The twitching in my legs was the pain that woke me. I couldn’t tell where I was, only that there was the noise of… fighting in the background. My sight was too fuzzy to tell what was going on and who was fighting who, only that there was certainly anger all around me.

My eyes wandered over the fuzz. The room was blue and square… no, it was box-like in form. The walls were covered in metal bars and each wall, as well as the floor and ceiling, had a door at the center of them. Six exits and yet… no way out.

I jumped up and quickly fell back down. The pain rippling through my legs was the only thing that gave any sign that they weren’t completely numb. I turned around to see what happened, but my eyes were too blurry to see what was wrong.

I looked over the others and screamed at them for help. Yet when my mouth opened… nothing came out. I screamed louder and yet, nothing… I tried to speak and again nothing came out. Was... was my voice gone?

It was at this moment that I realized that there was this faint noise in the air. I thought it was from the fighting, but I finally realized it wasn’t. And now it was getting louder and louder.

My eyes went wide and my ears ached. I grabbed at them and despite how tight I held them, the sound continued getting louder. I opened my mouth and screamed an empty voice that desperately wanted somepony, something, anything to hear me.

However, things kept going, I could hear the faint sounds of banging on metal. Something was hitting metal. I looked to the source, expecting some sort of help, though my doubts told me differently.

I stopped screaming at the blurry sight of somepony beating another pony’s head against the wall. Judging by the size, it was a stallion and he had a green mane. It was all I could tell with my eyesight, especially when it suddenly started getting worse.

The stallion continued to beat the other pony’s head into the wall over and over until red poured out like a fountain. I struggled toward him as he stopped.

He stopped and pulled back. He looked deeply into the head’s wound and placed his hand into it. He soaked so much red onto his fingers before tossing the body toward me.

It landed right on top of me. I tried my best to squirm away from it, yet my legs still won’t move. It was at this point that I realized the numbness in my feet was spreading. My eyelids were following, getting heavier and heavier. The noise continued to increase in loudness as everything became darker and darker.

The last thing I heard before everything stopped were several loud bangs. The sounds of flesh shredded across the ground and the noise… the noise finally stopping.

******

I jumped up once my eyes opened. The memories from before were quickly fading. I calmly arose and tried to grasp my surroundings. There was noise behind me, but I paid little care to it.

I scanned my surroundings with my hands. The walls were strong, made of thick metal. Though I couldn’t figure out what kind of metal. It was clean of all paints and color, yet the room’s lighting gave its own hue to the walls. Despite how clean it was, there was something on the surface. It felt like dust, but it wouldn’t rub off as easily. It had a shine to it, though it wasn't glitter.

I lifted up my nose and took in a deep whiff of air. I took it in as slowly as possible to ensure I got every smell distinctly separate from each other. The air seemed clean at first, but there was something else in it. Cleaning soaps, salt, and a small amount of ginger. These smells were often used to hide something. I couldn’t figure out what though. However, I could tell which direction to go to get a better idea.

I looked to my right and saw a door in the center of the wall. “Hmp, just like before.” Before, when before? I stopped my thoughts, I couldn’t ponder on the past just yet, I had to move. I walked to the wall and took a grip of the ladder. I climbed it slowly and reached for the door. The door opened and I crawled through. On the other side was a small pathway just big enough for me to crawl through and short enough for only two ponies two enter at a time, anymore than that would be a rather tight squeeze. At the other end was another door, looking exactly like the previous one.

I reached out and it opened. On the other side was another room. This one looked exactly like the previous room. Same structure and design, it even smelled the same. I was no closer to finding out the unknown smell that the soap was hiding. However, I did quickly notice a distinct difference between this and the previous room. This one had green lighting.

I reached closer to enter the new room when I felt something pull my leg. I looked behind me to see a light blue unicorn. She was shivering really badly and her face was so pale. I tried to ignore her, but she gripped my leg tighter and nodded very slowly while gritting her teeth. I finally caved and moved backward. She let go but kept the fear on her face until we got back fully into the previous room.

Once back in there, I extended my hand out to her. “My name is Carrot Top. What’s yours?” She didn’t answer me, instead she backed away and stood by a corner. She seemed like she didn’t want to talk. Though I did happen to take note that her eyes went over to an unconscious green stallion as soon as she turned away from me. She kept staring at him even after arriving at the wall. Did she know him?

I stopped my thoughts at the echoes of a smack. It sounded like the talking had finally stopped. The talking that had been going on uninterrupted since I woke up. Originally, I haven’t paid the words much attention, listening only partially to gauge what was going on. But, if things were going to devolve into a fistfight, I had to step in.

I turned to stop what was going on when a sense of familiarity went through my head. It felt like this had happened before. I grabbed my head, rubbing it. The more I thought about the memories from before waking up, the quicker they disappeared. Soon I couldn’t remember any of the previous faces, all I knew was this place, this room… and now the sounds of fighting. It felt so familiar to me.

This wasn’t the first time I had been in here. In fact, in my gut I could feel that this wasn’t the first time for some of us, maybe all of us. My eyes fell on the unicorn mare. As if she was reading my mind, her nod gave me an answer that only solved so much and so little at the same time. Yes.

******

Author's Note

Now I'm sorry this chapter was posted so late. I got distracted twice today and never got around to posting in now finally. I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave a comment.