. "There's always an excuse with you, y'know that?" says the mare. "It's always something with you. Every one of your tiny little mistakes has a stupid explanation to cover it up." The mare scowls as well. This is unusual. I thought that this village was supposed to prevent arguments. "I don't even know how you got hired, Sand Hill." says the mare. "I got hired because I caught a pony who looked like she was doing something that required a talent!" retorted Sand Hill. He says the word "talent" in a hushed tone as if he was saying an offensive swear. "I was the only one who caught a pony's object that represented a talent in the search!" Says the mare. "That's far beyond what you can do, and we're supposed to be equal." When she says this, Sand Hill starts looking nervous. "How dare you!" he says in an offended tone. "I am no different than anyone else, for your information! I don't know how you can falsely accuse me of being different." He scoffs. The mare rolls her eyes. "Anyways, what was the object?" The mare chuckles. "It was some kid's drawing," she says. I begin to sweat from head to hoof and my heart rate picks up at a fast pace. I quickly back away and run towards the door. I quickly open the door and get inside, slamming the door behind me. My parents look at me with a concerned expression on their faces. "What's wrong, Nick?" says my mother. "N-nothing at all," I lie. "I gotta go now. See ya!" I quickly run towards the room and up the stairs, leaping to the door of my room and hastily opening it. Heart beating even faster now, I run into the room and lower my head. I look under my bed and see that the drawing is gone. As if I wasn't in enough of a panic before, my panic gets even worse. I yank the drawers from the cabinet with so much force that it nearly falls off. My drawing isn't there, either. Where has my drawing gone? Was it found in the search that the ponies mentioned? I quickly turn around and run down the stairs to ask my parents about my drawing. "What are you talking about?" says my mother. She suddenly gasps in realization. "You made a picture? What were you thinking? Only Celestia knows what they'll do to you!" My father puts his newspaper down and looks at my mother. "What's wrong, Sketch?" says my father. "Nick's drawn a picture and the ponies found it during the search!" she says in a panicked tone. After my dad's eyes widen, I shake my head. "No, wait!" I say in objection. "I'm talking about someone else's drawing! I never drew a picture in my life!" Neither of my parents are convinced, however. My father gets up from the chair so quickly that it falls backwards. I'm in deep trouble now. After being locked inside of my room, my parents leave the house to go to the guards. I walk up to my cabinet and turn around. Applying as much force to my hind legs as I can, I kick the cabinet. My kicking had no effect, however. I sit on the bed and look at the window on the other side of my small room because there is nothing else to do. In front of me, I see a desert landscape. This entire time I have been living in this small village in a desert far away from Ponyville. By the time my parents get back, it might be too late for me. Then I get an idea. What if the drawing they were talking about isn't mine and I just hid the drawing from myself? I'll have to check the Main House tonight past curfew. But there's one problem. Everyone who gets out at night past curfew gets thrown in the village prison. And nopony wants to go there. Fortunately my parents have unlocked my door when they got back, but they did not say a word to me. I look out of my window and look at the eerie night time desert. My attention then shifts to the Main House that has lights visible in there. I slowly walk back to my door and quietly open the door. To avoid making any noise, I fly down the stairs instead of walking. I don't walk on the bottom floor, either. I have to be careful about this. I open the door and see a few guards walking about, but none of them are looking at me. I find going behind the houses to be a good idea, so that's exactly where I go. To my relief, there are no guards behind the houses. It's time to start for the Main House now. As I slowly walk behind the houses, I glance at the gaps in between the houses to make sure there are no guards looking at me. My heart is beating at a rapid pace once again as I finally stop at the last house. The Main House is far away from the normal houses. As I look at the glowing lights of the Main House in the distance, I feel the cold wind rush through my coat sending a chill down my spine. There are no guards walking about in the area between the houses and the Main House. I look around the corner to look for any guards. So far the only guards are the ones in the village. If I run across here I won't be seen if I'm lucky. I just have to get there quietly. And I know exactly how to do just that. I spread my wings and I bend down so I can kick off from the air. My heart may be racing and my mind might be telling me not to do this, but there's a tiny whisper in my head that's telling me to do it. I search my mind for the slightest bit of courage, and I end up successful. I kick off of the ground with a lot of force and rapidly flap my wings. The cold wind rushes through my face and gives me the taste of freedom. I have never done anything so exhilarating in my life. The excitement courses through my body as air rushes past my wings and makes me lift two feet into the air. That's a record. I have heard no voices from the guards behind me so I get the idea that they haven't seen me. I'm too fast for them. Looks like I have proven to be better than the rest. I softly land to the side of the Main House after the exhilarating flight. To avoid being seen by guards, I leap behind the house. My eyes fix upon the empty and dark desert land in front of me. Every time I look outside my window at night, I fear that there are monsters out there. At least that's what I feared when I was young. The anxiety from back then came back now. I take a look around the corner and find no guards facing towards the Main House. I go back to the side of the Main House and look up. On the stone wall of the Main House there is a window with light visible through it. I flap my wings as fast as I can to try to get up to the window. My wings quickly get tired and I fall back onto the floor after going only two feet in the air. Looks like I have to go inside. Noticing that the guards in the village have yet to pay attention to the Main House, I walk to the front door. I press my ear on it to listen for anyone that might be inside. The sound of approaching hoofsteps can be heard inside and before I could move, I feel a force pressing against my ear. Responding quickly, I hide behind the door as it opens. Four mares walk out of the open door, keeping their heads focused on the village. I peek around the door for anyone else, but the room seems free of ponies. I walk in the room and notice that there are a few differences compared to the normal houses. The furniture is far more detailed and fit for a pony with a million bits. I look at a table on the right and I can't help but notice a weird rectangular shaped device with a knob and a antenna on it. That's the description my mother gave me of how this device called a radio is like. It plays different songs at the turn of a knob. The only song I ever heard is "In Our Town" when we greet a new villager. I wouldn't participate in the singing and marching, however. I would just stay in my room and wait it out. The villagers never had the luxury of having a radio. But besides a radio, I have more important things to focus on. I take notice of a staircase and make my way upwards, looking at the posters of Starlight Glimmer and picture frames with an equal sign on it lined up on both of the walls. There's a door at the end of the hall which is already open, but no sign of Starlight. All I'm here for is a drawing of mine or someone else's drawing. Maybe the drawing the mare was talking about was another unfortunate pony's drawing and I'm safe. I slowly walk past the door and see a room as elegant at the first floor of the Main House. I take a glance at the bedside cabinet and I see a familiar unicorn. Starlight Glimmer. She seems to be holding a piece of paper with her magic with a look of disappointment on her face. I focus my eyes on the paper and notice that it is my drawing. Thankfully, she's not facing me. Otherwise she would catch me snooping around in her house. I focus my eyes on the paper and it looks like it's a picture of three ponies on a grassy landscape. Crap. Starlight then magically crumbles my drawing and throws it aside. Despite the anger and hatred raging in my chest, I remain silent. Starlight sighs. "Nick, I wish there was another way for you to learn," she says. I keep my mouth shut in case she's not talking to me. There's going to be a punishment for me now. But what will it be? Hopefully not death, right? That won't be necessary. They wouldn't go too far as to kill me for drawing a picture. Maybe I'll just get a slap on the hoof or something. I turn around and slowly make my way down the stairs. I fly out the door and notice that the guards are still in the village. I fly to take the same route I came in the Main House. The flight back was just as fun as the flight in. I land behind the houses and make my way back to my house. I walk through the gap between my house and another house and while I'm halfway in, I see a mare walking past. I come to a full halt to avoid the crunching sound of the sand and rocks underneath my hooves. The mare walks away, her gaze not fixed upon me. These guards are terrible. I just went to the Main House and back without being in eyesight. I silently open the door and enter my house, slowly closing the door behind me as I do so. But I still can't help my anxiety about my drawing being found. For once my non-village-normality has gotten me into trouble. I go through my normal terrible morning routine. Once I have my saddlebag on, I'm walking out the door. I open the schoolhouse door and take a seat in the ugly village-normal classroom. Early again. At least Paul is with me. I'm still scared for my life, however. My punishment might be today. The mystery of what my punishment is is scaring me more than anything else in my life. My teacher walks in with the rest of the class and my classmates have a seat. After all of the chattering, we stand to say the pledge of equality. We open our mouths to say the words, but the door opens and a unicorn with a light blue coat and hair walks in along with a mare. The stallion's eyes are fixed on me and with deep voice, he says, "Yeah, tha-" He coughs and with a softer voice, he says, "Yeah, that's the one." Everypony is looking at me now. I'm assuming that this is the pony who is going to take me to my punishment. When that thought arrives, my heart beat picks up at a faster rate. I don't want to be punished. He walks towards me and when he arrives at my desk, I see his horn glow and I am lifted into the air. The unicorn magically takes me outside and the door is shut behind me. Standing outside of my house, I can see my mother. She gasps and covers her mouth as tears roll down her eyes. I open my mouth to yell for help, but no sound comes out. The magic seems to be keeping me from saying anything. A crowd of ponies stand in front of what I recognize as the village prison and in front of the crowd stands Starlight Glimmer. The crowd seems to be of everyone in the village. I know exactly what's going to happen now. The glow of magic around me disappears and I land on the floor in front of the crowd. I'm the center of attention in the village. "Nick, you have chosen to betray us and what we stand for," says Starlight. She shakes her head and puts on the same disgusting frown on her face. She seems furious now. Sweat rolls down my head and it is soaking my underarms. A cold shiver of fear courses through my body as she looks down at me. "What has gotten into you?" Glad that the magic is gone, I use my retrieved ability to speak. "I'm sorry, I didn't know!" I say. But she doesn't believe me. I have lived in this village for all of my twelve years of living, so she expects me to know the rules. "Maybe some time in here will give you the right idea of who you're living with," she says. She magically opens the door of the village prison and two guards stand on each side of the door. Having no other choice, I walk in. When I'm inside of the prison, the door slams shut behind me leaving me inside of the prison.
Chapter Three - RebellionI have been thrown into the darkest and smallest room I've seen. Almost the size of my room. There is a box of hay in the corner and a circular box of water the right of it. The room is only lit by two thin and tall windows. They don't even light the majority of the room. I feel heat through my entire body due to the warmth of the room. I am already soaked with sweat, so the heat only adds on to it. The stench is unbelievably terrible. I look around the prison to find torn pictures of posters of equal signs. Above the hay there is a large picture frame with a picture of another equal sign. These things are everywhere. At least there are no more ponies staring at me. I'd faint if I was stared at by a crowd for any longer. To my right there is a single bookshelf on the wall that consists of books with equal signs on the cover. I'm going to go mad just like the pony dad mentioned if I see one more of these. Suddenly, the distorted sound of a mare's voice can be heard in the ceiling. This makes me jump and my head immediately snaps up to the ceiling. After a few more seconds of the distorted noise, the voice finally becomes coherent. The voice does not belong to Starlight Glimmer, but some other random mare. "In sameness, there is peace," the voice says. I can hear the words throughout the entire village as well. "Exceptionalism is a lie." The word leaves me puzzled as to what it means. "Free yourself from your cutie mark." Been there, done that, hated it. "Choose equality as your special talent." Equality is not a talent for me. My entire life I have been an outcast to this village. I know I'm special somewhere outside of this village. I belong in Ponyville or any other place that is far away from here. "To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best. Difference is frustration." The only frustration I'm getting is from this voice I say in my mind. "Conformity will set you free. Accept your limitations and happiness will follow." I've been facing limitations my entire life and I'm miserable. "You're no better than your friends." Then the voice repeats its message. I get angered by the fact that I might have to listen to this all day, so I take a book from the bookshelf and fly to the speaker. "I've had enough of this," I say with a grunt. I swing the book at the speaker with as much force as I can put into my arms. Despite my great effort, it made no difference to the voice in the speaker. After I wack the speaker a few more times, I've done as little as barely make a dent in it. I grunt in frustration and softly land on the ground. Instead of trying to make further damage to the speaker, I take a pile of hay from the box and set it on the ground to use as a pillow. Then I take two chunks of hay and stuff them in my ears. It blocked out some of the noise, but not all of it. It's better than hearing that voice to its full extent. I lay down on my scratchy hay pillow and close my eyes. The next day, I wake up to the creaking sound of the prison door. A light shines in and hits me in the eye. My eyes were so used to the dark, so I block out the light with an arm. When my eyes get used to the light, I lower my arm and notice Starlight Glimmer standing at the door with a rather annoying smile on her face. "Are you ready to join us again, Nick?" she says. I feel glad that the punishment only lasted for a day. It wasn't so bad as I thought it was, despite that annoying repeating message. I nod my head and I feel something scratching at my ears. I reach for my right ear and notice I still have the chunks of hay in my ears. Cringing in embarrassment, I pull each chunk of hay out of my ear and stand up to join Starlight Glimmer with the crowd of ponies behind her. Once I exit the prison, I look both ways to check if there are any guards. Surprisingly, there are none. I scan the crowd to see if there are any guards I have happened to overlook, but there is nopony who looks like they could be an authority here. Nothing except village-normal ponies. This can be an easy escape. Once my parents see that I'm running away, they can run by my side and we can escape together. I don't have to stay here for the rest of my life. I'm going to Ponyville. Starlight is still standing there smiling. She looks very smug like she is sure that she has already changed my ways. This is when an idea hits me. If I'm going to escape, I'm going out with a bang. I'm going to show Starlight that she can never change me. I'm different and I can't be controlled. If I were to keep Starlight Glimmer stunned for a brief moment, it would make for an easier escape. The way she stands there looking cocky already fills me up with hatred. This is when I strike. It all happens so quickly. I swing a hoof across her face, triggering various gasps from the crowd behind her. Without putting much thought into it, I turn and leap into the air ready to fly away. My entire body has suddenly stopped in mid-air. Starlight lifts me up with her magic so that I'm facing her. I must have hit her hard, because I see blood seeping down her cheek and she looks absolutely furious. The anger on her face sends a spine-tingling feeling through my body. Guards start running in my direction on Starlight's right, but she halts them with a hoof. She magically throws me back with so much force that my back hits the wall of the prison, causing pain to erupt on my body. The prison door slams shut in front of me and I slide down on top of the hay box. My plan failed. Grunting with the searing pain that has hit my back, I get off of the hay box and stare at the door for what feels like a minute. I'm not going to Ponyville with my parents and I'm going to be in this prison for who knows how long? My head faces the ground in pure depression. My life is ruined and there's darn near nothing I can do about it. This is the end. Tears slowly make their way down my face as I return to my hay pillow and I lay down there. The voice message from the speaker starts to play again so I stuff two chunks of hay in my ears again. I have grown used to them hurting my ears. After what felt like an hour, I decided to stand up and look out the window due to my excessive amount of boredom. I look out into the arid desert and sigh. The thought that I might never see what's out there disappoints me. There is an entire world to be discovered but my limit is not even a few feet outside of this small village. Then I noticed the silhouettes of three ponies in the distance running to the right. I stand corrected about the few feet rule. The warmth of my hay pillow has made me relaxed and calm. It gives me the feeling that maybe not everything is going to go wrong. Maybe it's not too bad living in a small room with only hay and water to eat. Being to lazy to get up, I have eaten some of the hay pillow which is far better than muffins. My eyes shut and I try to ignore the constantly repeating message. While I'm drifting off into sleep, reality snaps at me and I wake up with anxiety in my chest. What if I never leave this prison after what I've done to Starlight? What if I never get to see my parents' faces again? I'm in a calm and quiet little room in Ponyville, sitting on a stool watching my father paint. His strokes breeze through the canvas leaving a trail of light blue behind. I try to talk, but it seems like I have no control of my mouth. I try to move, but I have no control over my body. All I can do is watch my father paint, which I don't mind. My mind tingles with curiosity as to wonder about the mystery of what he is drawing. It looks like he is covering the entire with the same shade of blue like he is creating a painting of the sky. Maybe my assumptions aren't accurate. There are a lot of things that are blue, like my coat. No, my coat is a slightly darker shade of blue that may or may not stand out to the other ponies in the village. When I delve further into my thoughts, my father dips his hoof into the black paint and smears two straight lines across the canvas. I recognize this as an equal sign. The light blue paint swirls around the canvas as if it's being magically manipulated. The paint suddenly turns into gray and the painting dries up already. An unknown force magically pushes the painting on top of my father which makes me jump on the inside. The canvas falls through my father and as it does his hair color changes into the color purple with blue lines and his coat color changes to purple. This is no longer my father. All of the color in the room starts to fall as if it turned into some liquid and what used to be a room in Ponyville turned into a flat gray land in the middle of nowhere. Starlight Glimmer slowly turns her head to face me and says, "I wish there was another way," Then the gray fades to black and I jerk awake in the middle of the night, making a small shout of panic. To take my mind off of the dream, I daydream about actually being at Ponyville and not some empty gray place. After I have spent a few seconds into my thought, the message stops playing through the loudspeaker. Thank goodness. I'm expecting the door to open, but it doesn't. I open my eyes and look around to see what has stopped the speaker from playing its annoying message, but I don't see anything that could be worthy of doing so. Without having much use for them, I remove the chunks of hay from my ears. That's when it happens. A large sound of combustion erupts from the wall to my left and it causes my ears to ring. I can feel of the rough debris hitting my face. I shut my eyes as tight as I can, hoping to wake up. This is just another dream. Everything is going to be fine I assure myself in my mind. I slowly open my eyes and I'm still in the dark prison. Except this time, there's a huge hole in the wall to the right where three stallions stand before me. I am struck with pure panic as I sit there wide-eyed looking at these three mysterious stallions. They all have something non-village-normal about them. The stallion on the left is a pegasus with a black coat and dark blue hair, his frightening red eyes staring down at me. On the right stands an earth pony whose coat is white and hair is red with blue eyes shining in the moonlight. The third and final stallion standing in the middle is a unicorn with a orange coat and bright red hair and he has astonishing green eyes. The three of them has a look of great urgency on their faces. The stallion in the middle yells something at me, but I can't hear him due to the ringing in my ears. The stallion looks like he is grunting in frustration and he picks me up with his magic. "We've got to go now!" He yells. This time I can hear him more clearly because the ringing in my ears has subsided. The ponies at his side run to the left which is the direction to the back of the houses. This is it. My one way trip out of here. But what if I can't trust these stallions? This is the first time we've met and I don't know any of the other ponies that came along with him. I trust my gut and I follow the ponies. We run behind the houses most likely because they don't want to be seen by anyone. We run past a house that I recognize as my house and I come to an immediate halt. The stallion that rushed me out earlier looks at me with a more panicked expression and says, "What in Celestia's name do you think you're doing?" My response is full of rush like his voice. "I want to take my parents with us!" I say. "There's no time for that!" He says, gesturing his head forward. "Come on!" Three guards are rushing in from behind a building and they are all equipped with bows. When a few arrows zoom past my head I get the message and continue running. After we pass the last building, we make a turn to the middle of the village where we begin to follow a path that takes us to various rocky mountains. An arrow lands close to my hind hoof and I gasp, thinking for a split second that my leg has been hit. The arrow is picked up by the unicorn's magic and it gets thrown backwards to where it came from with a lot of force. Not even a second after the sound of a gasp and choking can be heard. Then a violent thud to the ground. I do not think about turning my head to see a dead body. I never want to see one of those in my life. My ears pick up the whooshing sound of the wind but then I realize it is coming from the unicorn's horn. His head is turned backward and he is facing two mares who looked like the ones who came from the Main House. A white ring has appeared on his horn and the sound of the wind gets louder as it gets closer to the tip of his horn. When the ring hits the tip, a line of light shoots out of his horn towards the direction of the two mares. When it hits the ground in between them, the beam of light detonates into an explosion. The cloud of smoke reveals what is left of them. The four of us are running down that path over the mountains and I slowly become more and more fatigued, but I have to keep going in case we are still being pursued. "We're close to headquarters," Says the pegasus. "Headquarters is over there, kid," Says the unicorn as he gestures his head to a big black mountain which is coming nearer as we run. When the trip to the mountain ends, we all stop to catch our breaths and the sudden feeling of guilt of not going to save my parents hits me. I could have left with them if I could have gone inside the house. I fight back tears to avoid having a mental breakdown in front of the stallions. "Why did you take me?" I demand. There is a sound of great anger in my voice. I'm not happy with going with these stallions now. The unicorn looks at me and says, "We send spies to look at the village every now and then. Fortunately, we found you. You are an important discovery to us. By finding you, we found a spark of hope in this generation of ponies. You are the future of a generation who can withstand the brainwashing of equality." I am completely dumbfounded by this stallion's response. Was I really that special? "Why didn't you take my parents?" I ask angrily. "They were so close!" The unicorn shakes his head and says, "You think we could have risked our necks any more than that?" he says. "Be happy that you're finally away from that dreadful place." "Where's this headquarters anyways?" I say. "It's in there," says the unicorn as we presses on the black mountain's wall. A hole in the shape of a door is visible in the mountain as the large bit of the mountain he pressed on slid down to the ground. "C'mon, now," says the pegasus. His voice sounds like he might be in his thirties. Inside the hole in the wall is a dark and eerie staircase that is poorly lit by ceiling lights. "Well, I don't think I really trust this," I say after I hesitate. The pegasus grunts and says, "Fine, we'll go first since you think we're a bunch of foal foolers or something," The three of them walk down the staircase and I follow them down. At the end of the staircase there is a short hallway with a steel door at the end which has a camera on it. The camera scans us and the door abruptly swings open. They walk through the door and so do I. This is not the place I was expecting it to be. This is far better. A bit plain, but better. The room I entered has a large hallway which is brightly lit and there is a smooth marble floor which reflects the place. There are two other hallways going to the left and right at the end of this long and wide hallway. On the walls there are huge steel doors with square shaped buttons on the side that is lit from the inside. Both walls in this hallway has three of these and I predict there are far more in the two other hallways. An old mare with a dark green coat walks out of a door that has opened to my left and looks at the unicorn. " Ah, welcome back, Flame Lord," she says. "I see there's a new pony with ye." She looks at me and her eyes widen. "Oh my goodness! Are ye that Nick pony? The Soldiers 'ave bin talkin' about ye and the word's spread that there's actually a pony who's diff'rent in that village full of commernism and equality!" Flame Lord laughs. "It's comm-u-nis-m, Seven Leaf Clover," He says. Seven Leaf Clover shrugs. "Bah, whatever!" she says. Flame Lord looks at me and softly lays a hoof on his face. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you to us," he says. "I'm Flame Lord, as you've heard. This is Paladin." He points to the pegasus with the creepy red eyes. Then he gestures to the earth pony. "And that's Punching Bag. He'll be teaching you some self defense." Punching Bag chuckles. "You need it," he says. "You've let unicorns carry you like you were nothing." He smirks at me. "How am I supposed to prevent that?" I ask. "That's what I'll teach you later," says Punching Bag. "I'll show you where the dormitory is," says Flame Lord. Flame Lord and I walk through the crowd of ponies moving about in the hallway. "You've been through a lot today. It's needed that you get some rest." I look at him with a concerned expression. "What is this place?" I ask. "This is the headquarters of the rebellion working against Starlight's village," he says. "I'm the leader of the rebellion. We're against the village because we believe in expressing ourselves. The ponies at the village just force other ponies into acting equal, and that's not right." He looks to the right. "And plus, th- Smoke Clouds, what did I tell you about smoking in the hallways?" He shouts. Smoke Clouds, an earth pony with a gray coat and spiky gray hair throws his cigar to the side and blows the smoke away. His face goes red with embarrassment as he says, "I haven't been smoking, what're you talking about?" Flame Lord scowls. "If I catch you smoking in the hall again I'll throw away all of your cigars!" He says strictly. "I don't even know why I allowed him to have them here." He mutters. He presses a white square shaped button on the wall and the steel door next to it slides open to reveal a dark room with bunk beds and bedside cabinets next to each one. "You sleep on the third one to the right. Sleep well, because you have self defense training tomorrow." He looks rather bored when he says that. I walk to the bed that he mentioned and I flop myself on the bed with both fear and anxiety tingling in my chest. I stare at the bunk above me and sigh. All this time I've been some sort of special snowflake for a rebellion. But why me? There's plenty of other ponies in the village they could have taken. I'm very valuable as it seems. At least I'm valuable to the rebellion. To Starlight, I might be a threat that has to be rid of. But the main thing about this "threat" is the fact that I'm different. And both sides want me or want to get me off of the face of Equestria for the exact same reason.
Chapter Four - In Our HQPunching Bag shakes me awake and I slowly open my eyes. "Huh?" I say weakly. "Time for training, Nicky," says Punching Bag. He yanks the blanket off of the bed and shakes me once more. That becomes a large annoyance to me and it makes me grunt in frustration. Getting the message, I climb out of the bed with my weak morning legs. The room is pitch black and I can only see the glowing square button on the wall. When he pushes it, the light from the main hallway fills my eyes and I block my eyes with a hoof. This is the village all over again. "Well? Come on, now." I try to strengthen my legs by pushing myself to walk faster. While following Punching Bag through the door, my eyes finally adjust to the light and I no longer need to close my eyes halfway. "Before we get to training, you need to eat breakfast. It's hardly possible to kick flank on an empty stomach, yeah?" His eyes focus towards me and he smiles. "Trust me, the food here is far better than what the absolute git Starlight gave you." My opinion about this pony changes when he insults Starlight. To avoid tiring my legs even further, I forcefully flap my wings and follow Punching Bag by flying. It amazes me how much effort they put into building this place. If Starlight's village is a small and poor place, why are they trying so hard? It's not like they are that big of a threat. This rebellion is exceedingly populated and they seem more richer than the village. So why are they struggling? As we approach a door in the hallway, Seven Leaf Clover walks out and squeals when she sees me which makes me cringe. When we enter the headquarter's cafeteria, I see plates lining up the silver tables and the sound of chattering can be heard throughout the place. The plates are filled with this strange flat food with square-shaped holes in them. It's the same color as the muffins in the village, so I don't trust any of them. I sit down at one of the tables and feel the coldness of the seat pressing against me. I try my best to ignore it and focus my attention on the strange food on my plate. As if he read my mind, Punching Bag says, "Those aren't muffins, Nicky," And then I remember what Flame Lord told me about the rebellion spying on the village. How much do they know about the village or me? "This is what us non-village folk call waffles." With a lot of hesitation, I grab the waffle with a hoof and slowly move it to my open mouth. I take a bite and... oh my Celestia. This is the best thing that has ever touched my tongue! By the time Punching Bag and I leave the cafeteria, my stomach is filled with waffles. I think I've gained a waffle addiction while I was in there. Punching Bag presses a button on the wall next to a door and it smoothly slides upwards. In the gray room there are swords, bows, arrow bags, and other weapons hanging on the walls. "We have a surplus of weapons 'cause our numbers were greater back then. Starlight's army always had ways to outplay us. But maybe they have something we don't. That's why we spend lots of time finding out what makes them so powerful." It must be difficult for a large rebellion with plenty of supplies to fight a small village."There used to be over forty of us. But now or numbers lowered to twenty-eight including you." That gives me terrible anxiety and I shiver in fear. "That many ponies die in here?" I ask. He nods and says, "It's a terrible war we're fighting," A smile slowly creeps onto his face. "but we're slowly getting stronger every day. Now let's get things back to training, yeah?" He reaches into a small abandoned saddlebag beneath the hanging weapons and reaches his entire hoof in there. He moves his hoof around and the clattering of various objects can be heard. I assume that the saddlebag is enchanted by unicorn magic. He finally pulls out a white life-sized mannequin out of the saddlebag. He gets on his hind legs to push the mannequin to the middle of the room and goes back to get a longbow by biting on the wooden part. With one hoof, he takes the strap of an arrow bag out of the saddlebag and lets the strap rest on the back of his neck. "Thnkflly, yer a pegashish sho dish shood be eeshee fer you." He releases the longbow from his teeth in front of me and drops the arrow bag as well. "Pegasi are able to get a better grip on weapons, so all you have to do is fly while using the bow." I haven't seen how ponies use bows, so this should be something new. I didn't see how the mare shot the arrow back at the village when I got busted out. All I got to see was how she died. "I don't know how to hold it," I say pathetically. "Simple," he says. "Just hover above the ground and let your hind legs face the floor so that you're in the proper position." I simply follow what he said and I look back at him. I coil my hoof around the longbow and then I begin to fly not too far from the ground and tilt myself so that my hind legs are facing the ground. "Like this, right?" I ask after a long struggle with the bow. Punching Bag nods and frowns in impatience and says, "Except you forgot to take an arrow." Blushing, I coil one of my hooves around an arrow and look at him. "What next?" I ask. "Put the nock, which is the back of the arrow, in between your teeth," he says. I simply obey his orders, but the plastic nock of the arrow awkwardly dangles from my mouth. "Now put the string in your mouth along with the nock. Balance the arrow on the string and grip, pull the grip away from your face, let go with your teeth, profit. Try it." I remove the arrow from my mouth and tilt my head to the left, letting the string enter my mouth. I put the nock of the arrow in my mouth and bite down on both of them. When I notice the arrow is slightly dangling, I shift my teeth so that the arrow is straight. This might be simple. Balancing the arrow isn't much of a challenge. The arrow is facing forward on both the string and bow. I completely forget about my target and fix my aim onto the mannequin's chest. Pulling the grip of the bow away from my face, I squint and focus my eyes on both the triangular and sharp tip of the arrow and the mannequin that is littered with cuts from previous arrows. This is it. The moment when I learn how to defend myself against the guards in Starlight's village. Pretending that the mannequin is a village guard makes me even more confident to unleash the arrow upon it. With determination in my heart, I let go of the string and arrow. Take that, you scumbag! The arrow lamely flops from side to side in mid-air and softly lands on the floor nowhere near the mannequin. Punching Bag rests his hoof on his face in frustration and sighs. "That was quite a start. Tons of progress." After training archery for what felt like an hour, I exit the training room with an aching left front hoof. During my hour of training, I barely got the mannequin on its neck and on its neck a few times, but the tip of the arrow only tapped on the mannequin. The only time the arrow sunk into the mannequin was when I hit in its flank. The problem was that it wasn't fully submerged like the rest of the cuts. "Where'd you get those mannequins?" I ask as Punching Bag and I exit the training room. Punching Bag laughs and says, "Funny story," He smiles while keeping his head forward. "I got them from Ponyville. A place called Carousel Boutique. The white mare there was screaming on the top of her lungs when she found out I was intruding." He laughs. "Good times." Flame Lord is having a conversation with a group of six ponies who are crowded up in front of him. I only recognize Smoke Clouds and Paladin in the group of ponies. As I approach them, Flame Lord looks at me and the ponies look at my direction at me as well. "He's Nick," He says. "The newest member of the rebellion!" A mare with white, short, and spiky hair along with a brown coat chuckles. "When I was thinking that when you guys were risking your necks to get a pony from a village, I was thinking they'd focus on someone a tad bit older," She says. "Are you kidding?" Flame Lord says. "We set our priorities just right. Nick is the only pony who shows signs of difference in the village. Something the children in the village would never dare to do!" The mare just smirks and says, "So?" She looks at me. "Some of the rather unwise ponies aren't hesitant to show 'signs of difference'." Flame Lord scowls and says, "And that's telling us something," His eyes widen and he breaks into a theory. "There's something going on with the offspring of the parents in the village. The parents can act different at their own will, but the kids seem like they can't. But Nick broke that pattern. But how?" The mare shakes her head. "Yeah, I don't think you're thinking straight," She says. "Tinks, this colt can save this generation," Says Flame Lord. Being reluctant about interrupting the argument, I finally decide to speak. "Flame Lord?" Flame Lord looks at me with a calmer expression. A green stallion with black dreadlocks frowns and says, "Aye, I think this lad wants us to save 'is parents. D'you think we should break it to 'im?" he says. He has a similar accent to Seven Leaf Clover. "I don't think he can handle it," Says Flame Lord. Suspense sparks up inside of my head. What can't I handle? Flame Lord sighs. "I'm sorry, Nick. It'll be nearly impossible to get your parents. Their defenses are too strong for us to withstand. I really am sorry." Sadness and desperateness tingles in my chest. No. That can't be right. "You're lying," I say. "I've been there my entire life and I can assure you that there are no more than just a few ponies walking around weakly armed. You can save my parents if you weren't so damn lazy!" Flame Lord takes away his convivial mood and becomes furious. "If you don't believe me, then I'll just show you," He says. "Just wait here." Flame Lord goes to the training room and the group of ponies he was talking to follows him. "What was that all about?" Says Punching Bag. "It got a little out of control," I say. "I was a little too desperate to get my parents back that I took it out on Flame Lord." Punching Bag shakes his head. "You've ticked off the Soldiers," He says. "You called 'em lazy, so now they're going to do something stupid to prove you wrong." This unfamiliar label drops curiosity into me. "Soldiers?" I say. "The folks who leave the headquarters to get supplies, spy on the village, or raid it," He says. "They're not people you want to mess with, Nick." Punching Bag tells me the duties of Soldiers and talks about the Soldiers I don't know. "The purple mare with frantically moving eyes is Mad-Eye Julie," He says. "The one with white-ish hair is Dual-Ended Dagger. The green pony with the black hair is Lucky Trots. Seven Leaf's grandson." My curiosity ensues. "How did everypony find the rebellion?" I ask. "There's two ways," He says. "The Soldiers did recruiting missions 'round Canterlot and chose the guards that looked rebellious. Starlight invites ponies into her village when ponies run into her. We chose the ponies who declined the request into the rebellion, and it was successful." The soldiers emerge from the training room with weapons in their mouths, their unicorn magic, or empty hoofed with saddlebags. The first pony I recognize from Punching Bag's descriptions is Fast-Eye Julie. The pegasus's eyes are frantically moving around in her sockets as if she's paying close attention to a fly, but they are moving quickly. She has a dark purple coat and a short dark purple mane with thick black streaks. Her cutie mark is a pair of widened eyes. A pony with a pink coat and a silver colored mane I recognize as Dual-Ended Dagger smirks and says, "I'm assuming you're our most recent celebrity, huh?" She scoffs. "The one and only different Nick." I scowl and keep my mouth shut. Fast-Eye remains silent and straight faced. "Flame, why do you want this child to come with us to do this? He's too young." Double-Ended Dagger looks at Flame Lord with a concerned expression on her face. "He's not seeing the truth," Says Flame Lord. "so we are going to bring the truth to him." The Soldiers and I are moving up the poorly lit staircase. The staircase is oddly eerie and it could make anyone not want to enter or exit. By the time we are out, heavy rain is slamming into the ground, soaking us and our saddlebags. My sight of the far distance is obscured by the thick rain clouds. We walk along the same path I came to the headquarters from and I have a good feeling that if the village isn't as heavily guarded as Flame Lord claimed, we can save my parents. As we walk along the path of the damp sand, Fast-Eye Julie's eyes focuses in one direction and twitches in place. She slows down and eventually stops. The rest of the group stops along with her and look at her in a worried expression. "Is there somethin' wrong, lad?" Confronts Lucky Trots. "I knew my mother was right," Says Fast-Eye Julie. "I had a feeling that was constantly poking at my head that maybe they did exist. Little old Fast-Eye isn't crazy after all." I think she has gone mad. By the look of it, nopony here knows what she is talking about. Flame Lord steps closer to her. "Is everything alright?" He asks. The fact that she doesn't answer gives off an ominous tone. "Hold on, what exists?" I say. In the middle of Fast-Eye's hesitation to respond to anyone, Paladin frowns and says, "I wouldn't be surprised if it was a-" Paladin's sentence was cut off by Punching Bag's shout. "TIMBERWOLF!" Yells Punching Bag as he runs the opposite direction of which we came. Flame Lord's eyes widen and his jaw drops when I turn my attention to him. The earth beneath us shakes as a nearby sound of loud thudding can be heard. I stand back behind the Soldiers in terror of what I have seen. A silhouette of a ginormous wolf's head emerges from the fog in the distance. The creature's glowing green eyes shine through the fog as if they were giant light bulbs. The sound of the loud thudding gets faster and closer. I can't move. I'm a sitting duck frozen in fear. The head of the wolf is completely made out of wood and it looks perfectly carved as if it was pony-made. Its ears are giant trees growing out of its head and its eyebrows above its eyes are thousands of leaves that look like they were ripped off from a tree. The timberwolf's teeth in its giant mouth are made out of huge pieces of wood that looks like it has the potential to cut diamond. The body and legs are completely made out of naked trees and the timberwolf has big trees growing out of its back. And that thing is running towards us now. The Soldiers snap out of their awe and get into fighting stances. Paladin flies in the air and pulls out a long spear from his small saddlebag. This doesn't surprise me because I know what unicorn magic is capable of. With a grunt, he throws the spear into the timberwolf's mouth and it hits its tongue. The spear did not did the tiniest bit of damage to its tongue as it fell back into its mouth. That makes it come to a full halt. The timberwolf closes its mouth and opens it again to spit out the spear which travels at an alarming speed through the air and submerges itself to the sand just inches in front of Paladin. A loud roar erupts out of the creature's mouth and it makes out hair fly backwards in the wind. Flame Lord gets into a fighting stance and the same white ring that appeared on Flame Lord's horn when we escaped the village can be seen once again on his horn. The sound of wind can be heard and it intensifies as the ring gets smaller as it gets closer to the tip of his horn. Once the ring reaches the top, it shoots out of his horn and hits the timberwolf in its right front leg, causing pieces of wood to fly off due to the explosion that occurred. The pieces of wood that flew off of the wolf flew up into the air and restored itself onto its leg like magic. "Don't just stand there!" Yells Flame Lord. The Soldiers snapped out of their amazement and fought the colossal creature with ranged weapons like bows and spears. I stand behind them and notice that they are keeping the wooden creature distracted. The village is right behind him, and inside of the village are my parents. This gives me an idea. If the Soldiers aren't going to save my parents, then I will. I keep my distance from the gigantic wooden wolf as I quickly run around it. The Soldiers were too occupied in their battle to even notice. I run as fast as my legs would allow. The timberwolf has yet to notice me as I quickly make my run around it. I get far enough behind of the wooden monstrosity and along the path to make out the village uncover itself within the thick fog. With not only rain, but determination slamming onto my chest, I run even though my lungs are telling me to stop. Even though my tongue is dry I run. Even though my hooves are getting dirty on the damp sand I run. Even if I get- Thud. I instantly trip over and fall over due to the large impact that my right hind leg has taken. The pain sears through my leg as if sliced open. A liquid seeps down my leg uncontrollably. My vision is fading. I weakly look behind me to see the damage. A large, thick, and sharp chunk of wood has hit me on my leg. Flame Lord swears loudly and tries to run around the timberwolf but is stopped when the timberwolf takes a swipe at him. It's getting dark. Maybe I should go to sleep. "Wake up, Nick," Is the very first thing that I hear when I regain consciousness. The voice sounds feminine and soft, but despite the voice, I keep my eyes closed. There is nothing but silence ringing in my ears after the voice. The voice spoke over a heart monitor that was not beeping, but playing out its long tone that signifies death. Curious to find out what the source of the noise is, I slowly and weakly open my eyes. Sitting upright was less of a pain than moving my leg. The pain activated itself once again when I sat upright. I remove the sheet to see a large bandage wrapped around my leg. Blood has soaked up a large area of the cloth and anxiety fires up inside of me. I look to my left and gasp at what I see. My mom is standing right next to my bed, smiling. Ignoring the pain that erupts in my leg, I get off of the bed and get off of my hind legs to hug my mother. All I can do is sob into her chest. "M-mom, I want to go home," I say through the tears. "I don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna leave." They did it. The Soldiers defeated the timberwolf and saved my parents. She holds me tightly in the hug and we enjoy each other's warm embrace for what feels like two minutes. Despite the exciting reunion, I feel like there is something missing. Suddenly, I break the hug. "Where's dad?" I ask. This is not complete without him. Life won't feel right without my father. "H-he's..." She stutters. Her voice trailed off as she looked at the floor in depression. "T-timberwolf got him." After saying that, she slowly begins to sob more intensively than she has when she saw me getting sent to the village prison. Right when the shock hits my chest, I fall backwards into the bed as if the mattress disappeared. The wind rushes against my back when I fall through the floor into the deep dark hole below. The cover of the bed wraps around me like I'm a mummy and I am blinded by it. I am struggling to get out and fly out of here, but despite by large effort, the sheet that wrapped around me had a strong grip on me like a snake that has spiraled around its victim. I cannot breathe because my muzzle is blocked by the sheet. I twist and twirl in the air in hopes that I will be released, but it is all in vain. This is how I end. Wrapped in a bed sheet falling in a deep abyss that appeared beneath my bed. The falling abruptly comes to a stop, though I feel no pain. It is as if I have come to a landing and something has broken the fall. I still struggle to get released from the sheet, for it is still suffocating me. I let out a shout which is muffled and I repeatedly twist my body left and right. I am not going to die by falling. I am going to get suffocated to death. I hear a large timberwolf-like step and once I hear it, the blanket unwraps itself and I take in a large gasp of air. The bed sheet slides away from my back and flies back up into the hole that I fell from. I get to my hooves and look at the giant hole above. There are many cracks in the hole and earth covers the walls of the hole. The light from the hole above leaves a circle of light above me, but the light isn't very plentiful. The rest is darkness. The steps become louder and faster as it comes closer. I get to my hooves and back away from the source of the sound. Now the real threat is coming. The circle of light expands larger which tells me that the same timberwolf might reveal itself in the light that is now brighter than before. But no, someone else comes. My father is on his back, shuffling his hind hooves and scooting backwards to get into the light. He is looking at the darkness and he is sweating from head to hoof. The anxious expression on my dad tells me that now is not the time to be excited to see my dad. Instead, I should be very scared. Full Canvas is backing away from something. He's backing away from the sound of the steps that are picking up and pace and getting closer and closer. He's still on his back, so I run to him and coil my hoof around his. "Dad?" I say silently. No responses come out of his mouth. Just the rapid breathing. Not long after I grab his hoof, the timberwolf emerges into the light and gives a deafening roar. My dad gets a tighter grip on my hoof as he stands up. As the timberwolf quickly lowers its head, my dad turns to look at me, gets on his hind legs, and pushes me out of the way before the wolf's mouth comes down on him and slams shut. The sound of it closing its mouth echoes through the place as I stand there wide-eyed. Just like that, he's gone. I sat up on my bed so abruptly that my blanket fell off of the bed. The blood curdling yell I gave made a mare jump and drop a silver tray of medical instruments. When she dropped the tray, she gave a short yelp. After that, she shot an angered expression to me that made me think she was going to scold me for yelling. She grunts. "Well, at least you're awake," She says. "Erm, sorry," I say awkwardly. "You were out for a day, Nick," She says as if she thought that my day-long dream were to give me amnesia. As I calmed, so did the heart monitor beside me. My leg is bandaged like it was in the dream. I'm half disappointed and half glad because it felt as if I actually reunited with my mother, but it also felt that my father was eaten alive. Maybe he was eaten in real life. When the Soldiers were fighting the wolf, my father could have saw me and came in. How do my parents feel about my absence? Obviously they are worried sick. But what are they doing about it? Doing everything they can to get out of the village? I tuck myself in bed, still shivering in fear because of the dream. Beads of sweat have dropped from my forehead. Eventually I'm going to save my parents. Timberwolf or no timberwolf, I will find a way. The wound on my hind leg has hindered my walking ability so that I have to fly most of the time to get to places. In the cafeteria, Punching Bag has introduced me to another flat food labeled as "toast" and a thick, yellow, and soft food called "scrambled eggs". Punching Bag told me that it goes good with this concoction called "butter", a rather sour tasting spread that takes the shape of a cube. You have to cut it with a knife and spread the butter across the toast. I never knew toast was such a complicated dish. I'm grateful that Punching Bag is teaching me about objects I find unrecognizable. You don't get to see many things when you live in Starlight's village. Every time I see something new, I accidentally do something stupid. Once I saw a block of soap and assumed it was food because it smelled good. When I took a bite, however, I was coughing and spitting it out. My mother informed me that soap isn't meant to be eaten, but to be used for cleaning. That would explain the hair I found on it. When I exit the cafeteria, Flame Lord approaches me. "Oh, you're awake," He says. "How's your leg?" I frown and avoid eye contact, feeling a sense of hatred towards him. How is he not dead? "Fine," I say angrily. "Nick, I know you're upset with me," He begins. "but I came to you to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken you to the path if I knew something bad was going to happen. I wasn't acting myself ever since you arrived here. I promise you there's a reason. It has to do with your parents." I then look at him in the eyes, removing the frown from my face and instead assuming a straight face. "When I was little, my dad was a drunk. He was obsessed with going to the bar in Ponyville late at night. He was stressed that mom died of cancer, and drinking took his mind off of it. He was angry almost all the time. Even if he wasn't drunk in our house." He looks at the floor and frowns. What does this have to do with my parents? "At the bar, he met someone who claimed that he could do therapy and such with him. It costed him some bits, however. He would come over to our house sometimes. He was a funny looking stallion. He had tattoos and piercings on him that intimidated me badly." He shivers in fear at the thought. "Crimson Clouds was the name, I think. He's related to Smoke Clouds. Anyways, one day he offered my dad some funny looking apple cider. Being the alcoholic he was, he accepted. And then..." His voice trailed off. It looked like he was trying hard to fight off tears. I could see his eyes watering. "He fell asleep. I tried to push him awake, but he didn't wake up. He was still breathing, but not conscious. I felt something hard hit my head and I was knocked out as well. When I woke up, my dad was gone. I was determined to find him after that, which reminds me of you. You're determined to find your parents like I was determined to find your dad." He slightly raised his voice, but it seemed unintentional. "I sneaked inside of Crimson's house and went to his basement. And there was Crimson Clouds. Burying a full body bag. I ran out and found home at my grandmother's house. I sobbed in the guest room for near an hour. I just wanted my dad back." I feel really bad for Flame Lord. Seeing something like that must have traumatized him from then to today. "Just like you, I was hopeful that I would find him. I felt it strong in my stomach that he was out there waiting for me. I was left disappointed and traumatized. That's why I'm trying to prevent your hopes from being too high. I don't want you to end up like me. He gave me a short smile. "You're a good kid, Nick. I just... Don't want you to feel like you should take the same path I did." I nod sympathetically, now with more respect for Flame Lord. He did try to save my life after all. "I understand," I say. And I meant it.
Chapter Five - Security System"Let's try something new," says Punching Bag. I have been in the headquarters for two weeks and in that time I have managed to get better at archery. But a broken leg doesn't help me in any way. Flame Lord said that the piece of wood that hit my leg might have given me an infection. At first I became worried, but after two weeks the need to worry has gone away due to the fact that there have been no signs of an infection. When the nurse told me that I was out for two days, the fear of the thought that my father is dead has grew. It sometimes kept me awake late at night trembling with anxiety. All I can do is just sit here and do nothing about it. The thought of it drives me insane. Punching Bag reaches into the saddlebag underneath the weapons. As his hoof moves around inside of the saddlebag, I can hear the clattering noise of dozens of metal objects. He finally pulls out a white unicorn horn that looks like it had been cut straight off of a unicorn's head. "WHAT THE-?" I say loudly in panic. Did he kill somepony? I then remember the white mare he mentioned a few days ago. No wonder how he got away with it! "Did you kill that mare?" Punching Bag scoffs and says, "Who are you- Oh, that mare in Carousel Boutique?" He quickly shakes his head. "No, no, I just put a stunning spell on her with this horn. I kicked it off another pony's head when he lifted me with his magic. She's alive, but I heard that she's in the hospital at Ponyville now." My eyes widen when I imagine Punching Bag kicking off someone's horn. "That doesn't make it any better!" I exclaim. He grunts. "Are you going to let me teach you?" He says. "I refuse to be taught how to kick off a unicorn's horn!" I say in protest. "I'm not gonna teach you that," He says. "Hear me out: When a unicorn dies, its horn doesn't lose its magic. That's why we mostly take these off of unicorns who already died of natural causes. We use the horns as weapons." But it still isn't right. It would be like cutting off a pegasus's wings to give you the ability to fly. Not only is it unethical, but it is disgusting. "But that's wrong!" I say. Punching Bag sighs. "I know, Nick," He begins. "But these are desperate times. And you know what they say - well, you don't - but they say 'Desperate times call for desperate measures' and we're putting that saying into play." Desperate times should never call for anything as desperate as this. Why choose to disrespect the dead? "I'll demonstrate how this works. Watch closely." He walks over to one of the mannequins and pushes it so that it is in the middle of the training room to make sure that it is in range. Coiling his hoof around the horn, Punching Bag aims the unicorn horn at the mannequin. He jerks his arm in an upward motion as if recoil came from the horn. Snap. A yellow beam of light comes from the tip of the horn and it penetrates the mannequin's head, causing bits of the mannequin to violently come off. The harmful beam from the horn made a deep hole in the mannequin. "Now you try." He extends his hoof with the horn on it to give it to me, but I shake my head and back off. "I can't," I say. "This is complete disrespect. There should be some other way we can fight against them. We can continue archery, right?" Punching Bag frowns and says, "Unless you want to become timberwolf food and an easy target for those equality ponies, this is the only way as of right now," With hesitation, I coil my hoof around the unicorn horn from Punching Bag's hoof. With the horn pointed at the mannequin's chest, I focus my aim but don't coil my hoof around the horn too tightly in disgust. Am I really going to stoop down to their level? Is using the horn of a unicorn that was once alive to my advantage in a future battle the right thing to do? I think about all of the unicorns I've ever hated to justify my choice of using a unicorn horn as a weapon. Only one name comes to mind. Starlight Glimmer. The one who got me here in the first place. I think of all of the dreadful things she has done to me and my head fumes with anger. Focusing really hard on the mannequin, my arm jerks upward and I hear the snapping noise come from the horn and the same yellow beam comes out. The beam makes impact on the mannequin's chest and small debris violently flies about. There is a deep hole in the mannequin's chest. Once Punching Bag sees what I did, he laughs and says, "Excellent work, Nick!" Though I don't feel proud of myself for causing damage to a fake pony that would have killed a real pony. But in the end, it's all for survival. This is what I have to do if I want to save my parents. To stop Starlight Glimmer. Punching Bag made me practice shooting out of a unicorn horn for a while. The more times I shot the mannequin, the less sympathy I feel. When Punching Bag leaves the training room, I decide to practice my flying. Just in case I feel like getting out of here and flying over the danger, I'll know what to do. When pegasi are old enough to learn how to fly, they do a wing exercise called "Ground Flapping". It's simple. All you have to do is flap your wings over and over again but you don't fly. It exercises your wings so that your wings move more smoothly and comfortably. I begin Ground Flapping at a slow pace and then I pick up the speed as I progress. My wings quickly felt fully outstretched and comfortable. I flap even fast and I start to rise up. This is a thing that I normally let happen because I need to practice flying higher than just a few feet. It's a way to be effective when I have another encounter with danger. The calming breeze on my wings sends a sensation of slight coldness through my wings. The breeze makes me fly even easier. I feel my head bump into the ceiling and I instantly plummet back down to the floor. When I hit the fell, I went from being relaxed to being in panic for a split second. When my back hit the floor, I barely feel any pain due to the ceiling not being high enough for flight practice. When I get back up on my hooves I look at my flank and scowl. Of course. The equal sign cutie mark. "I'll have to stop you right there," Says Cross Heart. He is the head medic of the rebellion. Flame Lord advised that I go see him after I told him that I suspected that my cutie mark is the reason I'm not doing so well at almost everything. When ponies in the village get their original cutie mark removed, it gets replaced with an equal sign. Starlight Glimmer herself removes it with a magic stick. I never understood that ritual. When ponies have the equal sign cutie mark, their skills at basically anything are the same as everyone else who has the same cutie mark. "Cutie marks are not capable of holding such magic. The only magic they possess is the ability to appear on your flank." He looks at me as if I told him an obvious lie. The constant buzzing of the lights in the ceiling doesn't make this less awkward. This bald-headed and brown-coated stallion might think that I have gone mad. "No, I've seen the process happen," I say. "I'm telling the truth, sir. I know because I'm the only pony you have from inside the village." I tell him about how the ponies' talents change when they get the equal sign cutie marks. "I see," says Cross Heart. "Well, your cutie mark is going to get removed either way. With magic, of course. And by the way, you're not the only pony who's been extracted from the village. There's two others just like you." Ponies just like me? Who are they? I had a feeling that I wasn't the only one. Then a thought comes to mind that replaces worry with what was once excitement. "Did they save their parents?" I ask. Cross Heart frowns. "The Soldiers were able to do it," he says. This sends anger through my head. What was so different about my parents? When I ask him this, he says, "Because the ponies we extracted weren't imprisoned." I clench my teeth and feel my hooves slightly shake in anger. "Listen here, you bald waste of space! If those Soldiers are too lazy sitting on their flanks, then I'll save my parents by myself!" I yell in frustration. My sudden outburst does not startle Cross Heart. "I'm not a therapist, so I don't treat suicidal thoughts, but I do treat physical wounds like the one in your brain," says Cross Heart. "Because as far as I'm concerned, no sane pony would ever dare risking their lives going to that village. Especially a twelve-year-old." "And no sane pony would go near a pony whose face looks like my flank," I say coolly. After being kicked out of the "Healing Room" as the sign above the room indicates, I go straight to the dormitory to lay down in my bed and do nothing for the rest of the day. I still don't appreciate how Cross Heart pushed me out like that. It's not my fault that he's never heard the truth before. When he pushed me out, it didn't treat my broken leg very well. The pain didn't stop until two minutes. I rest a pillow on my forehead and grunt. If I could just leave and get my parents. Maybe I wouldn't hate my life as much. Right now living in the headquarters isn't as good as living in the village. My eyes remain closed as I run through multiple thoughts in my head. My parents, my uneventful life, the village, and my leg. And soon after that, the list went on. I must have closed my eyes for too long, because then I begin to slowly fall asleep. I feel lightheaded and all of my limbs feel week. There's a sour taste in my mouth that screams grogginess. The dormitory has been filled up with ponies and it seems that I am the only one awake. I hear snoring from different kinds of ponies in the room, especially the stallions. The right thing to do would be to fall asleep again, but I have already had a long rest. As I sit upright, I scan the room. The room is only lit by a very small gap underneath the steel door that has dim light shining through. In pure paranoia that someone might have seen that I have awoken, I scan the room once more. Nopony seems to be looking, however. I swing myself off of the bed, front legs first and then hind legs, making sure that I gently place my injured leg on the ground. I slowly start to move across the dormitory towards the door, gently placing one hoof in front of the other very gently on the ground so that I don't make a single hoofstep. When my hoof rests upon the square-shaped button which is not lighting up like usual, I remember the fact that the doors make a loud slamming noise once activated. Waking up all of the ponies in the dormitory is not in my best interest right now, so I just stand there and think of a different way to get in. During my thinking process, my hoof slightly pushes on the button and as it pushes, the door slowly moves upwards and it's barely making a sound. I keep slowly pushing until I hear a small thumping noise which shows that the door has reached the top. I then remember that the door stays up when fully pressed, only to slam back down after a while. I quickly move outside of the dormitory and slam my hoof on the button that is on the other side of the wall once I'm there. As I peek around the corner, I pull my hoof away from the button at a very slow pace and as I remove my hoof, the door slowly lowers. Once the door is fully shut, I back away from the door and look at the large, empty, and barely lit main hall. I then look back at the dormitory door. How do I get away with things like this? I nonchalantly move down the hall, looking both ways to look for any ponies. I seem paranoid about any ponies that might be walking about, so I put my paranoia behind me. This time I am going to replace the feeling in my chest with curiosity which got me outside of the dormitory in the first place. I want to explore the headquarters. But what room shall I explore first? The muffled sound of talking can be heard from the door that is two doors away from the dormitory. I use my slow hoof technique on the buttons and once the door shuts behind me, I can make out the sound of Punching Bag's voice in the room full of wooden shelves filled with files that contain rusty pieces of parchment and some shelves that contain metal boxes that are labeled. "Trust me, sir," says Punching Bag. "I'm trying as hard as I can. Just give me some more time!" "I've waited twelve years, John," says the voice of an old stallion. "Yet you come back every time with things that has nothing to do with him! I'm growing impatient. You know that I can't live forever, so why don't you try harder? I'll be damned if I have to wait one more year." I peek around the corner of the bookshelf and I see Punching Bag looking at what appears to be a smoke figure that is in the life-sized shape of a pony right next to a unicorn horn that is standing upright and has smoke coming from it. Right next to Punching Bag is his saddlebag which has been propped open. "You won't, sir! I have a plan! You'll just have to wait just a few more days and then I'll do it. Plus his arrival was very recent. I'm sure that I can get some more information on him. Just a few more days because there's something that I have to do that involves the Soldiers. " says Punching Bag hastily. "In the end, it'll be more than one victory. I'll have information on the boy, he'll be dealt with, and I'll deliver the documents." "Fine," says the smoke figure. "But remember: I did not send you in there just to mess around, so you shall not test my patience. You'll have two weeks. Understand?" Punching Bag gulps and nods. "Good." The smoke figure then becomes a cloud of smoke that quickly sucks itself into the unicorn horn, making it fall over. After he puts the horn back in his saddlebag, Punching Bag turns around and I gasp and pull my head back. I need to get out of here. I think Punching Bag's plotting to kill me. Without doing much thinking, I slam my hoof on the square button and watch as the door quickly moves upward, making its loud noise and triggering a yelp from Punching Bag. I run out the door and hastily move down the hall. While looking behind me, I see Punching Bag look at me and gasp. "YOU!" he yells. He charges after me and as soon as he does, the lights in the hall fully go out and I quickly fly to the ceiling and once my head bumps on the roof, I look down at the pitch dark hall. I can't see a single thing. That's when I feel my eyes slightly vibrate as I see the room being lit up by a light color of green, but still see Punching Bag moving around as if blind. "Damn it! Where are you, boy?" Punching Bag focuses his attention to the ceiling and scans it as if he doesn't see me. But why? Isn't the room lit up? But if he can't see it, that must mean one thing. I look down at my injured leg and see that the bandage is gone and it has been fully healed. No sign of a scratch or anything. I then remember the color of the timberwolf's eyes. Is this the result of the infection? At this point, Punching Bag's eyes have focused on the exact same spot where I am twice. Then he grunts loudly as an orb of light comes out of what seems to be his unicorn horn because in the second that he was lit by the orb of light, I could see him pointing the horn in my direction. The light comes towards me and when it gets close enough, the orb just stays there in mid-air. He gasps and jerks his hoof upwards as the deadly light comes from it and misses me. I then dive down out of his sight and press a barely lit square button. When it slides up, I leap inside without hesitation. I stumble into a room that is just as dark as the main hall. Punching Bag followed the loud sound of the door and went into the same room as I, unicorn horn in his mouth. As I look at him, I quietly step backwards so that he doesn't hear my hoofsteps. He looks in every direction that he hears sound from. I then look around in the room where I have ran into, and I find out that it is a long hallway with metal bars that make jail cells in which some of them contain a pony. The ponies start to wake up at Punching Bag's frantic and muffled shouts of things like "Stop hiding!" and "Show yourself!" as if he thinks that I will obey. Punching Bag then pulls the unicorn horn out of his mouth and makes another orb of light in the middle of the hall. The light reveals me, causing me to jump into the nearest jail cell to avoid the light. The door of the jail cell swings open when I jump inside and then it seals itself immediately. Sweat trickles down my back and I tremble in fear as I notice that a mare with village-normal hair and an equal sign cutie mark is in the same room as me. She smiles in satisfaction and laughs maniacally. "Finally!" she shouts. "He's finally within my reach!" Punching Bag assumes the same smile. "Good work, Sara!' says Punching Bag. "Now make sure that he stays there! Damian will be very pleased! And Nick, if you tell anyone about this, I'll know. And you'll wish you would've stayed in the village." "Oh, he's not going anywhere," says Sara. I then see purple light around my hooves and suddenly they feel heavier. I can't lift them from the ground. The spell is weighing my hooves to the ground! When I flap my wings, I don't move as if my hooves are glued to the floor. Sara laughs again. "No! I'm getting out of here!" I pathetically shout. Sara laughs again and says, "Not gonna happen, kiddo!" When the room lights up, my night vision goes away and the sound of indistinct chatter fills the prison. The steel door slams open and when it does, Punching Bag has gone missing. Flame Lord enters the room and walks down the hall of prison cells. "The hell's going on in here?" he says loudly as he walks, looking both ways into each cell. "Flame Lord!" I shout when Flame Lord looks at the cell opposite of the one I'm in. Flame Lord looks at my cell and his eyes widen. "Nick?" he says. "What are you doing in there?" I almost tell him that this is Punching Bag's doing, but then I remember his warning and I do not wish to take that risk. "I wandered out," I say, which is half of the truth. Suddenly, the soft sound of a mare's voice booms through the speakers on the ceiling. "Removal of seal detected," says the voice. "Enter the pass phrase." "Ah, crap!" exclaims Flame Lord. "One of the Soldiers have the phrase! I'll be right back, Nick!" Then he zooms to the door, presses the button, and exits. "He has a minute to enter the pass phrase," says Sara happily. "There's no way he's gonna make it." Tinks enters the room along with Flame Lord and they both look worried. "Alright, I got this," she says. "The mare walks down the mountain!" When she says that, she comes closer to the cell I'm in as all of the doors in the prison open and the light on my hooves disappear. Knowing that I'm free from the spell, I run out of the cell in an instant to join Tinks and Flame Lord. Shouts of joy fill the room as the prisoners exit their cells. Then they run towards the exit and that's when Tinks turns a large chunk of the floor into ice, making the prisoners slip and fall. Sara leaps over the ice to attack me and I flinch only to see a spell of Flame Lord's strike her across the face and causes her to topple backwards onto the along with the rest. When she and the prisoners try to get back up, they fall back over again, which makes me smile. "Prisoner release detected. T-t-taking se-" the mare's voice stutters and turns into static. Red gas erupts from all of speakers, in which point, Flame Lord and Tinks turn around and instantly run to the exit. "RUN!" shouts Flame Lord. I quickly follow the two and I look behind me to see the prisoners desperately trying to escape the ice, only to be covered in the gas. When they do, they stop moving and breathing. My heart races as I hastily run though the open doorway before the gas could fully fill the room. I look to the left and see the populace of the rebellion leaving their rooms and red gas escaping the dormitory. The gas also comes from above and covers the ceiling like a big red cloud. Ponies rush through the exit door to leave the headquarters. Flame Lord and Tinks have already rushed up the stairs and I try to follow them only to feel hooves wrap around the leg that was once injured and make me trip and fall while I was trying to run, breaking a tooth. I look behind to see that Sara was the one who tripped me and she pins me to the ground. I desperately swing my hooves at her and try to kick her, but she is still pinning me down strongly. In my attempts to be freed, my focus falls upon an open saddlebag that looks like Punching Bag's. A unicorn horn rolls out and I reach out my hoof to grab it. "If I'm dying in here, then there's no way I'm not gonna let you go down without me!" yells Sara in triumph. My hoof finally coils around the unicorn horn and I flip over and when I feel the smoke on my legs, I panic and quickly point the horn at a random spot on Sara's body and jerk my hoof upward. With a loud snap, the white light comes out of the horn and strikes Sara in a foreleg. She shouts and releases me from her strong grip. I take the opportunity to struggle my way out of her grasp and onto my hooves. I then run through the open exit door and seal it shut, hearing the clicking noise of the lock. I run up the stairs and as I do, I hear Sara's hooves banging on the door as she screams for help. Eventually the banging and screaming stopped and it slowly turned to silence. When I manage to escape the headquarters, I see everyone in the rebellion crowded outside of the giant black mountain that holds the headquarters. The door seals shut behind me and I look behind me to see a big equal sign spray painted in red on the mountain. The sound of worried chatter fills the air as I scan the crowd to look for Flame Lord. When I do manage to find him, I notice that he is telling everyone to remain calm. I approach him and he sighs in relief. "Nick, what happened back there?" he asks, looking relieved to know that I am alive. "One... One of the ponies back there tripped me!" I say quickly, wanting to get away from the topic as soon as possible. "Wait, on purpose?" he says. "Yes, and I-I did what I had to do," I say. "What do you mean?" he says. "I ran away and locked her in there," I say. Flame Lord was in shock when I told him the news. He looks like he couldn't possibly believe that I, a twelve-year-old boy, could kill someone. He turns away and turns to assist Seven Leaf Clover to walk, who is panting and currently being assisted by Lucky Trots. "I can't feel me legs," says Seven Leaf Clover weakly as she slowly limps then falls over on the rough and rocky ground. The poor old mare is helped up with Flame Lord's magic as Lucky Trots pulls out a wooden chair from his saddlebag for Seven Leaf to rest on. Meanwhile, ponies worriedly chatter about things that they might have left behind and ponies that they have seen die due to the gas. When I observe the crowd, I notice that the number of ponies in the rebellion has decreased. Flame Lord asks me about Punching Bag's sudden disappearance and I tell him everything about it, despite Punching Bag's warning. I tell him how Punching Bag was talking to an old stallion and how he was attempting to find me and possibly kill me. He shakes his head in disbelief and walks away to check the ponies who are alive. Later in the night, the remaining Soldiers have set up camp by using makeshift beds made out of bear fur rugs that they had stored in their saddlebags. It turns out that it was enough to supply twenty-six ponies with a place to sleep. Flame Lord supplied us with a fire using his fire magic. It seems like his name isn't Flame Lord for nothing. Flame Lord told us that we would have to stay here until the gas in the headquarters cleared, which would mean staying close to village territory and quite possibly timberwolf territory. A rumor spread that the Soldiers are now planning a revenge mission on the village. But I can't stand not knowing whether it is true or not. Just the thought of not knowing something very important that others do has the potential to keep me up for hours. So far I've heard of some things that I'm not supposed to, and I want to keep that going. It can even keep me alive. Fast-Eye Julie drops her saddlebag and rests on a bear fur rug, clearly exhausted from assisting ponies and setting up camp. She then falls asleep, her fast moving eyes coming to a halt. I am also laid down on a rug not far from hers and since she is the closest Soldier, she can be the solution to finding out about the rumor. Of course she wouldn't tell me about the it personally, but I would have a perfect opportunity to listen in on the Soldiers' conversations if I could climb into one of their saddlebags. When everypony seems to be sleeping, I stand up and slowly make my way towards Fast-Eye's saddlebag. On the way, I step over ponies and move my hooves slowly to avoid the crunching of the rocks. When I approach the saddlebag, I open it and slowly reach my hoof inside and feel many different objects touching my hoof and I start to question my plan of actually going inside of one of these things. After all, I might land on something sharp. Knowing that I need to take the risk, I poke my head inside and see all of the objects in the bag. But only now the bag looks much bigger from the inside than it does on the outside. I'm lucky that the only weapon is a bow and some few arrows. The other objects are eye drops, medical tools, and an anvil. I leap into the saddlebag and and land softly on the ground. Now I just need to wait. A stallion's hushed voice tells Fast-Eye to wake up. She wakes up and silently yawns. She picks up the saddlebag and all of its contents slide about and so do I. I get knocked over and get hit by bottles of medicine and poked by a longbow. It's a good thing that she's only walking because if she were to go any faster, arrows would be a problem, too. I'm just glad that the arrows are in a quiver. After a while, the items stop moving and the bag comes to a stop. "What'd you wake me up for, Flame?" says Fast-Eye lazily. "Most of the Soldiers and I are going to Canterlot, and that includes you," says Flame Lord. "Why are we going there?" says Fast-Eye, sounding more awake. "We need to go to the castle and take all of the dark magic spell books that we can find," says Flame Lord. "But isn't dark magic dangerous to ponies who cast it?" says Fast-Eye, sounding worried. "We're not going to let Starlight win," says Flame Lord.
PrologueYou don't get much of a choice in our town. The entire population has to act the same. That is the village's main rule. Even parents don't get to chose what to call their children. Starlight Glimmer, the village's leader, named me Nick. It's strange that my name is Nick because ponies that are outside of this village have these long and wacky names All of the ponies that act equal in this town act weird. Actually, they are this village's version of normal. I call it village-normal. Instead of something being weird, it's village normal. I am village-weird, however. I do not live up to Starlight Glimmer's expectations. Fortunately, nopony seems to care about my non-village-normality and it has never gotten me into trouble. Everyone in this village seems happy to be here. They all have the same big smile on their faces. I don't take this as a very welcoming thing. My parents, Sketch Durso and Full Canvas, don't like it either. My parents are the ones who are closest to me. They were most likely disappointed when they found out I was going to be named Nick and not something long and non-village-normal. I'm sad I didn't get named anything else, either. But my parents and I are still very close to each other, and that's all that matters. We are still together and happily living with each other. I prayed to Celestia that my parents will never get taken away from me. It isn't long before I found out that Celestia has denied my prayers.
