Done by a Single Night

There are no capitalization errors in this. Think about it.

"...what?" Twi asked.

"A letter came in! Engo has captured Everfree successfully?"

"...are you sure? Where is Everfree?"

"Err... they didn't say. All they've told us is that it was a really powerful nation, but we were able to defeat them with sheer power and the might of the country!"

"...that's nice."

I looked at Twi for an explanation.

"Err... I don't know. The paper colts make their country look stronger by making them 'conquer everything?'"

"Nopony can mail letters that fast. Or deliver."

"Hmm. Well idk. Let's ask the pony who did the conquering!"

"Rainbow, they'll never let us meet the king. He probably has important duties to attend to-"

"Oh, the King?" the newscolt interrupted. "Everypony is allowed to meet Him! My mother had tea with Him last sunday."

"W-what?"

"Yeah! In fact, I can show you how to arrange an audience with Him myself! Come with me."

We followed him to a large building that looked like the palace. It was really fancy, like, fancier than I'd think a palace would be. But what was stranger was that this place was actually in color.

No gilded pillars. They were all platinum. No fonts of water. They all flowed with wine. No polished marble. They had damn solid gold blocks. No velvet. All velour.

This place was... expensive is the only word I can use. It wasn't exactly good looking, just... made with expensive stuff.

"I wonder what the king looks like?" Fluttershy said.

"Maybe like... that." I pointed at a giant statue of a man wearing a crown more annoying than Twilight's Persona's headpiece. He held a scepter that I felt I'd seen before.

"Oh. Sorry..."

"Ah, I made the same mistake," the newscolt said. "There are far too many different statues of Him, hard to figure out His real look." What's that supposed to mean?

"Here is the Hall of Statues," he said with a flourish. I don't know why he suddenly has switched professions to tour guide.

Well.. this certainly is a lot of statues. Not a hall. More like a road.

Each statue was different, some with him as a daring pegasus, a sly unicorn, a tough earth pony. And right in the middle, was a cheesy Alicorn statue.

"Didn't expect that at all," I remarked.

"Nope," Fluttershy added.

"Not in any way," Twilight finished.

Well... my idea of this pony has no form. We continued walking until we reached two doors.

"The King is behind these doors. He's expecting you."

"Well that was fast. Thanks!"

The doors opened by themselves and we walked in.

Inside the palace was... the tallest flight of stairs in the world. "Come, travelers," a booming voice said from above. I looked up the undefined slope that was the stairs, and saw... a bunch of fog. We climbed the stairs.

It took forever, but we got to the top. The fog cleared, and sitting in a massive throne was... a scrawny, short earth pony. "Welcome. Are you not amazed by your Ruler?"

"Err... yeah..." was all I could say. With all those statues and how everypony looks up to him, I'd expect him to at least be able to look me in the eyes. Didn't Applejack tell me she'd never met a weak earth pony? Well here ya go.

"Behold!" He yelled, putting down a cone amplifier. I heard a switch flick, and a halo of light came from behind him. The illusion would never work; everypony could see above him to the box. "Your Ruler! He asks of your names!"

"Umm... I'm Twilight..."

"I'm uh, Fluttershy..."

"I'm Rainbow Dash."

"Yes, yes, I promise nothing in the means of remembering your names. Uh, what was it, twilight, fluttershy, and umm... rainbow cr-"

"Yes, yes, close enough."

"Ah. So what have you consulted your Ruler for?"

"Erm, we wanted to hear... some war stories, from our all-conquering overlord," Twilight asked.

"Yes, yes. So we were out, Me and about sixty colts." Seems a bit low for me. "And we were carrying, each pony, six swords, and eleven spears!" Okay... "And we um, threw the spears and um, it demolished the enemy army. And we captured their flag and won." What...

"Ah. Um, what were the uh, spoils of war?"

"What are spoils of war?"

"You know, what you got in reward..."

"Oh, um, we found err, mountains of gold! Yes!"

"No money?"

"And, twelve million err... whats the currency here called again... Sovrins! They're named after Me, yes. My name is Sovereign Staff, yes?"

"Oh well um... why didn't you say so?"

"More refer to Me as King, or Ruler, or Overlord. It works better for them, yes?"

"Ah. Well, we um, best be going..."

"Goodbye, fools!"

We backed up slowly, then realized there were stairs, and just turned and ran.

That was... interesting.

"Well, we still don't know how to escape," Twi said.

"I'm scared..." Fluttershy remarked.

Who could I ask for help... Oh! "Hey guys, I'll be right back for a sec, just um, stay here."

I turned a corner into an alley, and glowed my hooves. "Alia!" The world spun, my vision blurred, the lights cleared.

"Hello, Rainbow." Lexis said from behind the desk.

"Hey." How will I explain this... erm, make small talk first. "How's your um, mane doing?"

It was still floating behind her in a slow, nonexistant breeze, just like Celestia or Luna.

"Oh its um, great. Hard to wash though."

"Ah. So err, how will I say this... we're trapped underground in a black-and-white city with short kings and eccentric paperboys and colorful fountains of wine."

She blinked twice. "What?"

"So there's a big city with weird smiley old-fashioned ponies that-"

"Can I have a name?" she conjured a floating file cabinet that matched her exactly. I was surprised she didn't slam i- "Oh, I almost forgot!" okay, scratch that.

"Err, Engo."

She shuffled through it and pulled out an also-glowing white folder. "You want an exit, right? This here says there's one in the Elksta forest. Ask the locals."

"Really? Thanks!"

"No prob."

I clopped my way out of there.

When I came out of the alley, I saw Twilight and Fluttershy in a ring of other ponies, all of them looking intently at something. I went up to them. "What's happening?"

"Its so horrible! I can't look!"

"Fluttershy. They haven't started fighting yet. Plus, any blood will be grey. Basically Rainbow, this guy here," she pointed at a colt wearing a suit and matching fedora. "Ran into the street yelling something about the government. Cop's trying to catch him."

"Yes! Its true!" He yelled. "Listen! The government! They're controlling all of you! How can you not see it! They're in the walls! They know everything about you!" He waved his arms around.

"Ignore him," the pony I assumed to be a police officer said. "He's probably delusional."

"No I'm not!" he turned and looked me straight in the eye. "They're controlling everypony! They will monitor you! And if they find, you they will-"

"Shut up."

"I'm not afraid of you," the pony said back to the cop. "you think you have power, you think you-"

"Hey," the policecolt said, his voice turning to the one of a kind father. "The King has invited you over for tea."

The pony's eyes glazed over, and he blinked thrice. "Yes..." he said, like in a trance. "that would be... lovely..."

The cop lead him over to the palace. "Everypony, go back to work." they all picked up their parasols, adjusted their ties, and left like nothing happened.

"Does this happen often?" I said to a mare next to me.

"Does what?"

"You know... all of... that."

"I don't know what you mean..."

"The fight? The policecolt?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know..."

She left and bought a sandwich.

"Okay... well, at least I have information. There is an exit in the Elksta forest."

"Hmm. I'll go check that map," Twi remarked.

She walked off to do whatever.

"Hey, kid." I heard a stallion behind me say. I turned. He came up to me. He wore a long trench coat and a black, white-rimmed fedora. "Ya really goin to Elksta forest?"

"Erm, yeah, why?"

"That place... it..." he was quiet. "Just... don't go there. Its... scary, and not in the fear way, in much... other ways..."

He disappeared into an alleyway.

Well, that didn't help at all. Probably just trying to scare me. Ha.

"So um, the reception mare didn't want to divulge such info to me, but she reluctantly gave me directions after some effort."

"So you found a map?"

"Erm, yes."

"Brilliant! So, where is this 'Elksta Forest'?"

Okay, this is the most stereotypical dark forest I've ever seen.

It was dark, and gloomy, and had fog, and yellow eyes peering from the shadows. Amazing work, director.

The fact that it was also colored did nothing to prevent us from knowing how stupid it was.

There was a path that snaked into it, which undoubtedly led to a bridge that was most certainly broken.

We did the natural, stupid, and brilliant thing to do. We walked in like cocky bastards.

Twi's weird circly thingy kinda illuminated the darkness with a bluish, moon-like glow. The leaves cast shadows onto the wall- wait, what?

Walls?

I ran to the side. The trees made it hard to get there, but I just went around them. The trees were made of plastic. I went around it. There was a solid, dark backdrop, with yellow lights implanted in it, and a fog machine. The sky was the same.

I motioned for them to come over. We were in a big room. This whole forest must be fake.

Twi pulled out the map. "Oh. Oh! D'oh!"

"What?"

"I knew this forest looked funny. Look at its bird's eye-view."

I peered over and saw nothing.

"Oh... I see..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"Am I the only one here who does not understand this?"

"Look. The forest is basically a rounded off, perfect octagon." It did kinda look like that, if you lobbed off the trees and other stuff.

"Ah..."

"This must be the most expensive stage set in the world. Its pretty realistic."

"Yeah... not really."

"I have to agree, um, this kinda isn't really the um, best... I mean, not that its not good, but its not... good..."

Well... this is awkward.

"So where's the exit?"

"A better question would be where's the entrance."

"What?"

Twi pointed. The entrance was completely gone.

"How is that possib-"

"Remember. This is a set. There's probably moving doors or something, Idunno."

We walked deeper into the forest, when there was a brilliant flash from in front.

"What's that?"

We went closer. There was a pony, wearing just brown, simple garbs, and a metal helmet with a black slit for an eyehole. It looked scary, and told you nothing about whoever was in there.

He was whispering down the neck of somepony else, strapped to a big operation chair, which was propped up.

"Everything's fine... don't worry..."

Whoever was on top of the metal table thing struggled. "No! Nothing's fine! Nothing's-"

A big flash of light came from the brown pony's eyeslit. "Everything's fine..."

I realized the one on the table was the pony from before, the one yelling.

We walked around to get a better view. The rogue's pupils were dilated, and he had a glazed look on. "Everything... is... fine..." he snapped out of it. "No! Nothing-"

Another flash. "Everything is fine. The king is good. He has invited you for tea. Will you accept?"

"I... would... love that..."

He then passed out. The colt wearing the brown robes carried him away over his shoulder.

Behind him, casually, walked another identical guard, leading another unconscious pony over to the table. "Everything is fine..."

We've been wandering around this forest and still haven't found anything. Apparently, they lock this place up most of the time, and only open the doors when they're taking ponies in. I don't see where an exit would be here.

"...there. I see it." Fluttershy pointed over to a collection of rocks.

"I... don't see anything."

"Are you sure that's right, 'Shy?"

"Positive." She walked over with surprising confidence, and hit the rocks with her hoof. Something red glowed on it for a second before the rocks split, revealing a staircase.

"Umm, Fluttershy, aren't we supposed to be going up?"

"This will lead up. Trust me."

I didn't question that. Enough strange stuff has happened already. We went down the stairs. They lead out into a flat area. I don't know when or how, but after walking through it for about three minutes, we came out of the door to Twi's basement laboratory.

I turned around and opened the door again. It was Twi's basement. "Wh-what?"

"Magic." Thank you Twi. That totally explains everything.

I looked out the window. It was night.

"Aw shoot, how long have we been gone?"

"Just like eight hours, why?"

"Its night. Maybe time is different down there... how long have we been gone? At least a day. What is everypony thinking?"

"Oh... no... lemme go check." Twi ran out and tripped over something.

"Aah! It wasn't me!" I heard Spike yell. He was in the pantry, eating sapphires. "Oh um, I can explain-"

"Go to your room, mister."

He slunked off, trying to palm some gems out of view. "Okay, so no time has passed," Twi deducted.

"Either that or Spike's a naive, heartless idiot."

"Which he isn't."

"Noted."

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I want to go sleep."

"Sure."

"That would be nice..."

We said goodbye, and went to our respective homes.

I was standing on the edge of a chasm. I didn't know where I was or where I was standing, but I could see an endless black abyss from below. There was a voice whispering from somewhere down there.

"Ponykind is foolish," it said.

"They know nothing," a second agreed.

"But this one, she knows," a third replied. I could not tell what gender the voices were, the age, or really anything. They were just... voices.

"Yes, she knows."

"She will know."

"She has known." They all talked in turn, the first voice, the second voice, the third voice, perfect order.

"This one... what will she work for?"

"The guiding light of the future?"

"The breaking fires of destruction?"

"Or maybe... something else..."

"She will have to choose."

"Nay, she already has."

"Or is she choosing right now?"

"Decide... decide... it is what you must do..." they said in perfect harmony. "We teach you... we will... we have... we do... we hope the first lesson will approach..."

The voices faded, and my dream stopped, going back to that better one with the Wonderbolts.

Don't worry guys, gonna get back to the social links soon...