The Second Dimension

by AusFlick

Rating: mature
Tags: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Adventure, Pinkie Pie, Science Fiction, Twilight Sparkle, Profanity, Violence, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 48306

A rebellious pony named Jason Colby travels between dimensions to prevent an alicorn tyrant from causing the mass extinction of all Earth Ponies.

Equestria is a broken society, ruled by a cruel and oppressive alicorn. Ponies are enslaved and discriminated against, and Earth ponies are being massacred to near extinction.

However, among the depressed citizens of Equestria lies a rebellious Earth pony, determined to bring an end to Equestria’s tyranny, but his mission to pursue a powerful weapon goes awry. Now, he is cast into a brand new world where everything is different.

Held hostage in this new world by a condescending purple alicorn, and hunted by servants of the tyrant from his own world, time is running out for Jason to save his race, and his best friend.

Note: This story has been rated Mature for action violence, profanity, and heavy themes including discrimination, racism, and physical abuse.

Huge thanks to my amazing proofreaders & editors: Rainstream, Vayne Hellslinger and Deidorimu

Published 2018-04-20 05:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-10-03 11:37:56 UTC

Chapter 1: Oppression

My head felt like dead weight as I slowly regained consciousness. Feeling tired and groggy, my eyes squeezed shut briefly as I sighed, before allowing them to gradually open. The first thing I made out was the rope tightly wrapped around my barrel, pinning my back to the metal chair. My forehooves had been bound together behind my back by the same rope. They couldn’t move an inch. Both of my hind hooves hand been tied to either leg of the chair. That was when I took notice of my belongings, or lack thereof. Everything from my Hooficator, my weapons, my saddlebags and my jacket had all been confiscated. My environment was pitch black, and the only sounds that could be heard was my heavy breathing. The air was stuffy, as if the room had no ventilation.

Careful to avoid making too much noise, I struggled against the ropes. My entire body was jerking backwards and forwards, violently shaking my hooves in an attempt to break free. My struggling had no effect. If anything the ropes grew tighter the more I struggled. Despite my greatest efforts to stand, the ropes had me pinned down.

"Come on," I whispered to myself, before making one final attempt to slip my hooves through the knots. I sighed, dropping my head, admitting defeat. Now that was pathetic. I was so close! If only I hadn’t been so stupid. If only I had just been a little more careful, Ethan probably would have been safe by now. "I’m such an idiot," I said under my breath.

"Rise and shine, Jason," said a voice coming from the dark abyss in front of me. Despite my lack of vision, I had no doubt who that voice belonged to. As hoofsteps tapped on the concrete floor, a figure emerged from the darkness. A tall, black alicorn, with beady brown eyes. "Hi there. Long time no see."

He stopped just a few hooves in front of me. He towered over me, looking down at me with a giant grin. His height made me feel small, defenceless and vulnerable in comparison. His grin grew wider as struggled against the ropes to no avail.

"Comfortable?" he said gleefully. I paused for a moment before deciding on my response.

"What do you want?" I asked, fearing that I already knew the answer.

"I think you know exactly what I want," he said.

My only response was a soft grunt. I did. I knew all too well what he was after.

He finished off his coffee before brushing it off to the side. "Now then," he said. "I’m want to get straight to the point." Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it. "The T.S.D. Where is it?"

"Fuck you!" I hissed.

Argo just smacked his lips and cocked his gun, pressing the nozzle to my forehead. "I’d watch that tongue of yours if I were you," he said. "If you’re unwilling to cooperate, you will receive a bullet to the head. Now, for your sake, I’d suggest you answer the question."

"I can’t tell you," I said.

"Bullshit," he said. I went silent. "Fine. If you’re refusing to talk, let’s see what happens if the life of another is one the line."

A light bulb hanging from the ceiling turned on, lighting up the room. Just as I suspected. I was in an interrogation room, with a metallic door and one way mirror to my right.

The light bulb lit up the room, revealing another hostage strapped into a leather armchair in the back corner of the room. Oh God, no. Not her! She was a terrified looking yellow pegasus, with pink butterflies tattooed on her flank. Her forelegs were tied to the arms of the chair, her barrel was tied to the back, and her hind legs were tied together. I listened helplessly, as she struggled against the straps, and whimpered underneath the duct tape that was placed across her mouth. Hiding behind her pink hair, I could see the terror in her eyes.

"Fluttershy!" I cried, struggling against the ropes again.

"I’m going to count to ten," said Argo. "And you’re gonna tell me where it is, or she dies." He pulled the gun away from my head and pointed it towards her. Then he started counting.

"One."

Given different circumstances, I would have kept my mouth shut about the T.S.D, but with Fluttershy's life in my hooves, things had changed. There was no way I could leave her like this. I had to do something.

"Two."

"It's alright, Fluttershy," I reassured her. "Everything's going to be fine. I'm going to get us out of here. Okay? Just hang in there." I didn't actually know this for a fact. I was just trying to calm her down. It seemed to have been working, as she nodded, with a tear pouring down her left cheek.

"Three."

"How do I know you won't just sabotage us?" I asked. "Where I tell you where the T.S.D. is, and then you just kill us both anyway? How can I trust you?"

"Four."

"Okay, okay!" I said. "Can we talk about this? We can talk, can't we? Negotiate? Figure something out? Come to an agreement we're both satisfied with?"

"Five."

"You don't want to do this. She's a completely innocent pony that hasn't done anything to you. Hell, she's even from a completely different dimension. I'm the one you want. I'm the one who's been tearing your shit up. Let her go, and you can do whatever you want with me."

"Six."

"GODDAMNIT!" I screamed, wrestling the ropes once more. As I predicted, my hooves didn't budge. "You want the device? Okay, fine, I'll talk. But you have to let her go. I'll tell you everything you want to hear, but if you kill her, you'll get noth-"

"Seven."

"Are you listening to me?" I yelled, as my heart rate was increasing. "The only way you're going to get what you want is for you to-"

*BANG!*

Fluttershy flinched and yelped, as the Alicorn pulled the trigger with his magic.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I screamed, as I struggled against the rope again. At this point, all I wanted to do was strangle him. I watched Fluttershy wince, and her cries could be heard from underneath the tape. The bullet only just narrowly missed her, leaving a cracked hole in the concrete wall behind her.

"YOU THINK I'M BLUFFING?" He screamed back. "I'LL DO IT! I SWEAR I'LL DO IT. WHERE IS IT? WHERE THE HELL IS IT? TELL ME!"

I squinted at him, my teeth gritting, and my blood now boiling. "I swear to God I'm going to kill you!"

"EIGHT!"

"Okay! Fine! I don't have it!"

"Nine!"

"Listen! I don't have it. Twilight does. We recently found the T.S.D, and we held onto it for safekeeping. I gave it to her, and asked her to protect it with her life. She promised me she would, and she still had it when I returned home. I haven't seen her since. I have no way of contacting her, I don't know where she is, or how to find her. She could be anywhere by now."

He stared blankly at me, without showing the slightest hint of movement, or emotion. I fought my shedding tears, as I struggled to convince him that I was telling the truth. "I don't know where she is. I swear. I-don't-know." He just stood there, without saying a word. He didn't look convinced. "No." I pleaded, crying. "No. Please. Don't do it." There was a moment of silence before he said it, with no emotion in his voice.

"Ten."

*BANG!*

"NO!"

1 Week Earlier

Alright. Given all of my current circumstances, what had happened to me just hours ago, days ago, and even years ago, I just had to admit it. My life sucked. I guess that's how anyone would feel if they lived in a city that's gone down the shithole. I had been told that there once was a time when Manehattan was a great and peaceful place to live in. I had been told that it was once a city full of life, with millions of ponies travelling in and out of their local stores and offices, and had traffic jams on the road that lasted as far as the eye could see. That was a time where everypony was happy. Damn it would've been nice to at least once see Manehattan in a state where you didn't have to hide in the shadows just to survive.

I remained hidden in an alleyway, my charcoal coat camouflaging me within the darkness of the night. My eyes were glued to the sky, looking for any sign of a police hover-car. Keeping my eyes locked on the sky was particularly hard, since looking directly upwards made it difficult to keep the rain out of my eyes. I shivered as a dozen raindrops trickled down the back of my mane and neck. Chills shot up my spine as I was struck by a cold breeze. My leather jacket was the only thing that was preventing me from freezing to death, despite the fact it was almost completely soaked. The sooner I got back to my hideout, the sooner I'd be able to get warm and dry.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a police hover-car nearby. I slowly backed deeper and deeper into the alley, and hid behind a dumpster. The bright searchlight beneath the floating car slowly passed my alley. Not once did the searchlight come down my way. I waited about a minute until I was sure it was gone before peeking my head back out from the alley.

The city was rich with blues and greys, which had become even more gloomy than the norm due to the rain. The sky was littered with hover-cars a hundred and fifty hooves overhead, and the buildings were full of bright LED and neon lights and logos. Their colour saturation had been amplified to stand out from the rain.

A false sense of comfort washed over me. Despite the sky being filled with hover-cars, not a single one of them seemed to be a cop, or a guard as they were more commonly known as. The guards were known for their ruthless behaviour toward Equestrian civilisation, easily detected by their black skin-tight suits and their masks. They were feared by many, since they were loyal servants to Equestria's current ruler, Argo.

Argo was not a ruler that most would describe as well respected by civilians. I had heard many Pony Tales about how Equestria once had a grand Alicorn who shone like the sun, named Princess Celestia. A royal princess who made Equestria a bright, wonderful and peaceful place, full of life, colour, and friendship. Legend had it that they fought back when Argo rose to power, but they both died in battle at his hooves. Although, Celestia and her younger sister Luna had been dead for so long that many didn't even believe she was real. Most ponies I knew believed they were just a myth. A Pony's Tale, made up to give foals a sense of hope, and a ruler to look up to. Argo was nothing like the things I had heard about Princess Celestia.

Argo was a black, ruthless Alicorn who ruled Equestria not in love or friendship, but in tyranny and despair. Only those he considered to be superiors could live in 'high class' as he called it, which basically meant only those he considered superior actually had an apartment, or somewhere decent to live. Everypony else on the other hoof, those ponies were like me. Homeless fugitives, that were always hiding in the darkness of the streets at night, spending every night praying that we get to see the light of day. Unfortunately, his depiction of what makes a pony superior or inferior, entirely depended purely on what race you were, and nothing else. If you were a Unicorn, he would almost immediately hire you as a personal 'assistant,' or 'slave,' as I liked to call it. As a result, many Unicorns worked for him, regardless of whether or not they supported him. If you were a Pegasus, and you were able to live in your own house, that was considered lucky. So most of the apartments here in Manehattan were occupied by Pegasi.

As for us Earth Ponies, well, I believed he was actively trying to wipe our species off the planet to the point where Earth Ponies were extinct. Given the current circumstance, and how many Earth Ponies there were left, I was afraid to say that it didn't seem like he was too far off from succeeding. He was always talking and making public speeches about how "Earth Ponies can't fly, and they can't use magic, which makes them 'useless.'" Anypony he considered to be 'inferior,' which mostly consisted of Earth Ponies, and ponies with disabilities, he would execute upon catching them roaming the streets. My few friends called him an asshole, and I certainly agreed. His guards were his loyal servants, and they were everywhere.

Focusing on trying to get back to the hideout, my eyes darted back and forth down the street, both checking to see if the coast was clear and to pick the best spot to run to. My eyes were fixed at the massive Time Square jumbotron. It was just like looking into a mirror. The screen featured a charcoal coloured Earth Pony with brown eyes, and a black messy mane. He was wearing a leather jacket, and had a big ugly scar down his right eye and around the back of his neck. His tail was short and ratty. At the top of the screen in bold red text read 'WANTED: JASON COLBY', and underneath it in the same text read DEAD OR ALIVE: $1,000,000 REWARD. My eyes scanned across the entire town area. Every single visible screen had the exact same image. Great. Now that everyone in Manehattan knew what I looked like, and how I was apparently a rotten criminal, being spotted by anybody meant that I was fucked.

Granted, it didn't surprise me that Argo was so sudden to begin a frantic search for me, considering the shitload of things I had done to him. I'd be pretty pissed too if my worst enemy just stole a valuable weapon. I slipped off my saddlebag, undid the buckle, opened it up, and looked inside. Spotting the contents of the bag was followed by a sigh of relief. Thank God, it was still here. I redid the buckle and slipped my saddlebag back on. Continuing to search for my next hiding place, I spotted another alley amongst the jumbotron. Checking all around me for the final time to make sure it was safe, I sprinted across the street.

My heart pounded as I ran. Despite my almost completely black coat, the brightness of the screens and lights reflected off my fur and jacket, making me completely visible. Truth be told, the view was actually quite nice. Having so many bright and colourful LED lights made Manehattan appear to be more visually pleasing than it had any right to be. If it wasn't raining and my life wasn't in danger, I would've loved to stop to admire the scenery.

Eventually, I successfully made it across Time Square, and was fortunate enough to slip into the next alleyway unnoticed. I slowly navigated my way through the alleyway, until I found another opening at the other side that lead back onto the street. Before I had time to step out onto the street, a bright light caught my eye. It was another hover-car with a searchlight underneath it. In an instant state of panic, I jumped back into the darkness of the alley, this time pulling out my gun with my teeth from its strap wrapped around my leg. Some ponies may have thought it was weird to be this cautious when you're completely armed, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, I had been told it was wiser to hide and save your energy, then pointlessly risking your life fighting in a fight you could've easily avoided.

The light passed through the street, completely missing the alley. As the noise of the car faded away, I slid my gun back into its strap. Before continuing, I double checked to make sure all of my weapons and gadgets were still with me. Obviously, I still had my gun, which was attached to my right foreleg. Strapped onto my left hind leg was my dagger, still in its holster. The dagger was a backup weapon in case my gun ever ran out of ammo, but I preferred not to use it.

Locked onto my left foreleg was my Hooficator, a multipurpose device that was extremely useful for ponies under circumstances like mine. They were most commonly used for communication. You could send other Hooficator owners' text messages, talk to them through a video call, and each Hooficator had a built-in tracking device. If one Hooficator owner got lost or abducted, another would be able to use their own Hooficator to track down their whereabouts. They also had a built in map to help the wearer navigate his surroundings. These things were also locked onto our legs, so once they were on, getting them off was impossible unless you had a key. I used my Hooficator every single day, so I just left mine on twenty four seven. It had been ages since I last took it off. The final feature Hooficators were most known for were their 'Self Destruct' mode, which was exactly what it sounded like. I never really got the point of this mode, but I had heard that the explosion was really powerful, so it was only to be used in dire emergencies. These things were designed and built by my friend Ricky, so there were only a few of these things in existence, and I was lucky to own one of them.

With the comfort of knowing I still had my weapons and Hooficator, I shifted my attention to my saddlebags. Judging by the weight of them, I didn't even have to check to know I still had my grenades. Excellent, all of my stuff was still here. Now all I had to worry about was getting back to the hideout without getting spotted by any guards. Easier said than done.

Right as I took a step out onto the street, I was stopped by some sort of noise. It sounded like yelling and crying. One particular voice sounded female, and high pitched. It sounded like it was coming from a filly. The voices sounded like it was coming back from Time Square. My instincts told me to ignore the noise and continue down my path, but that nagging feeling in my gut prevented me from walking any further. Reluctantly, I forced myself to turn around and wander back the way I came. I had to investigate.

As I approached the opening from which I came, I saw the cause of the commotion. A pink coated Unicorn filly was wrapped up in chains. The chain was being held by a Unicorn guard, who was using a levitation spell to hold the other side of the chain, and was slowly pulling the filly towards him. She was being dragged towards the guard, and away from her mother, who was being restrained by two other guards as she yelled in protest. I watched as the innocent filly helplessly kicked and struggled, unable to fight through the chains around her body and ankles. Despite her struggling, she was being pulled against her will, closer and closer towards the guard and his car.

My heart fell into the pits of my stomach. I knew what would happen to her if she got into that car. The thought was too much for me to handle. My conscience was telling me to remain hidden in the alleyway. My picture was still plastered all over the massive screens, so showing myself to a guard would be suicide, as my punishment would be severe if I were to be caught. The penalty could have been as extreme as death, and Argo already hated Earth Ponies enough as it was.

With the risk being too high, and having the knowledge that this was too hard for me to watch, I decided to turn around and walk away from the scene. Then they yelled again.

"No! Stop! You can't take her away from me!"

"Mommy!"

My heart sank. That poor filly. She sounded so young. By the sound of her voice, and her appearance, she seemed to be no older than the age of six. She sounded so innocent, and I could hear the terror in her voice.

"Hannah!"

"Mommy! Help!"

Hearing her cry for help brought me to tears, and now having the knowledge of her name made this that much harder to listen to. Tearing up, I tried to walk away. Each step I took was more agonising than the last. The more I tried to ignore it, the more my heart felt like it was being ripped apart. She was so young. It's horrible to be taken away from your mother, and you can't do anything about it, and I should know. No child should ever have to experience something like that. Trying to completely block the situation from my mind, I took another step forward. That was when I heard an ear splitting thwack, instantly followed by the sounds of Hannah's screaming. I froze. The scream was loud, high pitched, and was only the sound a filly could make when in tremendous pain. I didn't have to turn around to know what it was. That was a whip.

This whip was an everyday weapon for guards. Every guard had one, and they had been enhanced to add extra pain. Their whips had a long tail, but instead of being made of a standard rope, this whip, was made out of barbed wire. It was frequently used against ponies that resisted their or Argo's commands, and they were often used on kids. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my reflection in a cracked mirror to my right. I was a mess. My mane was untidier than usual, my coat and jacket was completely soaked. My eyes were bloodshot, and filled with tears. I placed my hoof under my mane, and lifted it to expose the back of my neck to the mirror. As I did, I stared at that red scars that remained when the same thing happened to me at her age. Listening to her was becoming torturous; I couldn't in good conscience just hide in the dark while she suffered.

"Mommy! Help me!"

"SHUT UP!"

I cringed, as the air was flooded with another ear splitting thwack, followed by more screaming. A tear ran down my snout. That was it. That was the final straw. I turned around, and bolted towards the guard holding the chain.

"Stop it!!!" I yelled. "Leave that filly alone!!!"

The instant I opened my mouth, the guards, Hannah, and her mother all looked up and stared directly at me. I continued running, until I was a hoof away from the guard holding Hannah captive. Glancing down at her, I immediately spotted the fresh blood seeping out of her back where she had been flogged. The guard looked at me, then glanced at the screens that surrounded us, then back to me. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

"You!" He hissed, fixing me with a glare. Despite the mask, I could still tell he was giving a glare that read 'I'm going to kill you, you fucking idiot.' Way to go, Jason. From his perspective, showing my face to not one, but three guards must have been a move that made me look like a moron. To be fair, I kinda was. I might as well had jumped in front of their car and screamed 'Arrest me dipshit!' Instead, I ignored his threatening glare. I stomped my hooves into the ground, and gritted my teeth.

"Let... her... go!" I demanded. The guard just stared at me and said nothing. He was most likely thrown off at my questionable decision to show myself so willingly, despite apparently being the most wanted criminal in Manehattan currently. "I'm not going to ask twice."

There was a moment of silence before he reacted. Still holding onto the chain with his levitation, he dropped his whip and approached the closest streetlight, and used the chain to tie the filly up. Making sure the chain was secure, he turned his attention away from her and stormed back towards me.

"Mommy, I'm scared!" said Hannah, as she struggled against the chain that was tightly wrapped around her and the pole.

"Hannah!" The mother yelled, trying to break free from the guards that were still restraining her.

"Don't let her go," the guard in front of me said. "When I'm finished with Jason, it will be their turn."

"Yes sir," one of the other two guards replied. My guard looked back to me.

"Jason," he said. "You are under arrest." I didn't need to ask why, but if he knew me at all, he would know that I wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Yeah," I said confidently. "I don't think that's gonna happen."

He pointed to the hover-car with his hoof. "Get in the car," he said. "Now!"

"Wow," I said, smirking, trying hard not to laugh at him. "You actually think that just because you pointed at the car, I'm going to get in it. Well, are you in for a surprise. You want me, come and get me."

He didn't hesitate. He launched towards me, attempting to tackle me to the floor. He dived head first into the ground as I jumped to the left. I was about to jump on top of him when he grabbed my ankle with his magic, and in one swift motion I had been flung upside down and landed back first onto the pavement. Before I had the chance to get up, he pressed his forehoof on my chest, pinning me down. He leaned down until he was right in my face.

"You're coming with me," he said. When the opportunity provided, I kicked him in the face with my hind leg. Hard. His head yanked backwards in response to the pain, without removing his hoof from my chest. I kicked him again with my other hind leg. He jumped back, holding his face to his hoof.

"Oh God!" he grunted and mumbled. "Ow!" While he was distracted, I took my chance to get back up. As I regained my balance, the guard slammed his hoof into my face. I staggered backwards before falling over. Within seconds he was on top of me, ready to either drag me into the car, or just kill me on the spot. However, I had one last trick up my sleeve. While I felt bad for doing this in front of the kid, it was the only way I was going to save her.

"Hannah," I said glancing at her. She looked back at me. "Please, close your eyes. I really don't want you to see this, okay?"

She did exactly as I requested. While she was looking away, I made my move. I pulled my knife out of its holster, and before the guard had time to react, I slid the blade across his neck. He instantly jumped off me, grasping his neck with his hoof. The gash in his neck was bleeding profusely, and it was leaking. He gagged and coughed, before collapsing dead onto the floor. After pulling myself back onto my hooves, I slid the dagger into its holster. The remaining two guards stared at the fresh corpse on the pavement, and eyeballed me. It was at that moment that I realised, I'd just pissed them off. They threw the mother into the middle of the road before sprinting towards me. I watched as the one on the right was talking into his walkie talkie as he ran.

"Code red, we have spotted Jason, I repeat, we have spotted Jason! Requesting emergency backup immediately."

Great. Just what I needed.

With little time to react, I grabbed my gun with my hoof, aimed at the right one's face, and pulled the trigger. He dropped dead in his tracks, toppling into a heap on the ground. Without hesitating, I did the same to the one on the left. He went down just as easily. Neither of them were breathing, and it was a safe bet that they were both dead. I turned back towards the filly, who had just opened her eyes. Putting away my gun, I ran towards her.

She was still crying, most likely from the pain on her back, and the shock of seeing that I just killed three ponies in cold blood. She saw me, and immediately struggled, as if she was afraid of me. I reached out and brushed my hoof through her mane reassuringly.

"It's alright," I said quietly, and calmly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to get you out of here. Okay?" She nodded, still frowning, but she remained still as I went around to the other side of the pole. The guard had tied a very simple but tight knot around it, but using my teeth, I was able to untie the knot within a few seconds. I walked back to the filly, who was still tangled in the chains despite being separated from the pole. Once again, using my mouth, I removed the chains over her head until she was completely free. Seeing that she was still shivering with fear, I knelt down to her level so I could see her eye to eye.

"Are you alright?" I spoke in a very calm, and quiet voice. One that sounded like it was full of compassion, and genuine concern.

She nodded, before bolting for her mother, who had recovered from being shoved onto the street.

"Mom!"

"Hannah!"

Before I knew it, the filly had reunited with her mother. My heart melted as I watched the two of them together. They were huddled together, clutching to each other as hard as possible, and crying into each other's shoulders. There was no doubt in my mind they were tears of both shock, and relief. The mother was slowly swaying from side to side, gently combing her hoof through Hannah's mane.

"It's okay, Hannah. Mommy's got you," she whispered, as she embraced her tears. After a few heavy breaths from her crying, she looked up towards me. "Thank you. Thank you, so much, for saving my daughter."

"You're welcome," I said, choking up myself. Seeing these two together like this, a family reunited and clutching into each other, reminded me of the last time I saw my parents. Recollecting upon my own parents brought back many painful memories. Sniffling, I tried to snap them out of my mind before I could get too emotional. My focus was supposed to be on them. "Listen, it's not safe here. There will be more guards coming, and as you can tell by the screens, they're especially after me. I strongly suggest that all three of us get out of here immediately."

The mother nodded and ran off, with Hannah riding on her back. As they turned around a corner and disappeared behind a building, I observed the three corpses around me. It was about time I got out of here myself. I didn't want to meet these guy's friends when they inevitably got here, considering I'd just added to the list of reasons why these bastards would want me dead.

Turning my head back towards the alley I came through, I was about to run back down when something caught my eye. A golden reflection was flickering in my eye. I looked down to see what it was. On the ground, in the middle of a puddle, was a small, golden locket in the shape of a heart. It had a thin chain in a matching colour to go around somepony's neck, and the locket itself was decorated by a smaller heart made out of tiny diamonds. While I was no expert on rocks or jewellery, I was convinced they were real. The locket was beautiful, certainly something that didn't belong abandoned in a wet puddle in the middle of the city streets. Although, it did leave me wondering. Was this here before? I could have sworn that it wasn't there a minute ago.

I bent down and picked it up with my hoof, lifting it out of the puddle. The golden heart dangled before my eyes as I held it in mid air. It was dripping with water, making tiny splashes in the puddle below with each drop. Despite being wet, the gold still shone through. I brushed the locket into my fur, attempting to dry it, but my fur was completely saturated from the rain, so I didn't think I did a very good job. Getting it as dry as possible, I opened the locket up and looked inside. Inside was a coloured photo of what seemed to be a family of four. A mare, a stallion, a colt that looked like he was only born a few months ago, and a filly. The stallion and the colt looked unfamiliar, but I immediately recognised the filly and the mare. This was Hannah's. She must have dropped it when the guards attacked her.

I looked down the street where they had just disappeared. There was no point in trying to find them. I had to get back to the hideout, and they had gone in a completely different direction. Besides, being a wanted criminal in Argo's eyes meant there was going to be danger wherever I went. It just wasn't worth the risk. But I couldn't just leave it there. Deciding to hold onto it, I gave the locket one last look before placing it into my saddlebag, promising myself that I would return it to her if I ever saw her again.

At that moment, my ears twitched in response to an unwelcome sound. Sirens. There were more guards coming, and I didn't want to be here when they arrived. Upon the sight of red and blue lights illuminating buildings nearby, I turned back towards the same alley of which I came, and booked.

By the time I made it back into the alley, the guards were already parking their cars and investigating the corpses of their fellow teammates. I remained hidden, hoping my dark fur would be enough to camouflage me in the darkness. While they were distracted with the bodies, I slowly made my way through the alley, trying my hardest not to make any noise. Even the tiniest noise with my hoof would have been enough to trigger them into searching this alley.

Eventually, I safely made it to the other side undetected. I scanned the sky for any hover-cars driven by guards. Unable to spot one with a search light or set of sirens, I took it as my chance to run as fast as I could.

After running for what seemed to be three blocks, I rested against the wall of another alley, completely exhausted. Panting hard, I removed the saddlebag from my back, and pulled out my water bottle. Good grief. The bottle was just about empty, and only a few millimeters of water remained. Opening the lid, I tilted my head back with my mouth open wide, and tipped the bottle completely upside down. A tiny bit of water fell into my mouth and down my throat, and then nothing. I tapped the side of the bottle with my hoof, but nothing happened. Giving up, I placed the lid back on and slipped it back into my saddlebag. I would have left the bottle standing up and attempted to use the rain to fill it up, but that would have taken way too long, and the wind most likely would have blown the bottle away anyway.

At that moment, my Hooficator beeped, with a tiny red LED light in the corner flashing in sync with the beeps. I lifted my fore leg up and opened the flap at the top to reveal the touchscreen, and see what it was reacting to. As I did, the touchscreen had a message in yellow pixelated text placed at the top of the screen.

Video Call Request: Ethan

I used my other hoof to tap Accept. The screen went static for a few seconds, before a brown coated Earth Pony came into view. He had a black mane that was so messy it made my mane look tidy in comparison. I recognised that face anywhere. I smiled, happy to finally see him, and he seemed just as glad to see me. His cyan eyes lit up as he smiled at the sight of me.

"Jason!" Ethan's voice was energetic, and sounded both optimistic and relieved to see me. "How's it going buddy?"

"I've had better days," I said, cautiously looking down either side of the alley to make sure I hadn't been followed. "How about you?"

"Well, nopony was shot today, so that's a bonus," he said with a smirk on his face. I chuckled in response. His statement was followed with a sigh, as if to say there was a 'but' . "Unfortunately, none of us had any access to food today, so we all had to go without."

"That sucks," I said, as my stomach growled.

"Some of us also got into a brawl with some guards."

"Tell me about it," I said, remembering what had just happened to me fifteen minutes ago.

"We're all okay, but Ricky got injured during the fight." My ears perked up and my eyes widened in response.

"Is he alright?"

"He's going to be fine," he said calmly. "It's just a flesh wound. His injury isn't lethal, and has already been attended to. He's currently resting on the couch. He should be fully recovered in a few days."

"That's good to hear," I said. "How about the others?"

"Kyle is just sitting on the couch with Ricky, and Sarah is putting Charlotte to bed. Boy, Sarah's worried sick about you."

"Can't say I'm too surprised," I said. "You tell her I'm on my way home. What about water?"

Ethan's ears dropped. "Well, water levels aren't critical. Yet. But we're on our last tank, and we're definitely running out. I'd say it will be empty within the next week, which means somepony's going to have to get more before that happens." He sighed before he continued. "But the real reason I called you is to, well, honestly see if you're still alive. Seriously, where the hell are you? You were due to return here hours ago."

"I know, I know," I said. "I've been... caught up. Getting back has been a lot more difficult that it normally would be. There are guards that are now actively looking for me."

"No shit they're looking for you," said Ethan, as he gave me a dead serious expression on his face. "All day I've been hearing stories about random ponies being interrogated by guards, being asked if they've seen or know you. There are wanted signs and posters all over the streets. You're on front page news, and the guards are fucking everywhere! What the hell have you done to them? Because you've only been gone for about three days, and already the guards have gone nuts trying to find you."

"Well," I said, preparing to reveal to him what I had just been doing for the past few days. "Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that I successfully stole the T.S.D. from them, and now they're kinda pissed."

Ethan's eyes widened. He didn't expect that answer. "No way!"

"Yeah," I said. "It's right here in my saddlebag." I grabbed my saddlebag and took out a hard, black briefcase, lifting it in front of the camera in my Hooficator to show him.

"Are you sure this is the real thing? Have you looked inside it?"

"Yes, I have," I confirmed. "I'm telling you, this is it. I've got it right here. Besides, do you really think the guards would be going so out of their way to capture me if it wasn't real?"

"YES!" Ethan screamed, punching his hoof into the air. In the background I could vaguely hear Ricky talking from the couch.

"What? What happened?"

"He's got it guys!" Ethan yelled to the rest of the group in the hideout, with a fresh burst of excitement in his voice. "Jason's got the T.S.D!" In a split second, what was a minute ago a dead silent hideout, erupted with cheering and applause. After the excitement died down Ethan turned back towards me.

"Maybe now we finally have a chance at winning this war."

"Maybe," I said biting my lip, and brushing the back of my mane with my free hoof. His use of the word 'war' reminded me of my incident with Hannah and the guards.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"What is what?" I asked, trying to brush it off.

"Something's clearly on your mind. Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Umm... no," I said.

"You hesitated."

"Okay, fine! I saved a filly from being abducted by a guard today!"

Ethan's face instantly went from a look of concern to shock. "Wait, you did what?"

"I spotted a filly being kidnapped by one of the guards on my way home," I said. "I saved her life."

Ethan facehoofed himself. "Dude, you've got to be smarter than that. You can't risk your life for insignificant shit like that. Do you understand? Goddammit Jason, you could've gotten yourself killed! What were you thinking?"

"I had to do something!" I said. "She was just a filly!"

"It doesn't matter."

"She was just, a filly!" I restated. "A child, who appeared to be no older than the age of six!"

"Jason, this happens to hundreds of kids, every single day! Hell, it happened to you, remember?"

"Don't you get it? That's why I did it! So other innocent foals don't have to experience what I went through at their age. Kids deserve better. Yes, this shit happens every day, but that doesn't make it right!"

"I'm not saying it does, but having the T.S.D. in our possession means we finally have a chance at winning this war, making it just as valuable as the life of a filly. By sacrificing one filly today, we could be saving a hundred more tomorrow. What if you were caught and killed? That would've been it! Our one chance to put an end to Argo's tyranny, gone, just like that! By saving one small filly, you put our chances of winning this war in jeopardy. One filly was not worth risking an entire war over. I'm sorry, Jason, I know your intentions were good, but what you did, was unacceptable.

"Ethan," I said, taking a deep breath. "I was hiding in the darkness of an alleyway as I watched an innocent six-year-old filly being flogged in the back by a whip made of barbed wire, as she cried out for her mother screaming in pain, with blood seeping out of her back. I watched as all of this was happening right before my eyes, while she was being tangled in chains, and dragged away from her mother, knowing full well that she was never going to see her again. I couldn't just stand there and let her lose her family the way I lost mine." I could see the impact of what I just said in Ethan's face, as he let it sink in. "Tell me, you would do the same thing if you were in that situation."

"I-"

"Would you?"

Ethan hesitated for a minute, and sighed. "I don't know. Maybe, possibly not, I'm not sure. Look, the point is, you shouldn't have taken that risk. Listen, we don't have time to argue right this moment. We'll talk about this when you get back."

"Fine." We both took another deep breath. There was a minute of silence before Ethan decided what to say next.

"So, where are you now?"

"I'm currently in Midtown. I just passed Time Square about fifteen minutes ago. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I sure hope so. Please hurry."

"I will. See you when I get back."

"See you."

Ethan disabled the video call, causing my screen to go blank. I closed the flap and leaned against the wall, letting out a sigh. It was probably best for me to head back like I promised I would. Besides, it would be great for me to finally get out of the rain. I opened the flap of my Hooficator again, and selected the 'Map' feature in the menu. The screen showed me a map of Manehattan, the blue dot in the centre representing me, and the green dot representing the hideout. Excellent! According to the map, I was only about two blocks away from the hideout.

I closed the flap again, as my stomach growled. It was then when I remembered that I hadn't eaten in twenty four hours, and I remembered that Ethan just said they didn't have any food. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a low humming. To my left, was a vending machine, and to my surprise, was still working. I walked in front of the machine and considered my options. Was it really worth spending the money? My stomach growled again. Yes, yes it was.

The machine was filled with bags of chips, chocolates, and soft drinks. I was tempted on purchasing a chocolate bar since it was the cheapest item in the machine, but I knew it wasn't going to be anywhere near filling enough, and I felt guilty for buying food and not sharing any with my friends back at the hideout. After spending a few minutes staring at the machine, I decided on a large bag of cheese flavoured Doritos. I looked at the price tag. Three bits. I rummaged through my saddlebags and pulled out all the money I could find. I was two bits short.

Underneath the machine, I spotted three bits. I leaned down and grabbed them with my hoof, and I added them to the pile. Leaving the extra one in my saddlebag, I inserted the three bits into the slot, and selected the Doritos on the number pad. I watched as the rings slowly rotated, pushing the Doritos closer, and closer, and closer to the edge... until it got stuck. Jesus Christ!

I tapped on the glass, hoping it would vibrate enough to the shake the bag off the shelf. The bag didn't budge. I pushed at it, and hit it harder. Nothing happened. Furious, I rocked the vending machine back and forth. Big mistake. The machine was leaning too far forward, and with a split second to react, I leaped to the side as the machine crashed right where I had been standing. With the glass sitting on the ground face down, that meant I had no way of getting to the Doritos. If I had been a Unicorn, this wouldn't have been much of a problem. I easily could have used levitation to lift it back up, but unfortunately I didn't have a horn. That meant I had to lift it by hoof.

I got down to the ground, grabbed onto the machine and used all of my muscles in an attempt to lift the machine off the ground. I tried to dig my front hooves under the machine and lift it, I tried to push it back up with my hind legs, but the machine remained on the ground. There was no use. It was too heavy. Good grief. There went my Doritos, and now I just wasted three bits. I gave up and proceeded down the alley, heading for the hideout. As I reached the end of the alley, I spotted a random Unicorn casually dropping a bag of chips into a trash can, and walking past it without giving it a glance.

As she passed, I made sure my coast was clear and ran for the garbage bin, and rummaged through it. I found the bag of chips that the Unicorn just dropped, and to my disappointment, the bag was empty. My stomach growled again as I chucked it to the sidewalk, and continued my rummaging. I found random pieces of junk like an empty can of Pepsi, a mouldy banana, and a half eaten hot dog with a little mustard on it. The hot dog was tempting, but I decided against it out of fear that it was contaminated from being in the trash.

I continued down the route I had planned out. If my calculations were correct, I was now only about a block away from the hideout. I turned around a corner and wandered down what I was sure was my hundredth alleyway by this point, only to stop dead in my tracks. I gulped at what stood in front of me. My path was being blocked by a guard. I tried to step back and hide behind the building, but it was too late. He'd seen me.

"Hey you!" The voice was slightly high pitched, and incredibly raspy. I was second guessing whether this guard in particular was male. "You there, the pony in black." I was the only pony around, so it was obvious he, or she, was talking to me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"It's okay," said the guard. "I just want to ask you some questions. Can you come over here for a sec?"

I looked around the street. Since I was out of Time Square, the screens that showed my face were nowhere to be seen. If I was lucky, this guard didn't know I was the pony they were looking for.

"Don't worry, this won't take long," said the guard. It was best to do what he or she wanted. Running off would've just made me look suspicious. Plus, looking at the guard to the side, I could tell that this guard was a Pegasus. If this guard took pursuit, I wouldn't stand a chance. Reluctantly, I nodded and cautiously approached. I stopped when I was about a hoof away from him, or her. Probably a her.

"Recently, Argo has reported that a very valuable possession of his had been stolen by a pony named Jason Colby."

"First I've heard of it," I lied, shrugging.

"Have seen this guy around?"

"I'm sorry to say, but no," I said. "I don't even know who Jason is."

"That is, unfortunate," she said. "Well, if you hear of anything, than please notify us immediately."

"I will," I said, starting to think she was letting me off the hook.

"One last thing." Oh-oh. "May I ask where you're heading?"

"Home," I said quickly. "I'm going home."

"You seem to be carrying quite the load there," she said, looking at my saddlebags. Not a good sign. "What you got in there, anyway?"

"It's none of your business," I said, trembling.

"Why so secretive?"

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Just curious," she said. "I just figured that there was a chance you were carrying the T.S.D. with you." I tried to remain calm, despite my increasing heart rate. "Especially considering you look exactly like Jason. Seriously, between the description and images I've seen of him, the resemblance is uncanny."

I slowly began to back away, having trouble breathing controllably. "Okay, look, I really should be going."

"I trust in the fact you're aware of the consequences of lying to a guard," she said.

"Yes," I said, really starting to panic. "Why would I lie to you?"

"I know it's you, Jason! You have stolen the T.S.D, you have interfered with another guard's plan for a filly, and you have murdered three of Argo's servants! You're under arrest!"

Okay, that term was getting really old. Despite her threat, I was already outside the alley, and little did she know, I was a very fast runner. She may have been a Pegasus, but I was grasping onto to the small chance that I could potentially outrun her. After all, I had successfully outran guards in the past, why would she be any different?

"If you want to arrest me, you have to catch me first," I said confidently, smirking. The guard just walked towards me, before her wings burst open. I gulped.

"And, you think that's going to be difficult for me?"

"Umm, yes?"

The guard just stared at me. "Do you not know who you're speaking to?"

"No," I said. "It's hard to know who I'm talking to when they hide behind a mask."

In response to my comment, she grabbed the mask with her hoof and tore it off, allowing me to see her face. Shit! In front of me was a cyan Pegasus with rose coloured eyes, and a rainbow coloured mane. I quivered, as I continued to back away. While I had never met this pony in person, I had heard many stories about her. Despite only being around for a few months, she was already one of the highest ranking members of Argo's servants. She was known for being the most loyal follower of Argo, and worst of all, I had been told by my friend Ethan that she was the second fastest pony in Equestria behind Argo. From what I heard, attempting to outrun the one and only Rainbow Dash would be impossible. I hoped to God those rumours were false.

I placed a hoof in one of my saddlebags and shifted it around until it touched something rough and round. This was it! As Rainbow Dash slowly approached, I pulled out the grenade, pulled out the metal ring with my teeth, and threw it at her. Turning around, I ran as the grenade exploded behind me. The buildings around me were suddenly illuminated in a red, orange and golden glow, and my body temperature immediately increased. As I ran, I kept telling myself that I killed her. But from what I had heard about her, there was a really good chance that all I just did was piss her off.

I turned around a street corner, away from my pre-set route. I no longer cared which way I was going. There wasn't a chance in hell I was going to lead her to my friends. As I took a right turn, I instantly found myself caught in the centre of a searchlight being cast by a hover-car. The air was flooded with the sound of a pony talking into a microphone, coming from the car above me.

"Attention all guards, we have found Jason. I repeat, we have found Jason! Arrest him at any cost!"

That was when I realised that I was basically fucked. I picked a random direction and bolted. Running as fast as my hooves were willing to carry me. The hover-car above me followed, and was able to keep me in the centre of the searchlight with ease.

"Stop that pony!"

Ignoring the car above me, I continued running, holding onto hopes of my incredibly slim chance of outrunning them. Being an Earth Pony certainly had disadvantages. If I were a Unicorn, I'd easily be able to teleport to a different street and nopony would be the wiser. If I were a Pegasus, I'd be able to use flight to try to lose Rainbow Dash. However, even with the power of flight, it was quite likely she would still be a faster flyer, so flying would have backfired regardless. Being an Earth Pony also had its advantages. I had been in chases on hoof many times before when I was being chased by non-Pegasus guards, so I've had a ton of practise. Earth Ponies were also typically stronger than Unicorns or Pegasi, so the extra strength in my legs allowed me to be a faster runner than others normally would be.

I looked behind me, only to see Rainbow Dash flying straight for me. She was gaining on me. There was no point in trying to hide, since these guards would see me wherever I went. But judging by the speed of the car and Rainbow Dash's flying, it became clear to me that there was no way I was ever going to outrun these guys. I continued to run, turning at every corner, rapidly breathing, and constantly turning my head to see how far Rainbow was behind me. She was right at my tail!

My heartrate was still increasing, my panting uncontrollable, and I was sweating profusely. With Rainbow so hot on my trail, if I made one tiny mistake, or slipped up even remotely, I was done for. Having that knowledge caused shivers to shoot down my spine. I pushed myself to increase my speed, which caused me to stumble, slowing my down. Before I had a chance to recover, a pair of hooves wrapped around my waist, and before I knew it, my entire body was being hoisted off the ground and up into the air against my will. I was rising higher, and higher. My body shivered, as adrenaline rushed through my veins, my heart pounded at the rate of a machine gun, and I felt like I was going pale. She got me! She actually got me!

"Gotcha!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "You're coming with us!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it you bitch!" I said.

I grabbed my knife and swung it at her head. She dodged the blade, accidentally dropping me in the process. There was an instant burst of high pressured wind, as I plummeted towards the rapidly approaching ground. This, was going, to hurt. I closed my eyes, and embraced myself. A sharp burst of pain consumed my entire body, as I slammed side first into the pavement below. I let out a loud scream in response to the pain. Seeing that Rainbow Dash was diving towards me, I shoved my knife back into its holster, scrambled to my hooves and kept running.

Right before she had another chance to grab me, I took a sharp turn around a left corner, and was now running down a steep hill. The extra speed, amongst the increase of gravity caused me to lose control of my hooves. I shortly found myself stumbling, and the next thing I knew, I was rolling and toppling down the hill, crashing onto my side on at the bottom. By then I just wanted to lie there and give up, but Rainbow Dash was still after me. She was flying down the hill, and in a few seconds she would catch me again, and I was in no shape to survive another fall like that. My only way out of here was if I found some way to slow her down.

I quickly grabbed my gun, cocked it, and attempted to shoot her. Very little to my surprise, she dodged my bullets with ease, and was still rapidly approaching. There was only one trick I had left. I reached into my saddlebag, grabbed another grenade, removed the silver ring, and threw it at her. My aim was a direct bullseye, as the grenade hit Rainbow Dash right before bursting into flames. I quickly got back up to my hooves and continued to run. As I ran, I glanced behind me. Rainbow Dash was no longer following me. She had crashed onto the ground, and she had caught on fire. She was thrashing around on the ground, desperately trying to put the flames out. That ought to have kept her busy for a while.

While I had temporarily taken care of Rainbow Dash, I was still being followed by the searchlight, which had spotlighted my every movement up until now. It was way too high for me to be able to hit it with a grenade, so I had to use the next best thing. I slowed down to remove my gun from its holster, and shot the light underneath the car. The loud bang coming from the gun was followed by the light shattering and going out. With the light out, I doubted the driver of the car was going to have as easy of a time keeping up with my movements.

I slid the gun back into its holster and ran down the street, then turned into an alley. As I ran in, I looked behind me to see if I was alone. It seemed that I had lost them, but I trusted that neither of them were far behind. I searched desperately for somewhere to hide, and there was only one place in sight. A dumpster. The idea wasn't appealing, but I figured I'd be able to hide in there until I was positive the guards were gone. I opened the lid with my hoof, only to be immediately met with the stench. The smell was so bad, I had to pinch my nose with my hoof, but I didn't want to take any chances. So I climbed to the top before jumping in, and shutting the lid over the top of me.

Everything went pitch black, causing the smell to be all that I noticed. Not only was the stench terrible, but I was now covered in mouldy food, plastic bags and bottles, and a part of me speculated that there was literal shit in here. Despite being extremely uncomfortable, I remained perfectly still, not making a single sound, and listened intently to what was going on outside. I could hear hoofsteps, coming closer. Then I heard a muffled voice.

"I'm still here, Jason!"

Shit! It was Rainbow Dash. Jesus Christ, this pony never gave up! The hoofsteps drew closer, and closer, until it sounded like she was right next to the dumpster. I shut my eyes, held my breath, and prayed that she wouldn't look in here. That was when my Hooficator went off. The tiny light was flashing red, and it was beeping loudly. It was times like this when I wished these things came with a silent mode. Add that to the list of things to tell Ricky to upgrade if I ever saw him again. I opened the flap to hit Deny on the touchscreen, only to realise that it wasn't a video call request. It was a text message from Ethan. In the same yellow pixelated font, the message read Where are you? I closed the flap, hoping that would trigger the noise to stop, since that's what it was supposed to do. Nope! The Hooficator kept beeping.

"Shut, up!" I hissed, frantically trying to turn it off. As I successfully switched the Hooficator off, a loud creak was sounded as the lid above me opened. Guess who it was that opened it.

"There you are." Rainbow Dash was staring down at me, fixated with a sinister grin. It was a grin that only a serial killer would make. Thinking on the spot, I kicked her in the face with my hind leg, propelling her backwards. Taking it as my chance to escape, I jumped out of the dumpster, and ran out of the alley. As I expected, Rainbow Dash once again took flight in pursuit.

This pony just never knew when to quit, did she? A part of me considered just giving up and surrendering. There was just no way I was going to outrun her. But then I remembered Ethan, Ricky, Kyle, and Sarah. They were more than just my friends. They were family. Surrendering would be suicidal, and they still needed me. They depended on me. No. I wasn't going down without a fight. I was going to escape from Rainbow Dash that night, or die trying. My mind snapped back into focus, and I sped down the streets, fuelled with determination. I wasn't going to die. Not tonight.

I skidded around a left corner, only to meet face to face with a roadblock. I had to give it to them, the absurd length these ponies were going through just to capture me was admirable. I was just one Earth Pony running down the streets, and the fact they had to take things this far just to catch me made me feel very proud of myself at that moment. Despite the roadblock that was dead ahead, with no other streets to turn into, I didn't slow down. In fact, if anything, I sped up, until I was almost directly in front of it.

In a failed attempt at parkour, I came to a dead stop when I crashed, leaving me slumped on the roof of one of the many hover-cars parked on the ground to form the roadblock. As I recovered and stood up to get off the roof, I felt car vibrating under my hooves. The engine had been initiated, and it was rising! I instantly positioned myself, trying to remain balanced, as the car rose higher, and higher, and higher. Within seconds, the hover-car was at the same height as the rest of the traffic, which was about two thirds of the height of a typical skyscraper. I didn't dare attempt to jump off. A fall from this height would have undoubtedly lead to one fate. Death.

Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, the car I was standing on was now moving along with the traffic, making it much harder to keep my balance. As I gathered my balance, it wasn't long until I was able to remain steady. Luckily, Earth Ponies had a better sense of balance than Unicorns and Pegasi, which made remaining sturdy easier than the alternative. Just as I got the hang of it, that was when I noticed the car tilting to the left as it was turning. As the car turned, my hooves slid off the roof of the car, which had been made extra slippery because of the rain. As I slipped, I grabbed onto the side of the car with my forelegs, leaving the rest of my body suspended in thin air.

As I attempted to pull myself up, the rain loosened my grip, causing me to slip. For a moment, I was free falling, before I was able to grab onto the door handle on the other side of the car. Grabbing onto the handle was instantly followed by a click.

"SHIT!" I screamed, as the door swung open. I was now hanging onto the door handle of a hover-car that was flying almost completely vertically, leaving myself suspended in mid-air. My legs were dangling, as my front hooves were locked onto the handle, holding on for dear life. "SOMEPONY HELP!"

With each passing second, holding onto the handle was becoming harder, and harder. My hooves were growing incredibly sore. My tiring legs, combined with the rain was causing my grip to loosen. Any second now, I would lose my grip entirely. The handle would slip out of hoof's reach, sending me to plummet down to the concrete over a hundred hooves below. I hated to admit it, but there was no point in denying it. I was going to die.

"Enjoying the view?" asked a high pitched, raspy voice.

"Oh God, not you!" I groaned. Rainbow Dash had been following me, and she was now gleefully watching me dangling from the door of the car. My hooves were still slipping, and it would be mere moments before I'd slip and fall. Judging by her enormous smirk, it was clear to me she was enjoying what she was seeing.

"Need any help?"

Help? From her? Is she for real? I was about tell her to forget it, but before I could say anything, my hooves slipped. In an instant, I was free falling, and was now plummeting directly towards the pavement below. I don't know what possessed me to say it, but in my sudden state of panic, it just came out of my mouth.

"HELP!!!" I cried, which was followed by straight up screaming. There was no way she was going to save me after what I had done to her, her workmates, and her boss. With each passing moment, my speed increased. The wind was roaring loudly, and the G forces were sucking on every ounce of my body. With every blink, the pavement was coming closer, and closer. This was it. I closed my eyes and braced myself, knowing that I only had seconds to live.

My fall came to a dead stop, yet, I was somehow still alive. But how? I opened my eyes. I was still about a storey above the ground, but I was no longer falling. A pair of hooves had wrapped around my chest, which had broken my fall. Somepony had caught me. I looked up to see who it was. Oh, God. It was Rainbow Dash. Never before had I ever had such mixed feelings on a pony saving my life. On one hoof, I was grateful to know that I wasn't dead, but being caught by Rainbow Dash meant that she had won. I put up a good fight, but no matter how fast I ran, there was no denying it. She got me in the end.

She flew towards a nearby hover-car, that had been parked on the ground. She dropped to the ground with me still in her hooves, and shoved me into the backseat of the car before I had a chance to get away. So that was it. I had come all this way, and I fought so hard tonight, only just to get caught. Way to go, Jason.

Things became really quiet once the car got moving. Rainbow Dash was the one driving, and had ordered me to remain completely silent during the trip. Not that I had anything to say to her anyway. I just sat in the backseat, staring out of the window as I speculated my fate. There was no way I could escape. I was tightly strapped to my seat by an automatic seat belt, which was only controlled by the driver. In addition to that, we were still driving along the highway, so we were still a hundred hooves above the ground. It was also more than likely we weren't going to land until we had reached our destination. Speaking of which, where was she taking me anyway?

I leaned over to the side as far as I could, and peered between the front seats. The G.P.S. in the middle of the dashboard read Destination: Ponyville. Approximate Arrival Time: 3 Hours, 38 Minutes. I sighed. It was just as I feared. Ponyville was the territory of Argo himself. Rainbow Dash was most likely taking me to him so he could punish me directly. It was extremely likely he would be merciless. He was already racist against Earth Ponies as it was, so the fact I merely existed was enough of a reason for him to want to kill me, but the addition of what I had done to him was just the icing on the cake.

The strap in my seat belt tightened, forcing me to sit up straight again. Now that I knew how long it would take until we got there, the timer on the G.P.S. now felt like a counter of how long I had to live. There was only one thing I could do.

I waited until Rainbow Dash had committed all of her attention to her driving, and by that point we had already passed Fillydelphia. While she was concentrating, I slowly opened the flap on my Hooficator, careful trying not to make any noise. I turned it on, while checking to see if Rainbow Dash had noticed. She didn't even flinch, but I shifted my Hooficator into a position behind her seat, so she couldn't see what I was doing through her rear view mirror.

Once the main menu showed up on the touch screen, I selected the messages feature, and hit Send Message. What came up next was a list of names of ponies I had contact with. Without thinking twice, I chose Ethan. That's when I saw his Where are you? message that he sent earlier. Double checking to make sure Rainbow Dash wasn't looking, I typed my reply.

I've been kidnapped. Please help.

After hitting send, I carefully closed the touchscreen, and looked up. As far as I could tell, Rainbow Dash had no idea what I had just done. Now all I had to do was wait.

By this point, we were approaching Canterlot, which meant we were due to arrive in Ponyville very shortly. The rain had stopped, but according to the clock on my Hooficator, dawn wasn't for another hour yet. My Hooficator went off, triggering the flashing red light and the loud beeping. I frantically tried to turn it off, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash had heard it.

"What do you think you're doing?" she snapped, peering into her rear view mirror to see me.

"Nothing!" I said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.

"Then what's that noise?"

"It's my Hooficator," I said.

"Your what?" she asked. Since Hooficators were invented by Ricky, they were made exclusively for us, so it made sense to me that she didn't know what my Hooficator was or how it worked.

"This device on my hoof," I said, holding it up for her to see. "It goes off whenever somepony sends me a message with it. It's not me, it's whoever's sending me the message."

"Turn it off and ignore it," she said. I was already in enough trouble as it was, so it was probably best just to do as she asked. I opened the screen to turn off the alarm, but before closing it, I saw that Ethan had replied to my call for help.

On my way. Hang on.

As I closed the lid, a sensation of relief came over me, though I tried to hide it from Rainbow Dash. We were almost at Ponyville, and Ethan was way back at Manehattan. How long would it take for him to get to me? The ability to find me wasn't a concern to me, since he'd be able to use the tracking device feature in his Hooficator to get the exact coordinates for mine. If he found my Hooficator, then that would also mean he'd find me. However, considering the major distance between Manehattan and Ponyville, there was a strong chance that by the time he got here, he would already be too late. I just hoped that wouldn't be the case. Then an even worse thought occured to me. What if Argo found out that he was coming? He could have potentially kept me alive, just to use me as bait for a trap. That very concept immediately made me feel terrible for calling for his help. He could be caught and killed, and it would be my fault.

Ponyville. Considered to be the worst place in Equestria in every sense of the word. It was by far the most unpleasant, the ugliest, and most certainly the most dangerous. The Pegasi guards had covered the entire town sky with clouds. Not just normal clouds either. These clouds had been magically altered, creating a raw red and brownish colour during the day, and pitch black during the night. Nopony really knew the purpose of doing this to the sky, but most of my friends suspected he did it to scare off unwelcome guests. It was a theory I shared, and if it wasn't for me being held captive, the effect would definitely have been working on me.

Rainbow Dash parked the hover-car not far from Argo's fortress. The place was huge. It was a massive cobblestone castle that was five storeys high. There were stone arched windows wrapped around the entire castle on each floor. In the centre of the castle was a particularly tall tower, which is where I assumed Argo lived. The front door was a large arched metal door that was lit up by torches on both top corners of the door frame.

As Rainbow Dash turned off the engine, she turned around to look at me with a very serious expression.

"Now, Jason, listen to me very carefully." She looked directly into my eyes. "I'm going to come out and open the door for you, and I'm going to escort you to the castle. You are to comply with myself, and any other guard that gives you orders. You are to follow your instructions with no questions asked, and don't even think about trying anything funny. Remember, we're all armed, so if you try to run, we'll shoot you in the head. Do I make myself clear?"

I nodded. She made herself very clear. I knew how skilled these guards were. I may have gotten away from them once when I saved Hannah, but that was just luck. The memory of Hannah triggered a flashback of the moment I saved her, and the moment when I found the locket. I wished I had it with me, but Rainbow had both of my saddlebags, so I had no way of getting to it. Rainbow Dash pressed a button on the dashboard that released my seat belt. I just sat there, as she got out of the car, only to come around and open my door.

I stepped outside, while Rainbow grabbed my saddlebags from the front seat. Ponyville looked much worse in person than it did through the window. The sky was pitch black and the state of the town itself looked like Ponyville had suffered the apocalypse. Bridges that spanned over dried up rivers had been broken and destroyed. Everything from the grass, the pathways, and the buildings had been completely desaturated, almost completely lacking in any colour. The houses themselves were abandoned, and most of them had been smashed or were falling apart due to age or termites. Some of the buildings had been demolished completely, and only consisted of giant piles of broken wooden planks and rubble. It looked just as bad as I remembered. If anything, it was worse.

As Rainbow Dash escorted me to the castle, I took notice of children being terrorised by guards one way or another. One guard to my left was forcing a Unicorn filly to build a large statue of Argo with her magic, whipping her every time he felt like she was going too slow. To my right was a guard teaching a group of young colts how to shoot a gun, and individual targets had been set up for each of them. These were kids, being taught how to shoot guns. Now that was really messed up. Granted, Ethan had taught me how to use a gun myself at a young age, but that was purely for self defence against Argo's guards. Ethan and I lived by one code, that being that we'd never shoot a gun unless we absolutely had to.

Further down the road, just outside the castle, was a guard harassing a child. He was repeatedly flogging her with a whip, as she laid there crying.

"For the last time! Get-back-to work!" the guard yelled, flogging her again. A fully grown stallion jumped in front of her.

"That's enough!" he barked. "She's just a kid, give her a break!"

"And what gives you the authority to tell me what to do?"

"Nothing," the stallion hissed, gritting his teeth, and standing in front of the filly like a protective mother.

"Then step aside."

The stallion remained where he was standing, and gave the guard a stern look. "No! If you want the child, you'll have to go through me."

"As you wish," said the guard, pulling out a gun.

I immediately stepped towards the group to help them, but Rainbow Dash placed her hoof in front of me.

"Don't even think about it," she said. "Just ignore it, and keep going."

I reluctantly obeyed. I continued to follow Rainbow Dash. The doors opened as we approached, and we entered the building. That was when I heard the gun going off.

My eyes widened, I froze on the spot, as shivers shot down my spine. I tried to shake it off and continue, but I didn't dare to turn my head back and look. I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I was better off not looking, and drawing the conclusion in my mind that the guard just missed him, and there was only one bullet. Or better yet, maybe it was just a blank to give the stallion a scare.

As we entered the castle, what laid in front of us was a long stone hallway. The hallway was decorated with statues of Argo along the walls, with ribbons and flags hanging from the ceiling overhead. Dear God, Argo must have had a huge ego. I followed Rainbow Dash down the hall, until we reached a register at the very end. A Unicorn guard was sitting behind a registration desk, writing something down on a piece of paper with a quill. Judging by the shape of the jaw, I speculated this guard was a mare. She glanced over to Rainbow Dash, and seemed surprised by the sight.

"Rainbow Dash?" Yep, definitely a mare. "Is that you?"

"Long time, no see," said Rainbow Dash. Apparently she didn't come to Ponyville often. It seemed Manehattan was her home, and she had just brought me here for punishment.

"What are you doing here?" asked the mare at the registration desk.

"I'm just dropping off a prisoner," said Rainbow Dash, glancing over to me.

"I see," said the guard, taking notes on a fresh piece of paper. "Now, who is this guy?"

"This is Jason Colby, madam," said Rainbow Dash, sounding proud of herself.

"Jason Colby?" said the Unicorn, sounding flabbergasted. "As in, the Jason Colby? You actually caught him?" Rainbow Dash just nodded, smiling. "Impressive. Now then, what kind of room do you want to place him in?"

Rainbow Dash looked back towards me. I had a bad feeling I knew what she was thinking. She turned back to focus on the register.

"I'd like to place him in a maximum security vault, and afterwards, I wish to speak with Argo directly to negotiate his fate."

The register nodded. "Very well. I'll organise a cell for him immediately." She moved towards a laptop placed at her desk, and started typing. She then walked into a room behind the desk, and came back out carrying a key and a folded white sheet using a levitation spell. She walked around the desk to meet us face to face, and gave Rainbow Dash the key.

"Here's your key," she said as Rainbow Dash grabbed it. "The room is 1408."

"Perfect," said Rainbow Dash, turning to me. "Jason, before we lock you up, all of your belongings are to be confiscated."

I wanted to tell her to fuck off and run, but I knew how arguing would turn out. Arguing, or performing any type of escape attempt would result in a bullet in the back of my head. So instead, I did exactly as she requested. She already had my saddlebags, so I just had to give her my weapons. I undid the straps around my legs, dropping the holsters that contained my gun, and my dagger. Once they were on the floor, I kicked them towards her with my hoof.

"There," I said, indicating that I was done. Rainbow Dash gave me a disapproving look.

"All of your belongings!" she demanded.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "That's all I've got."

"Really?" asked the register. "Then, what's that on your leg?" She pointed to my Hooficator. Before I could say anything, Rainbow Dash answered.

"He calls it his Hooficator," she said. "I'm not entirely too sure what it is or what it does, but it must come off."

"I can't," I said, holding it up. "It's stuck to my leg."

"Bullshit," said Rainbow Dash. "Listen, either you remove that device from your leg, or we'll remove it for you."

"I'm telling you," I said. "It won't come off!"

"Okay then, have it your way," said Rainbow Dash, glancing over to the register. "A little help?"

The register nodded and her magic formed around her horn and my Hooficator. A sharp pain ran through my leg as she gave a violent tug in an attempt to remove it. Nothing happened. She pulled even harder, this time causing me to pull a muscle.

"Ow!" I yelled, as a sharp pain shot through my foreleg. The Hooficator remained on my leg. She gave one last tug, this time much harder than the previous two. Another sharp pain shot through my leg, and her pull was so strong, I partially skidded across the floor. However, my Hooficator was still on my leg, closed, locked, and just as secure as ever before.

"Hmm," said the register, studying my Hooficator, seeming quite perplexed. "It seems that one cannot remove this thing just by slipping it off."

"I tried to tell you," I said. "But you didn't listen."

"But," she said. "I think I know how to get it off."

"How?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"See at the end of the device?"

"Yeah?"

"It's a keyhole. That means it needs to be unlocked if it's to be removed."

Rainbow's face lightened up, and gave me another sinister smirk. I wasn't giving up that easily.

"So, Jason," said Rainbow Dash. "Where is it?"

"Where is what?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Where is the key to your Hooficator?"

"What if I told you I left it back at Manehattan? Or that I got rid of it? Would you seriously go all the way back just to get it?"

"Check his saddlebags," Rainbow Dash ordered, ignoring me.

The register selected one of the two bags and rummaged through it.

"I see you've got a lot of grenades here," said the register, without looking away from the bag. "What were you intending on using them for?"

I didn't answer. She continued to rummage through the bag, and pulled something out.

"Hey," she said, sounding confused. "What are you carrying this for?"

She pulled out something small and golden. My eyes widened. It was Hannah's locket.

"PUT THAT BACK!" I exploded. The register jumped and turned to me, startled by my sudden raising of voice.

"Why exactly would I want to do that? Let me guess, it belongs to someone close to you?"

It felt weird saying that about Hannah considering I had only known her for a few minutes, but I made a promise that I would return it. Even if I never saw her again, there was something about that locket. Something I found... comforting.

"I've got to admit, whoever gave it to you does have nice taste. I think I'll keep it."

"You can't take it!!!" I yelled. "It's not yours!"

The register just placed it into her pocket. "It is now."

I wanted to protest, but there was nothing I could do. She went back to rummaging through my saddlebags, until she seemed to have reached the bottom.

"Ah-ha!" she said in triumph, pulling out a small, black, metal key. "I found it." She walked over to me, bringing the key right up to my face. "Now, take it off."

I just stood there for a second, before grunting at her, and snatching the key.

"Fine!" I snapped. With my free foreleg, I inserted my key into the hole in my Hooficator, and rotated it counter-clockwise. The rotation was followed by a click. My Hooficator loosened, and slipped off my leg with ease. "There, it's off."

"And your jacket," said the register. I grunted, before tearing my jacket off and throwing it onto the ground.

"Excellent," said the register, nodding approvingly. She used her levitation to gather all of my belongings that I had dumped to the floor, and placed them into a box in the corner of the room. She then turned back towards me. "Rainbow Dash and I will escort you to your room now."

I had no idea how long it took to get to the room. We traversed through a seemingly endless maze of corridors, turns and stairs. We were well and truly underground, and the hallways were only lit by fire torches on the walls. The walls were grim, and dark. The empty halls and corridors amplified our hoofsteps, but what bothered me about these dungeons the most was the smell. This place smelled like ponies had died in here. Knowing the kind of ruler Argo was, that concept didn't sound too far fetched.

After what seemed like forever, we eventually reached the room marked 1408 on the door. The register unlocked the big, heavy, metallic door, and pushed me inside. The room was an empty cell, that consisted of nothing but white, soft padding.

"One other thing," said the register. I turned around. She was still holding onto the white sheet from earlier. At the back of my head, I had been wondering what the point of that sheet was, but something told me that I really didn't want to find out. "Before we lock the door, you need to put this on. It's a necessary precaution, that is required so we can avoid any... problems." She unfolded the sheet, only to reveal that it wasn't a sheet at all. It was a straightjacket. I shivered, backing away from her and the jacket.

"No way," I said, backing myself up into corner of the room, as far away from it as possible. "I'm not wearing that." In an instant, my entire body became paralysed, as it was covered in glowing magic, coming from the register's horn. I couldn't move. She walked closer, and closer, before slipping the jacket over my head and body against my will. My forelegs naturally slipped into the sleeves, and she used her magic to tightly wrap my arms around the jacket. After tying the knot, she backed away, and left the room. Rainbow Dash grabbed onto the door, and looked back at me.

"You will be staying here until Argo and I come to an agreement on your fate," she said, before slamming the door. I listened to the door bolts sealing it shut, and then there was nothing. Not a single sound could be heard. I was alone. I sat there in the corner of the room in the fetal position, sniffing. I knew full well what was going to happen to me. I was going to receive one of two punishments. Either I was going to be given a life sentence of imprisonment in this room, or worse, I was to be terminated. Feeling completely and utterly hopeless, I buried my face into my restrained forelegs, and cried.

Chapter 2: Evasion

Hopelessness. That was honestly all I could feel. I couldn't move, being restrained by a straightjacket and locked up in a padded room. Many hours had ticked by; I was starving, my lips were cracking, and I was in desperate need of water. The lack of windows, or anything pleasant to look at to take my mind off things, just made this place all the more depressing. But worst of all, what was taking the biggest toll on me was the isolation. There was nothing, and nopony here but myself. I was alone. There wasn't a single pony in sight, and it was quite likely I was going to die alone. I sat there in the fetal position, crying into my forelegs. Tears were pouring down my snout, and onto the sleeves of my jacket.

My sobs came to a sudden stop when I heard what I believed to be the door being unbolted. I opened my eyes and looked up, sniffling. The door slowly opened, and behind the door was a guard. If I was right in the theory that I was to be terminated, then it was safe to assume this was my executioner. He eyeballed me, but said nothing. Judging by the way he was moving his head, it seemed as though he was motioning me to get up. I just looked down at the sleeves of the straightjacket, then back to him, thrusting my forelegs out as best I could. It seemed like he got the memo. He walked over to me, grabbed me by the jacket with his foreleg, and dragged me out into the middle of the room. He then walked behind me, and used his hoof to untie the knot at my back. The knot loosened, and I quickly tore the jacket off as fast as I could. The second I was out of them I stretched out my forelegs, feeling a false sense of freedom.

Before I knew it, the guard was pointing a gun at my head. Why was I not surprised? He escorted me through the maze of corridors. After taking countless turns, flights of stairs, and accidently encountering dead ends, I was getting the impression that he didn't know where he was going. I couldn't blame him. Anypony could get lost in this labyrinth of a dungeon. If I were trying to traverse this place by myself, finding the exit would be practically impossible.

Eventually, we made it out of the dungeons, and into a hallway on the first floor. The second we left the dungeons, the smell instantly improved. Instead of smelling like rotten corpses, these hallways had a somewhat sweet scent to it, almost like honey. This part of the castle was made of wood, at least the interior design was. Torches were spread across the entire hallway, adding both warmth and light to the environment. Due to the slight discolouration of the fire, I suspected these torches had been altered by magic to prevent setting the castle on fire. I listened to the clomping of our hooves as we walked on the wooden floorboards. Every so often, I heard hoofsteps coming from behind us, but every time I turned back to look, there was nopony there.

Despite the more pleasant setting, I had a growing sense of trepidation at the possibility of being followed. The guard to my side was darting his head everywhere. It seemed like he was multitasking, both watching me like a hawk, while also paying close attention to the room numbers marked at the top of each door.

What I really wanted to know was, why wasn't he saying anything to me? All of the other guards I had encountered previously seemed to have no problem talking to me, but the entire time I had been with him, this guy hadn't said a word. I hesitated for a moment, afraid to ask, then cleared my throat.

"So, you mind telling me where we're going?" He continued to walk, keeping a sharp eye on the numbers on the doors. He didn't even give me a glance. Either he didn't hear me, or he was just purposefully ignoring me. I tried again. "What's happening with me? Where are you taking me?" Once again, he didn't answer. I guess he isn't the talkative type.

He suddenly shoved a hoof in front of my chest, signaling me to stop. He was staring at a room to our right. The room was marked A113. He approached the door, pulled out a set of keys, and unlocked it. I obediently entered the room after him.

The room was what appeared to be some sort of office. There was a blackboard in the front of the room. In front of the board was a desk with a pile of textbooks and a laptop. Along the left side of the wall were large bookshelves, all full to the brim with textbooks. Alongside the right of the room were a bunch of what I believed to be filing cabinets. However, there were no signs of any guns, knives, or a tall wooden structure with a noose hanging underneath it. If I was about to be executed, why would he bring me here?

I turned back to see what he was doing. He had locked the door from the inside, and shut the blinds. That told me that he didn't want anypony else seeing whatever it was he was about to do to me. As soon as he made sure we were alone, he rushed over to the filing cabinets and started rushing through them. Draw after draw, he continued searching, until he suddenly stopped. Finally, he spoke.

"Ah ha! There they are!"

I probably should've been asking what exactly it was he was looking for, but what I really wanted to know was why his voice sounded so familiar? I decided to ask him the former.

"Wait, what's going on? What were you looking for?"

Ignoring me, he grabbed a foreleg full of items and carried them over across the room, dropping them right in front of my hooves.

"Hurry Jason. We don't have much time. Put these on. Quickly."

Okay, I had definitely met this guy before. I looked down at the items he had dropped in front of me. I couldn't believe it. It was my stuff. My gun, my dagger, my saddlebag—which still had all of its grenades, my jacket, and my Hooficator. The holsters for my gun and dagger slipped into place nice and firmly on my legs. I put on my jacket, before grabbing my Hooficator, which was met with a satisfying click as the guard locked it onto my left foreleg. I checked my saddlebag before putting it on, to make sure it still had everything. I still had my grenades, my water bottle and... wait... where was the...?

My body grew tense, and my heart raced, as I dug through the entire saddlebag panicking. My hoof came to contact with a small wooden frame with glass in the middle. My heart calmed down, and I sighed with relief. Thank god, I still had it. I still had... her. A great weight was lifted from my shoulders, upon the realisation that she was still with me. I continued to search the bag, and much to my dismay, the T.S.D. was missing. So was my one extra bit, and—possibly worst of all—Hannah's locket. Once I finished slipping everything back on, I looked towards the guard.

"I don't understand," I said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Why are you helping me?"

The guard just stared at me, leaving me to wonder if I had just made a terrible mistake. Eventually, he reached for his mask, and pulled it off. I felt an enormous burst of relief when I saw who it was.

"Because that's what friends do," he said, smiling at me.

"Ethan!" I yelled in a sudden burst of excitement.

I launched towards him, hugging him. It's not something I would have normally done at the best of times, but considering I had just spent the last few hours thinking I was going to die, I was just finally happy to see my friend again. Judging by the way he returned the hug, it seemed like he understood. After we separated, I looked at his foreleg.

"Where's your Hooficator?" I asked.

"In my saddlebag," he said, removing it and pulling his Hooficator out. "I had to take it off. Disguising myself as a guard was the only way I was going to be able to get to you without getting caught by... well... actual guards. Not to mention it was the best way to gain access to the keys. Still had to bring it with me to find you."

"I know," I said, thinking about the tracking device feature. "That's another thing, how did you get here so fast? As far as I know, I've only been here for a few hours, and Manehattan is miles away from here."

Ethan looked into oblivion, rubbing the back of his mane in the process. "Yeah, about that. I may or may not have successfully stolen one of their hover-cars and used it to drive here."

"You didn't!"

Ethan nodded. "Look, Jason, we're running out of time. If we want to avoid capture, we need to get out of here. Now."

"Wait, where are we going?"

"Home."

Home? After everything that I had gone through? It just didn't feel right to me.

I hesitated. "I can't go back. Not yet."

Ethan's eyes widened, taken aback by my response. He probably had anticipated for me to be eager to get home. "What are you talking about? Why not?"

"Ethan, they have the T.S.D," I said sternly.

"Forget the T.S.D!" Ethan snapped. "Can't you see that thing is bringing us nothing but trouble? First off, have you forgotten how many friends we have lost trying to find out about it? Second, ever since you stole it in the first place, Argo and his guards have gone insane trying to track you down, and now he's actually succeeded. If it wasn't for me saving your ass last minute, Argo would have killed you for sure, and we're in this position in the first place because you stole that bloody device, may I remind? Third, we have no idea where it is. It could be anywhere in this castle. What's your plan? Are you suggesting we blindly wander around this castle until we find it? Yeah. Don't see that plan backfiring miserably. If we get caught, Argo will off us both on the spot. Is that really what you want?"

He was right. If I hadn't stolen the damn thing, we wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with. Then I stopped to think, remembering what it was capable of. Dark memories flashed before my eyes, reminding me of why I stole it in the first place. Then I remembered the locket. I couldn't just leave it here. I just, couldn't.

"Yes, Ethan," I said, looking back at him. "You're absolutely right. The fact I stole that device is the reason we're in this mess to begin with, but have you stopped to consider why I stole it in the first place? Have you forgotten how powerful that thing is?"

Ethan rubbed his mane with his hoof again. But I could see it on his face.

"With that device, Argo could potentially gain ultimate control of not just Equestria, but the entire universe. With the universe, and the spacetime continuum under his control, who knows what kind of damage he could do. I stole it to prevent him from doing any further damage, so you do do whatever you want, but I am not leaving without that device!"

Ethan hesitated and looked away, appearing to be conflicted on his choice. He looked back to me, as if finally coming to a decision.

"Alright," he said. "We'll do it. So, what's the plan? How are we going to find this thing?"

"I, don't know," I said, looking down to the ground. Ethan groaned and rolled his eyes. "Well that's just great."

Our conversation was cut short by banging at the door.

"Open up!" yelled a voice. "Listen here Jason, I know you're in there! Rainbow Dash is lookin for ya. And she-is-furious. Open the door, now!"

"What the hell are we going do?" I whispered in Ethan's ear. Appearing to have a plan, he motioned me to remain quiet, and approached the door.

"Don't worry," he said, pushing against it. "Everything's ahh, everything's under control, situation normal."

"What's Jason doing in there?" asked the guard behind the door. "He should have been up in Argo's office with him and Rainbow Dash by now."

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Ethan, as he slowly pulled out his gun. "You see, ahh, I, umm, he had escaped his cell, and I had cornered him in this room, but um, everything's perfectly alright now, we're fine, we're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"

"I'm calling reinforcements. Give the prisoner to us, and we'll be sure to return him to his cell until further notice."

Ethan's eyes widened. "Negative!" He said quickly, trying to think on the spot. "You see, ah, the hostage sir, he's, umm, he's hostile. You can't help, you'll ahh, you'll alienate him. This guy gets really aggressive when he's provoked. Just give me a few minutes to sedate him, he's largely, uh, very dangerous."

I rolled my eyes, wincing. Ethan was terrible at coming up with bullshit on the spot. It seemed like he was suddenly aware of that, because his gun was now cocked and loaded.

"Who is this?" asked the guard. "What's your serial number?"

Ethan froze. He obviously wasn't expecting this question.

"My serial number?" he said. "Oh, um, it's... err." Ethan swung the door open, shot the guard from the other side in the face, then slammed it shut again. "Boring conversation anyway. Jason, we're gonna have company!"

My mind was suddenly moving at a million miles an hour. If we were caught in here, we were done for, and if that guard hadn't already called for backup, other guards on duty most definitely would have heard the gunshot. If we were still in here when they got here, we were screwed. On the other hoof, we couldn't just blindly run out of the office with no plan or idea of where we're going. There were guards everywhere in this place, so making one tiny mistake would end both of our lives. We had to get out of here, but we also needed a plan.

"Jason!" Ethan yelled. "Did you hear what I said? Guards are coming for us. They know we're here. We must vacate this building immediately!"

I shoved a hoof in front of his face, signaling him to shut up. "Give me a sec!" I yelled. Ethan went silent, giving me time to think.

First and foremost, we needed to find the T.S.D. So it was just a matter of figuring out where Argo would hide it. As much as Ethan wanted to just get our asses out of here, it was extremely important we got that device back. There was a reason I stole it in the first place. It was for the protection of innocent lives. Innocent ponies, like Hannah. The thought of Hannah instantly reminded me of the locket. I had to get it back, but I didn't want to let Ethan in on that. He didn't seem like he was approving of the concept of risking our lives for the T.S.D, let alone a locket.

Focusing on what was important at hoof, I had to figure out where we were going to find them. Guards were after us, so hiding wasn't an option.

"Ethan," I said, finally speaking up. "Guards should be already on their way as we speak. You may want to get your weapons ready."

"Already got that covered," said Ethan. "So where are we going?"

Since the register sat at the front of the building, I decided to worry about getting the locket back on our way out, assuming she still had it. Which just lead to the T.S.D. 'Think Jason' I told myself mentally. 'If I were Argo, where would I hide the T.S.D?' If I were him, I probably would have placed it in a safe, or a vault, placed in or next to my bedroom, making it impossible to leave my sight. If Argo had done this, there was only one place I could imagine it would be.

"It's most likely that the T.S.D. is at the top of the tower in the centre of the castle," I said confidently. "We've got to hurry."

"What are you, crazy?" Ethan naturally seemed alarmed at my extremely reckless plan. "That's where Argo himself is! I'm honestly starting to think you want to get yourself killed."

"If we don't get that device back, hundreds of innocent ponies could die!"

"I know, I know," said Ethan. "So how are we going to get there? And more importantly, how are we going to get the device without being caught and slaughtered by Argo?"

"You're asking me? You're the one who busted in here. You probably know this place better than I do."

Right as I said that, I remembered how he got lost in the dungeons. Ethan groaned and rolled his eyes. "We'll just have to trust our instincts."

"I guess," I said.

We made our way to the door. Ethan peeped between the blinds through the window in the door.

"They're coming," he said, preparing his gun. "You ready?"

"No."

"Me neither. Let's go."

Ethan inserted the key into the door knob, and slowly rotated it. We simultaneously took a deep breath, before Ethan swung the door open. One step into the hallway, and already we had been spotted by a group of guards.

"There they are!" one yelled, pointing at us.

"Get 'em!" yelled another.

"Run!" Ethan yelled, as we turned right, and bolted down the hallway. The guards took pursuit. As we ran, the environment became much less silent than it had been a minute ago. Our hooves stomped on the wooden floorboards, which occasionally squeaked under our weight. We looked dead ahead, not daring to turn back to see how far away they were. At the end of the hallway, from what we could make out, was an opening that only gave us the option to turn right or left. Ethan frantically turned his head towards me, with a look of panic in his eyes.

"Jason, which way?"

Why was he asking me? I had as much of an idea of the castle layout as he did. I knew our target destination was the tower in the centre of the castle, but how the hell we were going to get there was beyond me. Either direction could take us directly towards it, and either direction could lead us in the exact opposite direction. So how was I supposed to know which one was the correct path? I had no idea, but what I did know was that I had only seconds to decide.

"WHICH WAY?" Ethan reiterated, his eyes so wide they were practically bulging. With no time to react, I said the first direction that came to my head.

"Left!" I yelled.

In response, we both skidded around the corner turning left, and continued down the hallway. The group behind us followed. Our next opening was a four way intersection, leaving us three directions to run.

"Go straight ahead!"

We ran across the intersection, ignoring both turnways. Coming up next was another opening that only lead left or right.

"Right!"

In front of us now was an opening that was identical to the last.

"Go left, go left... wait, right, no left," I said, struggling to decide.

"For Christ sake!" Ethan yelled. "Just pick one!"

"LEFT!"

We turned left, as Ethan glanced behind.

"They're gaining on us!"

"You do realise yelling every direction we take isn't helping if we're trying to lose these bastards?"

"Then how are we supposed to avoid accidentally separating?"

"Just-follow my lead!" I yelled, ever so slightly overtaking Ethan. Coming up was another intersection that only went two ways; right, or straight. I veered right and skidden around the corner. Ethan briefly slowed down, slightly thrown off by me turning so suddenly. At our next three way intersection, I veered right again.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Ethan sounded sceptical of the directions I was making.

"Not a fucking clue!" I yelled. We made three right turns, then made a left turn at a two way intersection, only to realise that I had just made a terrible mistake.

"Wow, great choice, Jason," Ethan deadpanned as we came to a stop. We were at a dead end, with nothing in front of us except for another office. The group of guards that were chasing us we at the other end, blocking the path we came. There was nowhere for us to go.

"I'm starting to think we should've gone right," I said, glancing towards Ethan. He rolled his eyes at me.

"No shit Sherlock."

"Okay then, so what do we do?"

The guards were coming closer. One thing for sure, we didn't make it this far just to get caught again. Without saying anything, Ethan opened the door behind us, pulled us into the room, and slammed the door shut. Ethan locked the door, as I searched around the room.

"You think the locked door is going to hold them?" I asked.

"Nope," said Ethan, pushing a wooden table in front of the door to barricade it. Since they know we're in here, I expect they're going to get in pretty quickly. That door was the only one in the room. Aside from that, the only other method of escape I could immediately spot was the window. I ran over to it and peeped out. The window wasn't going to work. We were at least three stories high, and a fall from this height would lead to serious injury, or worse, death. Jumping wasn't worth the risk. As I looked down to the ground, I saw the shadow of the castle cast onto the grass by the moon. To my right, was the shadow of the tower. I leaned further out. My entire upper body was sticking out the window, and I had to cling onto the windowsill with my hooves to stop me from falling out of the building entirely. I rotated myself so I could look as far up as I could without falling, and sure enough-the tower was in sight.

"I see it!" I yelled.

"What?" Ethan asked.

"I see the tower!"

If my calculations were correct, we were in the front left corner of the castle, so we'd have to head northeast in order to get to it. I slipped back into the room. Suddenly fueld with excitement and optimism, I had a much stronger urge and motivation to keep going.

"I know where we are," I said, with a look of excitement on my face. "We were going the wrong way." I pointed down the corner of the room in the same direction as the tower. "We need to be heading that way." Ethan didn't seem as enthusiastic.

"Are you seriously still thinking about that device?" he said. "Isn't your mind on anything else? Like trying to... oh... I don't know, not die?"

Did he seriously forget about the conversation we just had a few minutes ago?

"If we get that device back, we could potentially put an end to Argo's tyranny," I reminded him. "Don't you still want that?"

"Of course I do," said Ethan. "But if we're caught, our friends will be organising our funeral."

"Well Argo and his army are trying to kill us regardless," I said, pointing towards the door. The guards were rattling the knob, and banging on it. "We're Earth Ponies, just solely existing is a big enough reason for Argo to want us dead. I don't remember a single day where my life wasn't on the line. So we might as well try. Now that I know we have a chance, I'm not leaving without it."

Ethan sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"So do I," I said, staring at the ceiling.

"But we're still trapped in this office," said Ethan. "There's nowhere to go, unless you have a way for us to get out of here."

"Say no more," I said, still looking at the ceiling. "I have a plan."

Ethan looked up at the ceiling himself. "What are you looking at?" I didn't have to answer his question. Slowly, I saw a smirk grow onto his face. "Great idea Jason. I like your thinking."

The group of guards barged into the room, pushing the table out of the way with the door. They pointed their guns into the room, only to realise there was no sign of us. They frantically searched the room, tearing down bookshelves, tables and filing cabinets.

One of the guards-presumably their leader-looked furious.

"WHERE ARE THEY!?" he exploded.

"They're gone, sir," said another guard, as he looked out the window. "They're nowhere to be seen outside, so my guess is that they're still here."

"Still here?" said the first guard in disbelief. "How are they still here? Look at this place, there's nowhere for them to hide!"

"Well they're not Unicorns, they couldn't have just teleported."

"Well, let's stop and think. If we were Earth Ponies, and we were trapped in here, where would we hide?"

The guards looked around the room, till they noticed something peculiar—a brown mahogany chair that had been knocked over and left to lie in the center of the room. One by one their heads rose up to stare at the section of the ceiling directly above said chair, where a vent flap had been suspiciously unbolted.

"Shit!" yelled the leader. "Inform Argo! If they're in the vents, they could be anywhere in the castle by now. Block all potential exists. Now!

"Yes sir," the rest of the group said in unison, and ran out of the room. The leader stayed behind, as he continued to stare directly at the ceiling. The only thing between him and us was the flap Ethan had managed to close just before the guards stormed in.

I looked up to Ethan, and mouthed my lips to ask him a question.

"Can he see us?"

He must have understood me, because he moved his mouth in response. Reading his lips, I could work out his reply.

"I don't know."

At last, the leader looked down, only to pull out a gun from his side. Not good. Definitely not good. Besides the flap that behaved as an access port, the rest of the vent was hidden above the wooden ceiling. This made us practically invisible, but there was still a very serious danger of us getting shot. The guard cocked his gun, and everything went dead silent. Ethan and I looked at each other, holding our breaths in the eerie silence. We waited. Waited for the first strike, our bodies becoming more and more tense with each split second. We knew what was coming.

There was an ear bursting sound of miniature explosions coming from below, as bullets were rapidly spitting through the ceiling, and through the metal in the vents. The noise of the gun was accompanied by the sound of metal popping, as the amount of bullet holes suddenly appearing in the metal below us was increasing, and increasing. Bullets were wildly darting across the entire room, and bullet holes were continuing to appear across the entire vent that was exposed in the room. If he could see us, we both would have been killed by now.

As bullets continued to fire around us like an upside down meteor shower, one bullet shot across my waist, penetrating my jacket and removing some of my skin in the process. In an instant, I was under a tremendous stinging pain, as I felt blood slowly trickling out of my wound. My mouth was agape, my eyes were bulging, and I was breathing heavily. I fought my hardest with every ounce of the strength I had to not scream. I rolled onto my side, and applied pressure onto the wound with a forehoof. Pressing onto wound hurt, and I could feel the blood spreading onto my hoof.

The gunshots finally stopped. The guard yelled in frustration, and stormed out of the room. Ethan and I sighed, only for Ethan to gasp when he saw me on my side, with my bloody hoof pressing onto my waist.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not," I said. "I've been shot."

"Shit," Ethan said in a sudden state of panic. "Just keep applying pressure to it. It will slow down the bleeding."

I looked down the vent in the direction we needed to go. The vent was small, tight, and claustrophobic. The height and width only just barely large enough for us to squeeze through. I started dragging myself across the vent, with Ethan crawling behind.

It took forever, but we finally managed to get to the centre of the castle. By the time we got there, the bleeding had stopped, but my hoof and waist were now stained red, and I needed somepony to attend to my injury as soon as possible. In front of us was an opening that led to an elevator, possibly one of the only vent exits not to be guarded. We waited until the elevator was just one floor below us, before we crawled out of the vent and gently stepped onto the roof of the elevator. As we did, I listened to the hoofsteps of presumably a guard entering the elevator, and the door shutting behind him. Since we couldn't see him, we had no way of knowing which species he or she was. The elevator rose, taking us with it.

We stopped at the very top of the building. It was a tight squeeze. We had to lie down as low to the roof as possible, and even then the ceiling was still low enough to touch our backs. Despite the tight squeeze, there was still one vent available. We climbed into it, and crawled until we came to a dead end, with a flap underneath. We looked down, and peered through it. Down below was a large room with a king sized bed in the corner, and a table across its side. In the corner on the other side of the room was what appeared to be a safe, with a fitted closet to its left. Argo was at the door, talking to the guard that was just in the elevator moments ago. Ethan and I remained completely silent, as we eavesdropped on their conversation.

"I brought this for you," said the guard, passing Argo a small, black, briefcase. What exactly were the contents of that case? As I glanced over to Ethan, I could tell by his face that he was most likely asking the same question. "We all figured you'd want to keep it safe, so why not give it to you, so it can't leave your sight?" If these guards didn't want this thing out of Argo's sight, it was obviously something important.

"Thank you," Argo replied, accepting the briefcase, and holding it with his telekinesis. "Is that everything?"

"Affirmative," said the guard. "That is all."

"Consider yourself dismissed."

The guard turned around and left. Argo used his magic to shut the door behind him, and walked to the centre of the room, directly below us. He opened the briefcase, and pulled out a strange, black device. It kind of resembled a projector, with a load of tiny black buttons at the top, a larger blue button in the centre, and a large circular hole to the right side at the front. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the T.S.D!

Ethan and I looked at each other, our faces matching in expression. An expression of both relief to know that we've located it, and fear of what Argo was intending to do with it now that it was in his possession. We watched as he inspected it carefully, placed it back in the briefcase, and buckled it up. He then proceeded to walk to the back corner of the room. He unlocked the safe, placed the briefcase inside, and closed it again, locking it behind him. I glanced back at Ethan.

"We've gotta get that thing out of that safe," I mouthed to Ethan.

Ethan just raised an eyebrow and shrugged, moving his mouth as if to say "How?"

My thoughts came to a stop when there was knocking at Argo's bedroom door. Argo walked over to answer it, behind the door being—big shock—a guard.

"What do you want?" Argo growled, sounding disgruntled and annoyed.

"Argo, it's me."

The instant I heard that voice, I wanted to slam my head against the metal wall. Even with her mask on, I still recognised that stupid voice.

"Ahh, Rainbow Dash," said Argo, sounding pleased to see her. "I take that you've brought Jason for his execution?"

I knew it! I knew they were planning on killing me.

"Wait a minute," Argo was peering behind her, trying to find me. "Where is he?"

"Yeah, about that," said Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her mane. She had a rather frightened tone in her voice. "Jason is... kind of... ah... on the... um... loose."

Congratulations Rainbow Dash, you just pissed him off.

"WHAT?" he exploded. "How is that possible? I thought you placed him in a maximum security cell!"

"We did," Rainbow Dash confirmed. "That door was completely bolted, and he was in a straightjacket. The cell is still in prime condition, and we found the jacket undone on the floor in the cell. I'm telling you, there's no way he got outta there alone. He had help." Argo stepped towards her, and she took a step back. "But I can assure you, they're both still in the castle. Guards have all of the exits blocked off. I guarantee you, there's no way they're getting out, and we will find them."

"You'd better," said Argo.

"I think I might know where they are," said Rainbow. "Follow me." She turned around and left the room, with Argo following her. He shut the door behind him, and Ethan and I were finally able to speak to each other.

"I'm going to have to go down there and figure out how to open that safe," I said.

"No Jason," said Ethan, pointing at my wound. "You're hurt. You're in no condition to do anything right now."

"But..."

"No buts. You're staying here. I'll get the device."

I nodded, as Ethan opened the flap and jumped out of the vent, landing on the carpet below. I kept an eye on the door at the other side of the room while Ethan worked at the safe. I wanted to help in at least one way, like being a lookout, so I'd be able to warn him if I saw Argo coming back. The problem was, the door was shut, so I was just as blind as he was. Realising there was no point in staring at the door, I turned back to look at Ethan so I could see what he was doing. He was just standing there, blankly staring at the safe.

"Is everything alright?" I asked.

"I don't know how I'm going to get this open," he said. "This safe requires a seven digit activation code in order to access it."

"Does it require letters, or numbers?" I asked.

"Both."

I had a strong feeling it wasn't just something incredibly easy like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 or A B C D E F G. Seven digits. Why seven? That seemed to be such an oddly specific number. Was it a serial number, a date, or... wait a minute... a date? The possibility occured to me that the code was a date, provided the third and fourth digit was TH, for the something-th of something. The first two digits could have been the day, the fifth and sixth digit could have been the month, and the last two could have been the year. If that was the case, than Argo most likely would have picked a date of significance. Perhaps his birthday, or the day he rose to power, which was the twenty ninth of December, 2003. Put all of that together, then it was possible that the code was 2 9 T H 1 2 0 3. Wait... no... that couldn't have been right. That was eight digits, not seven. Maybe the month was told by the first letter instead of number. It was pretty far fetched, but it was worth a shot.

"Ethan!" I whispered. Ethan turned around looked up at me. "Try 29THD03."

"What?" Just by his face alone, I could tell he was really thrown off by my very specific suggestion. He probably thought I was just pulling this out of my ass.

"Trust me," I said. "I think I've worked it out."

"Okay," said Ethan, sounding quite sceptical. He turned back to face the safe. "What was it again?"

"Two, nine," I said.

"Two, nine," he repeated to himself as he typed it into the safe.

"T, H."

"T,H."

"D, zero, three."

I was hoping like hell that I was correct.

"D, zero, three." he said, selecting enter. Ethan took a step back, appearing to be surprised.

"What happened?" I asked.

"It says, 'access granted' ," he said.

Wow, that actually worked. Ethan removed the briefcase from the safe, unbuckled it to remove the T.S.D. and slipped it into his saddlebag. He threw the briefcase back into the safe before shutting it. He then turned around and looked up at me, then looked around the room. Oh shit! He had no way of getting back up. The ceiling was way too high for him to jump, and there wasn't much furniture he could climb on, unless...

I frantically searched the room, trying to find anything that he could use. The best I could find was the office table against the wall.

"Ethan," I called. "Try standing on that table."

Ethan shook his head. "It's not worth it. Even if I was standing on it on my hind legs, I still wouldn't be able to reach the vent."

He was right. Getting back up to the vent was going to be impossible. Although, there was one extra thing to try. I dragged myself closer and closer to the hole in the vent, and leaned down. I kept going until my entire upper half was hanging in mid air, my waist and hind legs anchoring myself in the vent, preventing me from falling out completely. Ethan had a fresh burst of panic in his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked hysterically.

"Climb onto that table," I said. "Then grab my hooves, and I'll pull you up."

"Do you really think that's going to work? May I remind you that you've just been shot?"

"You really think you have to remind me of that?" I asked. "You're not the one in agony here, but it's gotta be worth a try."

Ethan walked over to the table, and dragged out to the middle of the floor, right underneath where I was hanging. He climbed onto the table, and reached up. I wrapped my hooves around his forelegs, making sure we both had a firm grip. I attempted to hoist him upwards, but he was too heavy, and his weight was straining my gunshot wound.

"What are you waiting for?" Ethan asked. "Pull me up!"

"I'm trying," I said, heaving at his hooves. He seemed to have lifted off the table momentarily, before dropping back down.

"Hurry up!" Ethan yelled. I gave him one last pull, and he was hoisted a couple inches above the table. I quickly wriggled backwards, leaving Ethan suspended above the table. My body strained upon his weight. I felt my body slightly stretching upon the force, causing my wound to open, and was now bleeding again. I cried out in response to the pain, as I felt the full force of Ethan's weight pulling at my forehooves. It came apparent to me that I wasn't pulling him up—he was pulling me down. I tried to use my hind legs to stop myself, but it was too late. Ethan's weight pulled me completely out of the hole, and I crashed on top of him on the table. The sudden amount of extra weight on the table caused it to fall over, with everything on it toppling onto the floor, creating an extremely loud crash in the process.

"You think Argo heard that?" I asked.

"Definitely," said Ethan, getting back onto his feet. "We've got hide, now!"

"Where?" I asked, frantically looking around the room. "Under the bed? In the closet?" Ethan quickly turned to the closet next to the safe.

"That's actually not a bad idea," he said, approaching it.

"Not a bad idea?" I repeated, flabbergasted. "I was being sarcastic! It's the most clichéd hiding place imaginable."

Ethan ignored me and opened the closet. He walked in, and shifted some random pieces of junk to the side. Eventually Ethan managed to get to the back of the closet, and revealed an entrance to another vent. All of a sudden, Ethan's plan made much more sense. I still believed it was a pretty conspicuous spot, but at least we'd have somewhere to go if we were spotted. Besides, the vents were only just small enough for the two of us to fit, so there was no way an Alicorn that was three times our size would fit.

"Alright," I said, looking back at Ethan. "Let's do it." Upon saying this, hoofsteps were sounding from outside the door. He was coming!

I ran to join him in the closet. I was about to shut the door when Ethan quickly ran out.

"What are you doing?" I asked, but he didn't have to answer for me to pick up on it. He pushed the table back onto its feet, and pushed it back against the wall. He then proceeded to pick up all of the items that had fallen off the table, and placed them back on the table. He was lucky nothing on the table shattered or broke. The last thing he did was taking the door from the vent that had fallen off when we fell, and placed it on the floor directly underneath vent.

By the time he was done, the room was exactly as we found it, minus the broken vent. He ran back into the closet, shutting the door behind him. The space was very confined. Having the two of us in here at the same time took up a great chunk of the space, and the closet in itself was already filled with piles of weapons and treasure. The weapons mostly consisted of guns and knives, but all of my attention was on the treasure. It consisted of things like rings, gold bars, coins, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, lapis lazulis and other valuables of that nature. I speculated that these belonged to the victims of those Argo had imprisoned and slaughtered. Then a thought occurred to me. Was it possible that...

Ethan was just about to try removing the entrance of the vent, until we heard the sound of the bedroom door swing open. Ethan and I froze, and we took very slow, silent and deep breaths. I slowly turned my head, and peered through the lock in the door. Despite my limited vision, I instantly recognised that it was indeed Argo that had entered the room. I remained dead silent, and refrained from any movements. Ethan and I stood frozen stiff, trying our absolute hardest not to make a single noise. We were so quiet that I could physically hear my soft breathing, and my own heart beating against my rib cage.

Argo studied the room, most likely trying to spot the cause of the noise, and appeared to be thrown off when everything seemed in order. He looked at the broken vent flap, then up at the ceiling, no doubt looking at the open vent. I was unsure if he could figure out that we were still here, but I was praying that he didn't.

"Please don't open the door," I prayed to myself in my head. "Please don't open the door, please don't open the door, please don't open the door!" At that moment, he turned his head towards the closet door, as if he knew exactly where we were. My body tightened, as I held my breath. I was sweating profusely, and my heart was now pounding, as he slowly approached the closet. He was coming closer… and closer. My body became more and more tense with each proceeding step he took. It was only a matter of seconds before he would open the door and see us both. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, bracing myself for what was to come next, praying for a miracle to happen.

"Argo!" cried a voice, coming from just outside the room. For the very first time, I was actually relieved to hear Rainbow Dash's voice. Argo stopped dead in his tracks. He turned away from the closet, and approached his visitor.

"Now what?" said Argo, sounding aggravated. As I peered through the lock, I noticed Rainbow Dash wasn't wearing her mask anymore.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news," said Rainbow Dash. "The two fugitives, they're gone."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Argo.

"We're positive," answered Rainbow, nodding.

"Then how do you explain that?" Argo gestured towards the vent. "Do you believe I did that?"

"No, of course not," said Rainbow. "But this is the most secure part of the castle, and the rest of the room seems untouched."

"Then how do you explain the noise?"

"Isn't it possible that it just… fell off?"

Argo looked up and down, alternating between the opening in the vent in the ceiling, and the missing door directly underneath it. The way Ethan placed it made the concept of it just falling sound very plausible.

"I suppose so," he said. "So, where are they then?"

"Like I said," said Rainbow Dash. "We don't know. We've searched the entire castle, but they've successfully outrun us."

"YOU MEAN YOU LET THEM ESCAPE?" Argo exploded in anger.

"Well, not exactly," said Rainbow. "There's a very good chance they're still in the castle, but where, we have no idea. They've completely vanished. We can't find them anywhere. We have reason to believe they're hiding in the vents. With your permission, we could-"

Rainbow Dash didn't get to finish her sentence, as the air suddenly filled with the unpleasant sounds of gargling, and small ragged gasps. Argo's horn was glowing red, and a force of magic matching in colour was wrapped around Rainbow's neck. Her face was bulging, and she had a look of genuine terror on her face. It was hard for me to believe, but I was actually feeling sorry for her. Argo pressed his face against hers, staring right into her eyes as he choked her. He scrunched up his snout, and gritted his teeth.

"Find them!" he hissed with simmering fury. "I want them dead! They are both to be terminated within the next few days." Argo then squeezed even tighter, and levitated her, leaving Rainbow Dash suspended in mid air, her legs dangling inches above the ground. She looked like she was ready to pass out. "I believe you are aware of the consequences for failure."

Argo released his magic, and Rainbow crashed onto the floor, coughing and gasping for air. She was bent over double, clutching onto her throat with her hoof, retching her guts.

"I promise you, I will not fail you," she said. The sound of her voice was horrible. Gone was the commanding tone and confidence, replaced instead by a voice that was wheezy and incredibly whispery.

"For your sake, I hope that is the case," Argo said coldly.

Rainbow Dash coughed a few more times, still gasping.

"You should consider yourself lucky," said Argo. "Next time, I won't be so polite."

"Sir-" Rainbow croaked weakly.

"Dismissed!"

Rainbow Dash got back up to her hooves, and rushed out of the room with her head hanging low. A part of me was honestly tempted to walk over to her and hug her, reassuring her and telling her that everything was going to be okay. In reality, I knew that would end with my head being served on a silver platter, especially since this time, her life was on the line. Argo slammed the door behind her, and used his magic to fix the door of the vent. Now the room looked exactly as we found it. Argo then climbed into his bed, and went to sleep.

We waited for what felt like an hour, until we were both sure that Argo had completely passed out. While we were waiting, Ethan had provided me with a blanket from his saddlebag, to help bandage the gunshot wound. By the time the hour was up, my wound had mostly dried up and just felt sore. The lack of bullets being lodged into my waist was definitely helping.

Once we were ready to move, Ethan placed the blanket back in his saddlebag, and had started trying to remove the door in the vent. While he was busy, I took another good look at the jewelry. I started digging through it, being careful not to make too much of a racket. I shifted through bars, coins, necklaces, rings, gems, and everything of the sort, until I found it. A small golden chain, and a tiny golden heart, with an even smaller heart made of diamonds in the centre. I had zero doubts, but I opened it to see the photo inside just to confirm. I instantly recognised the photo, and there was no denying it. This was definitely Hannah's locket. The guard at the registration desk must have given it to Argo while I was in captivity, and he'd decided to keep it for himself. I clutched it close to my chest, before slipping it over my head, allowing it to hang from my neck. I wasn't letting it out of my sight. Not this time. Ethan turned to me and gave me a disapproving look.

"Seriously?" he whispered. "A bloody locket?"

"It's a long story," I whispered back. "But I can't leave without it."

Ethan rolled his eyes and went back to work. The door was drilled into the wall, so he had to manually remove each individual screw to get it off without making any noise. Using a knife he found in the pile of weapons to rotate the screws until they fell out of their sockets, he eventually removed the cover from its' socket. He quietly placed it against the wall and crawled in, with me quickly following suit.

After some trial and error, and aimlessly wandering around the vents with little to no idea where we were, or where we were going, we found the elevator that we had taken before. We quietly and carefully climbed onto the top, and rode the elevator as it descended to what we believed to be level one. We climbed into yet another claustrophobic vent, and proceeded to crawl forward.

"Okay," sighed Ethan. "So we've got you out of your cell, we have the T.S.D. and we've escaped from Argo himself. Is there anything else you need to do that could potentially get us killed?"

"Not that I know of," I replied, still trying to keep my voice down. "As far as I know, our next focus should be finding the exit."

Ethan came to a stop. "Well," he said quietly. "We could try the front door, but I bet that the main entrance would be heavily guarded, so we'd have to find another way out."

"Wait," I said. "How did you get in here in the first place?"

"The main entrance," he said. "I entered this place disguised as a guard, and they bought it… well... until the whole busting you out thing happened."

"Do you know if this place has a back door?" I asked.

Ethan shook his head. "Unfortunately, I think the main entrance is the only way in, and out of this place. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless..." Ethan repeated, thinking. "Unless, we sneak through one of the windows."

"One of the windows?" Why didn't we think of it sooner? "If we're going to try one of the windows, then we're going to have to head for the ground floor," I said. "We're still on the first floor, and there's not a chance in hell I'm going to try climbing out of a window that high. Not with these injuries." Ethan nodded, then proceeded down the vent, with me following him close behind.

As we crawled over a door that lead to a room below us, it gave way underneath our weight. We crashed on top of each other on the floor of a familiar looking office. Based on the bookshelves, the layout of the room, and the mask on the floor, I quickly picked up that we were back in the office we started in. That however, was the last thing on my mind. As Ethan and I looked up, there was a Unicorn guard standing at point blank range, pointing a rifle directly at us.

*Gulp*.

"You two have been a real pain in the ass tonight," he said. He turned his head, addressing me specifically. "First you steal a valuable device from Argo, and then you had the audacity to kill his henchmen."

I closed my eyes, bowing my head in defeat. There wasn't a chance in hell Argo was going to forgive me for what I had done.

"And you," he said, addressing Ethan. "You helped him escape by using our uniforms. As punishment, both of you are to be executed on the spot. Any last words?"

Shit, he was going to do it. He was really going to do it. Ethan and I remained silent, neither one of us knowing what to do.

"Well? Somepony's gotta go first. Who's it going to be?"

There was no question about it. Me. It had to be me. It was my fault Ethan was here. I was the one who brought us into this situation. It was my idea to steal the T.S.D. If I hadn't stolen that device, if I hadn't called for his help, he wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place. He was about to die… and it was all my fault. I got up and stood in front of the guard. Bracing myself, I bowed my head and closed my eyes again, accepting defeat.

"JASON, NO!" Ethan screamed.

In an instant, everything felt like it was going in slow motion. An ear splitting noise filled the room, as the guard pulled the trigger. Next thing I knew, I was howling, as the the bullet penetrated my chest. I fell, crashing to the ground, now hearing nothing but an intense ringing in my head. The ringing was at such a high frequency I felt like my head was going to explode. My heart was pounding heavily in the background. My vision became extremely blurry, and I was only just able to work out the basic outline of the room.

Two large blurs of brown and black were darting across the room. I couldn't hear what was happening, outside of a few yells and grunts. The brown blob jumped onto the black one, before being flung across the room and into the wall, crashing into a bookshelf. The bookshelf rattled and rocked back and forth upon impact, before falling over completely, toppling onto the ground. The fall was followed by a loud crash, muffled from the intense ringing in my ears.

The brown blob emerged from behind the bookshelf, before leaping onto the black blob. The harder I tried to look, the more my eyes strained, burning as I tried to force them open. My eyes were stinging so much I had to close them to ease the pain. As I closed my eyes, the ringing slowly started to die down, and I was able to detect the unmistakable sound of fighting. The air was filled with the sounds of yelling, grunting, kicking, hitting and the occasional sound of somepony being smashed into something. My eyes still hurting, I refrained from opening them again, making it difficult to decipher who was winning.

Then I heard it. A sound that resembled a high tech ray gun being shot. The sound was followed with a thud, and then a loud gust of wind, along with the sound of loud sizzling electricity. Next thing I knew, I was being dragged across the floor by a strong gravitational pull, the roaring wind getting louder and louder. I opened my eyes to see what was going on. In front of me, at the back of the room was something circular, blue, and large. It resembled some sort of portal.

The gravitational pull was getting stronger, pulling me closer and closer towards the portal. Just as I was what felt like inches away from it, a hoof wrapped around mine, and started pulling at it. I looked up. My vision was still blurry, but I was able to figure out that the brown blob holding onto me was Ethan. He seemed like he was he was trying to hold onto me with one forehoof, while holding onto something secure with the other. It seemed as though he was looking at me, but my vision was too blurry to work out his expression.

"Jason!" he yelled, sounding terrified. "Your eyes! They're fading!"

He was right. I closed my eyes again. I couldn't keep them open any longer. It was hurting too much. The roar of the wind was getting louder, the gravitational pull was getting stronger, while my grip was getting weaker. My eyes weren't the only things fading, and Ethan knew that. Any second now, my hooves would slip, and I'd be sucked into the portal.

"HANG ON!" he screamed. I couldn't. He was slipping. Our grip continued to loosen, until it felt like all of my strength had disappeared. Our hooves slipped, and I was now being pulled by a powerful gravitational force into oblivion. "JAAASSOON!!!"

His voice faded, as it became washed out by the roaring wind, the electricity still sizzling, and the occasional bolt of lightning. I opened my eyes again, straining to see what was going on. I was flying through a long, blue vortex, blazing through it at high speeds. Occasionally I narrowly missed a lightning bolt, as they were striking from all directions. My eyes burned and stung. It felt I was in space, with a powerful vacuum sucking on every ounce of my body.

Then it stopped. The electricity, the lightning, the sounds of the vortex, all died down in an instant. Now all I was feeling was just the sensation of falling. I most likely had come out the other end, and I was now in another dimension. Not that I'd have any time to see it. I kept my eyes shut, not wanting to see the ground that I was rapidly approaching. I didn't know how high I was, but I didn't want to find out. All I knew was that I was more than unlikely to survive the landing judging by the speed I was falling at.

My entire life flashed before my eyes. My childhood. My limited but happy times with my parents. My fondest moments with Ethan. The countless times he had saved my life, and all of those times he had been there for me. The incident with Hannah. I clutched the locket with my hooves, which was still hanging around my neck.

Then last, but not least, I thought of... her. Her face. She had a charcoal coloured coat that matched mine, with deep blue eyes, and streams of blue and white flowing through her long, silky hair. She was holding a sleeping filly in her hooves, looking back at me with that sweet, innocent looking smile. It must have hurt knowing that she would most likely never going to see me again. How would the baby cope? I tried to avoid thinking of the last time I saw her, and just tried to focus on her face. The very concept of how she would react if she found out I was gone was too much to bear. Especially after everything she had been through.

"I love you… Sarah," I whispered to myself, as I embraced what was to come next.

Chapter 4: Resurrection

Before I had a chance to react, Rainbow Dash took off. She hovered above the ground with her wings, and rammed into me, propelling me backwards. I flew across the room, slamming back first into the wall and crashed to the floor. Rainbow Dash practically towered over me, looking down as I struggled to get back on my hooves. Using her moment of inactivity to my advantage, I thrust my hind hoof into her muzzle. She recoiled backwards, as I scrambled back to my hooves and grabbed my gun. I didn't have a set strategy in mind aside from not dying, but my first priority was getting Rainbow Dash and myself out of Sugarcube Corner as quickly as possible.

Rainbow Dash was quick to recover, and moved to block the exit before I reached the door. I took a quick glance at my gun, before smacking her across the face with it. She fell to the floor in pain as I ran outside. Upon leaving the building, I instantly regretted my decision to run. The way I swung my body to hit Rainbow in the face had put too much strain on my stitches, and they were now stinging. My hooves were growing numb, to the point where I could barely feel them stomping on the ground as I ran. It was spreading, climbing up until I couldn't feel my legs. My peripheral vision was fading, growing darker. Hazier.

Don't pass out! I demanded myself, fighting to see clearly. My tunnel vision was growing smaller and smaller. My body grew cold and weak, and I was starting to feel increasingly more unbalanced and light-headed. Don't pass out! Whatever you do. Do. Not. Pass. Out. I went completely blind, and my knees gave out as I tumbled to the dirt road.

I regained control of my body a few seconds later. More than enough time for Rainbow Dash to leave the building and walk up behind me.

"Can I ask what happened?" She tilted her head to the side. "What happened to the Jason I saw a few nights ago? The one who put up a good fight?" She smirked. "It seems like you've lost your touch."

I didn't reply, too busy trying to catch my breath. Trying to fight while this messed up made things way more exhausting than when I was in good shape. White lances of pain pierced my sides as I quickly regained my hooves. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

"I've barely touched you. Why are you this exhausted already?" The cynical grin on her face grew larger as she finally noticed the gauze wrapped around my barrel. "Huh, you're injured. And by the looks of it, you're still recovering." Her wings suddenly burst open, as she prepared to pounce. This is going to hurt. She bolted, smashing straight in to me. She held onto my back, and we took off to the skies. Rainbow Dash continuously pelted my stitches with attacks from her hoof. I endured the pain as best I could, letting out grunts with each impact. It felt like a knife phasing through my sides as she continued thrashing across my back. I had to act fast. While we were still comfortably low on the ground, we were steadily gaining more and more height, and I had to do something before the fall could feasibly kill me. I threw my hoof into her face. It seemed to have stunned her, but not enough for her to drop me. I threw my hoof into her face again, harder this time. She grunted, but still kept her grip. Deciding that this was going nowhere, I wrapped both hooves around her head, and pulled down hard. Rainbow lost control as we veered to the left and crashed into a pole.

The impact caused Rainbow Dash to let go of me, the momentum making me tumble alongside the road and opening one of my stitches. I couldn't hold back my scream of pure agony. Rainbow Dash managed to recover and landed a few meters in front of me. She grimaced and groaned as the headache kicked in.

"Why won't you just give up already? Stop trying to prolong the inevitable."

"I got away from you once," I said. "What makes you think I won't do it again?"

"Because you can't!" Rainbow snapped. "Don't you see, you can't escape! You can run all you want, but no matter what, I will catch you. I have to. Why can't you just accept your fate?"

"Because there are ponies depending on me"—The image of Hannah's locket and the faces of Sarah and Ethan flashed in my mind—"And I won't die until they are safe. That's why I refuse to die, and that's why I continue to get back up, no matter how many times you knock me down. Maybe if you knew how to stand up for yourself the way I do, you wouldn't be fearing for your own life right now."

Rainbow Dash stiffened.

"What are you talking about?"

"There's no point in trying to hide it, Dash," I smirked. "I know you're afraid. Terrified even. You can threaten me all you want, but that does not change the fact you are in just as much danger as I am. Can't you see Argo for the cruel ruler that he is? You're considered to be one of, if not his most loyal servant, and yet he still walks all over you!"

"Don't you dare talk about Argo like that!" she screamed. "Argo is the greatest ruler of Equestria who has ever lived. He maintains order, discipline, and peace. He watches over us, and takes good care of us. Equestria would perish without him."

"Right, and that's why you're afraid of him? That's why he threatened to choke you?"

Through the glass eye in her mask, I noticed Rainbow's bulging eyes. "I AM NOT AFRAID OF HIM!"

"Bullshit!" I yelled. "The night Argo almost choked you, there was genuine fear in your eyes. The real reason you're so anxious to bring me back to Argo is because you know full well what will happen if you don't. He's blackmailing you!"

"Argo has given me a task to apprehend you, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Cause Argo will kill you if you don't. He doesn't care about you. Rainbow Dash, you have so much potential. You're fast, strong, agile. I've heard you're one of the best fliers in all of Equestria. All of these gifts. All of these talents. All this potential. And yet you willingly waste it all for Argo's selfish, personal gain. You deserve better!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Rainbow shouted.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about," I snapped. "You just don't want to accept it. You don't want to accept that I'm right about your boss. That I'm right about the fact he's mistreating you, and forcing you to carry out his wicked crimes-"

"Stop it!"

"And you're afraid to confront him. You're afraid to say 'no'. Because you know full well no matter where you are, no matter what you do, Argo is watching."

"Stop it!!!"

"And you can't do jack shit about it. Cause you don't have the balls to stand up for yourself."

"SHUT UP!!!" Rainbow screamed, tears pouring down her face. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!"

I glanced over her shoulder. I gasped, my eyes shrunk, and I jumped backwards. "Oh God," I said in a shaky voice. "He's here!"

Rainbow Dash appeared just as startled as I was, as she jumped around… only to realise there was nopony there. I leapt onto her, pinning her to the ground. She struggled, fluttered her wings, and shook her hooves, trying to break free. I grabbed my knife and placed it against her neck.

At that moment, I took notice of her rapid breathing, and despite her mask, I could still see the terror in her face through her shattered glass eye. She looked, and sounded just as terrified as I would've been in her place. Then I remembered Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. While this Pegasus was a great enemy, I remembered that she was also a really close friend to those two. If I was to kill her, I'd be killing one of their closest friends. My grip with the knife loosened, and I took a deep breath. I couldn't do it.

Rainbow Dash saw her opportunity and kicked me in the face with her hind legs. Still clutching the knife, I held onto my face with my hoof, trying to alleviate some of the pain. Rainbow Dash picked herself up and stared at me.

"You hesitated," she said.

"I had to. This isn't you. Argo is not your boss, and my world is not your home. You don't belong there."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't. You belong here. You have friends here. Friends who care for you. Who want you back. Don't you remember them?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Your friends!" I reiterated. "You know, Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy? Don't you remember anything?"

Rainbow Dash snickered. "Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy? Those have got to be some of the funniest names I have ever heard."

"How dare you insult Fluttershy like that!" I snapped, my grip on the knife tightening once more. "She was your friend! She trusted you! She looked up to you! She was crushed when she found out what you have become."

Rainbow seemed to have reached her emotional limit as she walked stoically towards me. "I've heard enough. I'm taking you to Argo. Don't make this harder on yourself."

I paced backwards without taking my eyes off her. "I'm not going back. Not as long as I'm still standing."

A gleeful smirk grew onto Rainbow's face. "I was hoping you'd say that."

I came to a sudden stop when my back ran into something. My head jerked around as I saw the Unicorn guard I had just backed into.

My legs took off as I ran to the left. The guard swiftly took pursuit. My stitches stung and throbbed as I ran, and running at this speed was putting me in serious danger of ripping the rest of my stitches open. I kept taking unpredictable sharp turns—trying to lose the guard—but the lack of skyscrapers and a dark environment made it significantly harder to throw her off. Next time, no losing myself in thought like that. I get a chance, and she is dead.

After as little as a minute of running, I was exhausted, and my muscles were aching as if I had just run a marathon. My legs, my lungs, and my stitches strained as I pushed myself to keep running, but I was losing speed regardless. I glanced behind me. The guard was catching up. My breathing grew shallow. My legs went from sore to numb, and I felt dizzy as my vision got fuzzy and discoloured. I went completely blind, my legs gave way, and I collapsed to the floor.

I recovered quick enough from my episode. Unfortunately, what little time I had been unconscious for was enough for the guard to catch up to me. I tried to stand up, every ounce of my body instantly seizing up in the process. My stitches were swollen, my head pounded, and I was short of breath. Why did I have to leave that damn hospital?

I stood up and tried to run, but my body didn't move an inch. My hooves just dragged across the ground as I attempted to run, but I wasn't going anywhere. I looked behind me. Gulp. My barrel was wrapped up in a shield of magic harnessed by the Unicorn guard. My heart lodged itself in my throat as she pulled me towards her. I fell to the ground, digging my hooves into the dirt, and trying my absolute hardest to pull free with what little energy I still had left.

Despite my efforts, I was making no progress. Streaks of red smeared onto the ground as I was pulled closer and closer.

"Help!" I yelled, scrambling and kicking the grass. "Somebody help!" There wasn't a single bystander in sight.

As my body reached the Unicorn guard, she pushed her forelegs onto my back, and an additional four shields of magic formed around each of my hooves, pinning me down. Just as things couldn't get any worse, Rainbow Dash slammed onto the ground, creating a tiny crater upon impact, and was now approaching me. I took a huge gulp of air, and prepared to let out the loudest scream for help my lungs would manage.

"HEL-" My mouth was forcefully snapped shut. I tried to open it again, but now there was a shield of magic around my snout, fusing it closed. My throat strained as I screamed at the top of my lungs, completely muffled by my sealed mouth.

"Don't even think about it!" hissed the Unicorn. "You scream, you die! Got that?" She turned her head to look at a line of blood droplets on the ground that led to my body. "Thanks for leaving a blood trail behind. Made my job much easier."

When Dash reached me, I was visibly shaking, my eyes were wet with unshed tears, and my heart was now thrashing violently at my ribs. She stood tall and strong, an the angle from the ground made her appear far larger. If she was trying to intimidate me, it was definitely working. This time, there was no Ethan coming to the rescue. Rainbow Dash removed her mask so I could see her face.

She moved in really close, placed her hoof under my chin, and her face was so close to mine our muzzles were practically touching each other. All I could see was her scrunched up snout, and her eyes. They were small, and fueled with rage and hate. The shield of magic around my mouth tightened, as I made another failed attempt to scream. "I've got you now."

By this point, I was so terrified, I felt like breaking down and crying. I was already thinking in my head the many terrible ways I was probably going to be tortured once she delivered me to Argo. But if I was going to die no matter what, the least I could do is make sure she didn't get to enjoy it. "You know, Jason," Rainbow Dash continued. "Argo is furious with you, so naturally his punishments will be extreme. We've already got your friend, Ethan." At that moment my blood boiled as fear gave way to anger. Now that my I knew Ethan had been captured during the escape, I wasn't going to give up until he was safe. He won't die because of my mistakes. "And you wanna know the best part, Jason? Since Argo is annoyed with you most of all, he's got the worst punishment of all planned just for you. He's planning to kill Ethan first, slowly, and painfully." She leaned in, and whispered very closely to my left ear "and you are going to watch every second of it."

Finally, with a herculean feat of strength, I managed to break free from my magic bonds. "NO HE WON'T!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was ready to tear that fucking Pegasus from the inside out. I jumped at her, and knocked her to the ground, pinning her down with my hooves. The Unicorn was rushing towards me. Without pausing, I swiftly pulled out my gun and fired three shots it into her face. She crashed dead onto the floor not long after.

I turned away from the Unicorn to focus my attention back on Rainbow Dash, only for her to kick me in the chest, propelling me backwards onto the grass. She took flight, stopping once she was roughly ten meters high, then bolted back towards the ground. I tossed myself to the side and rolled out of the way, and managed to stand back up in one swift movement. With seconds to spare, Rainbow crashed into the ground, creating a massive dust cloud and crater underneath her. Now that, that had to hurt.

Unable to see her through the dust, I slowly approached the crater to see if she had injured herself. It was right about when she shot out of the crater and took flight with me in her hooves that I realized I was an idiot for going anywhere near that dust cloud instead of waiting for it to dissipate. I was now holding onto Rainbow Dash as hard as I could, as we travelled through Ponyville at an insane speed. I could barely hear my thoughts over the wind roaring in my ears. I had no idea where Rainbow Dash was taking me, but if she wanted to watch me plummet to my death, she would have let go by now. I struggled and shook violently, but instead she just pulled up so I was in front of her face, her grip tightening. Now it felt more like she was pushing me instead of carrying me. Okay, why was she doing that? I turned my head to see the two storey building we were heading for at terminal velocity. Fantastic. I braced myself for the extreme pain coming my way.

We slammed directly into the building, penetrating the wall. Wood cracked and snapped, as the beams supporting the building were smashed to oblivion. Within seconds, we tore through the other side of the building, creating a massive hole in our wake. Rainbow Dash was completely shielded—aside from some debris that had grazed her sides—as my body took the full force of the impact, my back aching to an agonising degree. I quickly glanced back to the direction we were flying again. Oh great, she was aiming for another one.

Crash.

And another.

Crash.

And another.

Crash.

That was it! I repeatedly punched her in the face with a forehoof as hard as I could, as we crashed into yet, another building. I punched her again, and again, and again, but she was refusing to drop me. I looked up, spotting another rapidly approaching building. Not this time, bitch!

"Come on!!!" I yelled, kicking her up the stomach with my hind leg. Rainbow Dash let out a loud gasp, winded by the blow. I leaned back, causing the two of us to spin. We were now flying uncontrollably, and I slipped through her hooves. I rolled and tumbled upon smacking the ground, until I finally came to a stop bent over double. After spending a minute to breathe, I slowly stood up. Ow! All this pain. It wasn't just my back either. I was aching all over. My bones, my organs, my muscles, everything hurt.

I looked up to see Rainbow Dash lying on her side. It seemed like her crash landing was as brutal as mine.

"Jason?" said a familiar voice. I looked behind me. Fluttershy was back, and this time, she wasn't alone. Standing next to her was a pony I didn't recognise. She was a lavender Unicorn, with pink and purple stripes running through her hair. Her cutie mark consisted of a large pink star, surrounded by six smaller white stars. As I glanced to her side, I saw that she had wings. An Alicorn! She didn't seem to have registered me yet. She was too busy staring at Rainbow, who was shaking violently as she attempted to stand up. Her hooves appeared unsturdy, and she looked like she was about to collapse under her own weight in a matter of seconds.

The Alicorn's mouth was agape, her eyes wide, as if she couldn't believe the pony that was in front of her. "Rainbow Dash, is that you?" She sounded like she barely recognised the pony she was addressing.

Rainbow glared at me, ignoring the Alicorn's presence. A smirk emerged onto her face, as she probably picked up that I was struggling to stand up straight.

"Give up?" she said. Despite my panting, I moved my legs into a stance that showed that I was ready to fight.

"I could do this all day, Crash." I said, a small smirk forming.

"Oh no," said Fluttershy. Clearly she knew what was coming. Rainbow bolted, ready to ram into me.

"Rainbow Dash, stop!" Fluttershy ran in between us, blocking Rainbow's path. "What are you doing?"

Rainbow dug her hooves into the ground, coming to a halt just in time to avoid colliding into Fluttershy. "I don't know who you think you are, but unless you want to end up like him, I suggest you step aside."

"Don't you recognise me?" said Fluttershy, her voice cracking. She almost sounded betrayed.

"No, I don't," said Rainbow Dash.

Tears were forming in her eyes, and she tried to hold back her sobs. "Rainbow Dash, it's me! Fluttershy!"

"I have never seen you before in my life. Now get out of my way!" Rainbow Dash took off, shoving a now crying Fluttershy to the side. She was now inches away from me, but this wasn't going to be like the last time. I dodged her blow, grabbing her right wing with my mouth in the process, and swung her over my back.

"Ow!" she yelled, as she head dived into the ground. Before she had time to get up, I rolled her onto her back, and placed my dagger to her neck. I placed my hooves on top of her wings and stomped down as hard as I could, the sound of cracking bone below my hooves was music to my ears. Rainbow Dash screamed.

The Alicorn gasped. "Rainbow!"

"Listen here, Dash!" I snapped. "I have had it up to here with you! I've had it with your attempts at trying to kill me, and I've had it with your MOTHERFUCKING BOSS! However, I am benevolent and merciful, so I'm going to give you one more chance to redeem yourself."

A thin line of blood was forming on Rainbow Dash's neck from how closely I was holding the knife. "So. Let this be a warning." I cleared my throat, and moved my face in extremely close to hers, and screamed at the top of my lungs. "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!!!"

"Leave her alone!" yelled the Alicorn. I turned my head around to see her running straight for me. She turned and kicked me in the side, sending me flying across the grass, flecks of blood escaping my gaping mouth. I scrambled to my hooves, a little blood leaking from my muzzle. The Alicorn was standing in front of Rainbow Dash like a protective mother, her wings outstretched and ready to pounce.

"What are you doing, you maniac?!" I yelled. "Why are you defending her?"

"Because she's one of my best friends." she said. Honestly, I was so lost in my anger that I completely forgot that Rainbow Dash was once friends with these ponies. "And if you lay as much as a hoof on her, I swear I will banish you straight to Tartarus!"

Tartarus? I've heard about that place from a couple books we managed to salvage from a burnt down library. A place for the wicked to experience eternal damnation as a price for their sins. This pony thought I belonged there? The thought stung me in my chest. I swore that I would be a beacon of hope for citizens. That I would seek justice for what Argo put us all through. That I would make the world a better place, even if it was just for those few I helped along the way. And for an innocent pony to tell me I had a place among the wicked, it struck at something primal within me. Then I remembered that this world was nothing like mine. This world wasn't a war zone, so seeing ponies fighting must have been extremely out of the norm here. However, while I didn't know the Rainbow Dash that was once their friend, I did know the Rainbow Dash she was now. She could not be trusted.

"I know you and Rainbow Dash used to be friends," I said. "But I've known her for the past few days, and I can say for certain that she's changed. You're making a mistake trying to defend her. I'm sorry, but the Rainbow Dash that was your friend—the real Rainbow Dash—is dead. Gone forever."

The Alicorn went quiet. She looked to the ground briefly, before looking back at me. "No. Not forever. Not yet." Okay, what exactly did she mean by 'not yet'? The Alicorn turned back towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow squirmed for a second, but didn't do much else. The Alicorn calmly placed her hoof on Rainbow's chest. The next thing I noticed about the Alicorn was her horn. The tip of it was glowing white. Rainbow Dash struggled, trying to shake the Alicorn off. She managed to hold on, as her horn was slowly coming closer, and closer to Rainbow's forehead. Eventually, the Alicorn's horn made contact with Rainbow's head.

The light from her horn slowly faded, and Rainbow Dash appeared to have calmed down. She was staring at the Alicorn and Fluttershy with blank eyes, almost as if she just woke up from a deep sleep with a massive headache. She rubbed her forehead with her hoof and blinked a few times, before looking back at the Alicorn and Fluttershy.

"Twilight?" she said, still sounding confused.

"Rainbow Dash!" the Alicorn cried, letting out a huge sigh of relief. She wrapped her hooves around Rainbow and lifted her up, hugging her. "You're back!" Fluttershy was quick to join the hug, and the three of them were huddled together in their little reunion. Fluttershy and the Alicorn were smiling, almost crying into her shoulder. Rainbow Dash just looked like she had a massive headache. She blinked rapidly, and grimaced as she rubbed her forehead with her hoof.

"What happened?" she asked once they seperated. She tried to stand up before stumbling back to the ground. Eventually she spotted me. "Jason-"

Cutting her off, I huffed, and bolted towards her. Her eyes suddenly widened.

"Jason, wait!" she said quickly. Fluttershy yelped, and curled herself into a ball as if to shield herself from me. Before I could reach Dash, the Alicorn leapt onto me like a predator catching its prey. Before I knew it, I was on my back with an Alicorn standing on top of me. Her hooves planted into my chest, and her magic shackled my forehooves to the ground.

"Get off me, you bitch!" I yelled, struggling against her magic around my hooves.

"Calm down!" she demanded.

"Jason," said Rainbow Dash. She appeared as though she was recovering from her stupa, and was walking towards me. "Please, I assure you I mean you no harm."

"Likely story!" I hissed. "A couple minutes ago you were trying to kill me. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"It's a long story, but you have to trust me."

"Trust you? I trust you about as well as I trust Argo."

"Jason, I promise, I'm not going to hurt you."

She looked up to the Alicorn.

"Let him go."

"But, Rainbow-"

"Let him go Twi. Please."

The Alicorn hesitated for a minute, before sighing and getting off me, releasing her magic in the process. I slowly stood to my hooves. The three of them stared at me, the Alicorn looking like she was ready to pounce if I made any sudden moves. Probably best if I didn't provoke her. I glanced down at the knife that was still held tightly in my hoof. The Alicorn's horn immediately glowed. I shot my other hoof in front of me.

"Wait! Stop!" I said quickly. "It's okay, I'm putting my knife away." Careful not to make any sudden movements, I slowly slid the knife back into its scabbard.

"There… see? I'm not going to use it. It's gone now. We cool?" The magic around the Alicorn's horn died down. I looked over to Rainbow Dash, who hadn't moved an inch.

"Two seconds ago you were trying to murder me. Now all of a sudden you're claiming you come in peace?" I asked, coming ever so slightly closer. She shook her head. "Why? You get hit with another mind control spell from Twinkles over there?"

"I know this looks really bad," said Rainbow. "But when I was acting like that, you need to understand that I wasn't exactly... myself."

I narrowed my eyes in thinly veiled anger. "The fuck kind of excuse is that? You expect me to believe that justifies everything? Don't think I won't beat the stuffing out of you just because you're not fighting back." I flinched as Twilight lit her horn with a grimace.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "It's a long story. I'll explain later." I was about to demand to her that she tell me now, but she quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, Jason, I'd like to introduce you to my friends. This yellow Pegasus here is Fluttershy."

"I know," I said, my eyes moving over to her before turning back. "We've met."

"Okay," said Rainbow, turning to look at Twinkles. "And this here is Twilight Sparkle."

I really didn't like the way Twilight was looking at me. She was fixing me with that look of disapproval. The glare was bad enough, but her being an Alicorn made things a whole lot worse. Even if she was the complete opposite of Argo, my experiences with Alicorns had been pretty shitty and, if given the choice, I prefered to avoid them at all costs. Not wanting to be rude, I did the first thing that came to mind.

"Hi," I said, offering my hoof to shake. Twilight just stood there, staring down coldly at my outstretched hoof.

"Who do you think you are?" she finally said.

Oh. So this is how it's going to be. I lowered my hoof. "My name is Jason Colby."

"And what are you doing here?" Twilight fixated an icy glare directly at me.

"Excuse me, but have you got a problem with me or something?"

"Yes I have a problem with you!" Wow. I suppose I can give her credit for being blunt about it. "You're a complete stranger that I've never met before, and the first thing I've seen you do is pin down one of my best friends and threaten to slit her throat open. What kind of pony does that?"

Okay, to be fair, she did have a legit point. If I saw somepony with a knife threatening my best friend like that, I probably would've felt the same way; granted any moron who would try something like that would already be dead from lead poisoning by now. Regardless, I certainly wasn't going to apologize for what I did, not when the life of myself and Ethan was on the line.

"And look at the damage you've done!" She pointed her hoof at the line of buildings that had huge holes in the walls where Rainbow and I had crashed into them, along with the craters in the ground.

"That was Rainbow pushing me into those walls, so if you want somepony to blame for the collateral damage, blame her. I'm sure a bunch of witnesses were nearby to confirm that."

"Hey, is anypony else hungry?" Rainbow Dash said abruptly in an attempt to change the subject.

Truth be told, I was stuffed, since I had just come out of Sugarcube Corner minutes ago.

"I'm starving," I lied. Anything was worth getting out of this conversation.

"Come on then," she said, signalling us to follow her. "Let's go and get something to eat."

Twilight followed silently, glaring daggers at me while Dash took the lead. Fluttershy ignored the two of us and walked next to Rainbow Dash, smiling, happy to have her friend back with her. Occasionally she peeped behind her to catch us still exchanging pointed glares, but I attempted to ignore it and focus on my next move. Get the answers you need from Dash, make sure you don't spill much to Twinkles, and get some clues on this Doctor fella. Twinkles looks like she don't know jack about interrogation, and Rainbow looks like she'll open up fast. My face betrayed the barest hints of a smirk. Should be easy enough.

Rainbow Dash directed us to a restaurant. When we arrived, my initial reaction was that it looked more like a Saloon than a restaurant, especially considering the use of swinging doors for the entrance. The inside consisted of wooden architecture, full of wooden benches occupied by colourful and cheerful ponies. Some of whom turned to look at us as we entered. Still looks unnatural how happy they are.

The second we walked in, the smell of hot food cooking in the kitchens entered my nose. The fresh salads, the soups, the burgers, the fries, and seeing other ponies' plates looked appetising, but nothing compared to the sweetness that was Sugarcube Corner.

We selected a table, and Rainbow Dash excused herself to the bathroom, leaving the three of us alone. Twilight sat opposite of me, while Fluttershy sat to the left next to her. Before Twilight could get a start on her promptu interrogation, I stuffed my face into the menu. I'm sorry, Twinkles. You're gonna have to do better than that.

After what felt like five minutes had passed, Rainbow Dash emerged from the restroom. The sight of her left me stunned. Leaving that bathroom was a blue Pegasus that was borderline unrecognizable. She was no longer wearing her uniform. Her mane, once rough and unkempt, now looked nice, clean and tidy. She might still need a proper shower to remove a bit of the grime that had worked into her coat after so long in Argo's service, but her coat and mane were now bright, saturated, and her large rose eyes made her appear friendlier—a much more pleasant sight than before.

An unnerving sensation washed over me as she sat next to me at the table, and grabbed a spare menu. I still had my weapons on me, and was prepared to draw them if she tried any surprise attacks.

A Unicorn stallion approached our table. He was holding a notepad and a pencil with his magic.

"May I please take your order?"

Rainbow Dash quickly dropped the menu and placed her hooves on the table. "Can I get a large apple cider with a medium watercress salad?"

The waiter scribbled Rainbow's order into his notepad before looking at Twilight and Fluttershy.

"I'll have a small salad with an apple juice, thanks," said Twilight.

The waiter finished writing down her request and focused her attention on Fluttershy. "I'll pass. I've already eaten."

"I'll have a small apple juice too, thanks," I said. The waiter nodded, then jolted my order down. "Well then, that'll be seventeen bits. Ten for the large Apple cider and medium salad, five for the small apple juice and salad, and two for the apple juice." Twilight and Rainbow Dash pulled out their cash and passed to the waiter. Shit. I forgot I had no money. Before I could cancel my order, Rainbow Dash pulled out an additional two bits.

"Your food should be ready in a few minutes." He accepted the money, smiled and walked off.

After hoofing her bits to the waiter, Twilight returned to glaring at me. She opened her mouth to speak. Oh no you don't. I turned to Rainbow Dash.

"Did you just pay for my drink?"

Rainbow nodded, fixing me with a remorseful expression. "Yeah, I kinda owe you. A lot."

Twilight's jaw dropped. "You owehim? He placed a knife to your throat!"

Dash ignored her and continued speaking. "Think of it as a little payback for everything I've put you through."

"Well, thanks Dash," I said. Even though you're the one who kidnapped and robbed me in the first place.

Twilight was staring at us, her mouth agape. "How is it that-"

"Oh, I almost forgot," I interrupted, turning to Fluttershy. "I just wanted to thank you for paying my hospital bills. I don't have insurance out here, so that is greatly appreciated."

Fluttershy seemed startled by my comment. "How did you know that was me?"

"My doctor told me. I just thought you'd like to know that your deed doesn't go unappreciated. Hospital bills are really bloody expensive, so I'd feel like a dick if I didn't show my gratitude for doing something like that."

"You're… um... welcome," she said, sounding awkward. Twinkles took another breath to speak.

"Well, this place is certainly peaceful," I said, cutting her off again. Her eyes narrowed, and a subtle growl escaped her throat, despite her lips being pressed firmly together. "I haven't been here for very long, but I can definitely say it's pretty different to where I'm from." Twilight let out a light snort and continued to glare at me but didn't say anything. I was tempted to snap at her and tell her to 'quit it,' but I resisted the temptation.

"You look different," said Fluttershy. "I've never seen a pony that looks like you. Where exactly are you from?"

"Manehattan," I said. Fluttershy and Twilight lifted an eyebrow slightly, and Rainbow Dash showed no reaction at all. Probably because this wasn't news to her.

"Manehattan?" said Fluttershy. "How exactly does a pony like you live in Manehattan, and still end up looking the way you do? I always thought Manehattan was a very tidy and high class place. No offense, but you're in a horrible state."

I sighed. "Tell me about it." The Manehattan here was probably incredibly different to the Manehattan I'm used to. "No offense taken. I completely get why ponies like you would feel uncomfortable talking to somepony like me. Sadly, ponies that look like me are quite common where I'm from."

Twilight continued to scowl at me, her eyebrow lifting slightly higher than before. It was hard for me to pinpoint if she was curious, uncomfortable, or afraid of me.

"I've been to Manehattan a few times, and you're still the first pony I've ever met that looks and acts like… well… you," said Fluttershy.

"I guess you just haven't been to my neighborhood," I said. "In my part of Manehattan, there happens to be a lot of crime. The local area is very dangerous." Twilight's face scrunched up even further. I felt like punching her in the face just to get her to snap out of it.

"If your neighbourhood is so bad, why haven't I heard about this yet?" said Twilight.

I shrugged. "Why is it important that you specifically should know?"

"I am 'The Princess of Friendship'." Wow. The Princess of Friendship? Now that was the dumbest sounding title I've ever heard. "Nothing bad happens in Equestria without me hearing about it. Our map always tells us when there's a Friendship Problem. In other words, you're telling me about a Friendship Problem that doesn't exist."

"The fuck is a Friendship Problem?"

Twilight froze, and became speechless. Rainbow Dash broke the ensuing silence with a sigh. "A Friendship Problem is when there are two or more friends that seem to struggle to get along. We're notified via glowing cutie marks, and it's our job to fix it."

"Wow." I said, in the most flat tone I could manage. "Ain't life sunshine and fucking rainbows out here? You're telling me that the biggest worries you have out here is when a bully breaks a filly's favourite toy? I've seen things happen to fillies so terrible, I can't even say them since we're out in public. So I'll spare you the gruesome details, but-" I glanced at our surroundings to see if anypony was watching us. They all had their backs turned towards us. I turned back to the trio, and slid my hoof across my neck.

Fluttershy's eyes bulged, and she placed her hoof over her mouth as she gasped. "Oh my goodness! Those poor fillies!"

Twilight looked sceptical rather than horrified. "Why wasn't I ever told all of this was happening?"

"You tell me, 'Princess'"—I looked down to stare at my numerous wounds and scars—"or do you think I got all these falling down the stairs?"

Twilight tilted her head. "You're avoiding the question." I didn't answer. "It is my duty to help those less fortunate in life. What dark secrets are you hiding from us, Jason?"

I slammed my hooves on the table. "Don't talk about things you don't understand, Princess. Do I make myself clear?"

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Twinkles all jumped backwards, appearing startled by my sudden outburst. I looked around the room. Some of the other ponies in the building were staring at me. Realising I was creating a scene, I took a deep breath, and tried to calm myself down.

"Umm, if you don't mind me asking," Fluttershy said softly, barely louder than a whisper. "But if you're from Manehattan, then what's the story with the portal that you fell through a few days ago?"

"The portal that appeared a couple days ago?" said Twilight, fixing me with yet another suspicious look.

"Umm..." I had to think of something fast. "It's a project a friend of mine was working on. Mass teleportation to and from fixed locations. I offered to be a guinea pig for a cut of the earnings. Numbskull probably messed up the receiving point and I ended up here."

"Sounds like powerful magic," said Twinkles. "Who is this pony?"

"That's classified. Honestly, she didn't want me telling you about this. The spell still needs work. It's highly unstable, and we'd rather show up with a finished product."

"So what exactly are you doing here, Jason?"

"Didn't you hear, Twinkles? Me ending up here was a mistake," I said.
"My name is Twilight!" Twinkles hissed through her grit teeth.
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Twinkles. Besides, what I do is none of your business. I am not obstructing the law and my previous actions were in self-defense. You have nothing to hold me accountable for."

Twinkles squinted at me, placing a hoof under her muzzle. "So if you came here by accident, how are you going to get back? In fact, if your home is so terrible, why are you even trying to go back in the first place? Why are you in such a hurry?"

My blood was boiling, and with each proceeding question, my fuming anger was intensifying. One more question, and I was ready to maul her. Don't lose it, Jason! Don't lose it! I took a long deep breath through my nose, and hissed.

"It's none of your business," I repeated.

"Why so secretive?" said Twinkels. "Are you hiding something?" It occured to me that this Alicorn was going to get on my case no matter what I said. By now, my body was tense and hot. I was making loud heavy deep breaths, gritting my teeth, and fighting my insatiable urge to punch her in the face. Twinkles glanced at my flank. "Another question, where's your cutie mark?"

Finally, something I can answer. "Don't have one. Bloody awful fashion sense if you ask me."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, I'm serious. I don't have a cutie mark. I never have, and I probably never will."

"How do you not have a cutie mark?" asked Fluttershy.

"Simple," I said. "I just never got one."

"Come on, every fully grown pony has a cutie mark!" said Twinkles.

"This may come as a shock to you, Twinkles," I said. "But where I'm from, we have bigger problems to deal with. Hell, I didn't even know what cutie marks were until today. Even if they were a thing, we still have more important things to worry about. Things like trying to reach the end of the day in one piece." I looked Twilight straight in the eye. "That portal is my ticket to a better life, and I will not let you ruin it for me. Capiche?"

At that moment, the waiter arrived at the table with our food. At last. I needed something to distract me from the conversation before I exploded, and said or did something I'd regret.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright, Jason? You're going red in the face. Was it something I said?"

"It's everything you're saying!" I blurted out before I could stop myself. "There are rules for how an interrogation should be done, and you are pushing all the wrong buttons. I added as Twilight was about to speak up. "What you're asking me is extremely personal—stuff that I have zero intentions in sharing—so don't even try."

"But-"

"If you ask me one more Goddamn question, it may very well be the last thing you ever say. Now either you shut your mouth, or I'll shut it for you."

Twilight just sat there, her mouth open. As if she had just turned into a statue. Fluttershy looked just as shocked, and Rainbow had a look of disapproval on her face.

The waiter just stood there, pale in the face, alternating between looking away and at us. He cleared his throat.

"Enjoy your meal," the waiter said, as he placed the food in front of Rainbow Dash, myself and Twilight. I felt bad for forcing him to stand there listening to us fight. I sat down quietly, hoping the food would be enough to distract Twilight from the conversation.

As we ate, Twilight occasionally attempted to start a conversation. At this point, I had completely lost interest in questioning Rainbow's sudden change in behaviour. All I wanted to do was to get Twilight to shut up, and continue searching for The Doctor.

Everytime Twilight asked me a question, I avoided answering the question using my drink. I would slurp it, or pretend to take a sip while I thought of a good enough answer.

"So, Jason, I just wanted to know-"

Twilight was cut off as I 'accidentally' knocked my mug off the table, and watched it clang on the wooden floor. I bent down and picked it back up. After putting back on the table, Twilight tried again.

"Would you mind telling me-"

"Oh my gosh!" I butt in, pretending I just remembered something important. "I really need to go to the bathroom. Be right back."

Without waiting for a response I got up and left. A few minutes later, I came back out and saw that Dash and Twilight had finished their meals. That meant it was time to book. I walked back to my seat and grabbed my saddlebags.

"I'd love to stay and chat," I lied. "But I really need to be going."

"How come?" asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "What's the hurry?"

"Sorry Twinkles, but that's private. Now if you would excuse me-"

"You can't say?" Twilight was still looking at me funny. "Is there something you're not telling us, Jason?"

I grunted, before snapping at her. "For Christ sake! Can you please stop acting like I'm some sort of criminal?"

"You're the pony who came out of nowhere!" she said. "I've never seen you before in my life, you feel obligated to carry weapons with you everywhere you go, and my first time meeting you involved you threatening to slit my best friend's throat! Why shouldn't I be suspicious of you?"

"I'm sorry, are we glossing over what got me into that situation to begin with? Dashie over there crashed me through a couple of buildings, nearly broke my spine, threatened to kill my friend while I watched, and we're just going to pretend I'm the villain in this scene?"

Twilight shook her head. "No way. That's not true. I know Rainbow Dash. She would never do something like that."

"Actually, he's right," Rainbow sheepishly added.

Twilight's face managed to make two expressions at once. Her eyes stayed narrowed but turned toward Rainbow Dash, meanwhile her jaw slowly slipped lower. Rainbow Dash winced.

"In his defense, Twilight, I completely understand why he did that considering what Argo made me do to him and his friends. If you were in his situation, you'd probably feel his frustration."

Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash, closing her mouth. "Who's this Argo?"

"An asshole, that's who," I said. "He's the reason Ethan's life is in grave danger."

"Who's Ethan? One of your friends I assume?"

"For fucks sake, Twinkles!" I curtly snapped. Fluttershy flinched, startled by my sudden explosion, but I didn't care. I was positively furious at Twilight. "Give it a rest, already!"

Twilight slammed her hooves on the table. "Watch your language!"

"No, I won't!" I yelled as the entire restaurant went quiet to watch us. "I've had a really shitty day. And the last thing I need is some stuck-up pony with a stick shoved up their ass and a 'holier-than-thou' attitude talking down to me like I'm the scum below her hooves. So for the last time. Fuck. Off." I slammed my hoof into the ground, turned around and stormed towards the exit. "Jason, wait," called Rainbow Dash.

"WHAT!?" I screeched, turning around and coming to a stop.

Rainbow Dash calmly dismissed herself from the table and walked towards me. Her voice was low, quiet and calm. "I do not appreciate you talking to my friend like that." The veins in my head nearly popped as I got ready to smack her. "But I know what you're going through, and I just wanted to say… I'm sorry." I froze, and slowly took a few deep breaths through my nostrils.

"You're apologising to him?" Twilight said, flabbergasted. Rainbow Dash ignored her and took a deep breath. The patrons appeared to have seen enough as they went back to talking in their groups.

"Several months ago, Argo infiltrated Equestria, and kidnapped me. He told me who he was, what his beliefs were, and what he expected me to do. He requested me to commit wicked crimes in his name, and for weeks I refused, even when he started torturing me. Until he cast the spell."

Fluttershy and Twilight looked horrified. Rainbow Dash gave a few heavy sniffles, wiping the tears out her eyes as she continued.

"One night, he completely wiped my memory while I was asleep. I woke up not knowing anything. Friends, family, my own identity. He erased it all, and I lost it. He turned me into something I never wanted to be. A monster." Her tears were getting worse. By now, she was straight up crying. "I've done terrible things to you. I kidnapped you, robbed you, hurt you, tried to kill you multiple times. Yet you still brought me home—even if it was by accident. Rainbow Dash stopped as her throat constricted, the words being forcibly pushed out her mouth. "I'm not asking you to forgive me. I just want you to know, that I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry."

Upon saying this, Rainbow Dash completely broke down. A part of me wanted to believe everything she was saying was bullshit—that she was lying through her teeth—but… I couldn't. The story of Twilight using a memory spell sounded completely plausible—lined up nicely with what Pinkie said at Sugarcube. Guards also never got this emotional. A real servant of Argo would happily murder an innocent filly in cold blood without breaking a sweat. Rainbow's crying felt completely genuine. You can't fake raw emotions this well. I took a deep breath.

"I forgive you."

Rainbow Dash looked at me, and tried to smile through her tears, despite the fact she looked surprised to hear my response.

"But I will never forget what you've done. You've hurt a lot of ponies, Rainbow Dash, and they won't forget what you've done either." Her smile died at my words, but at least the tears stopped as well.

"Listen, I want to make up for how I treated you," she said. "I know why you're here, and I know what you're looking for. I'm assuming you haven't found it yet. I'll understand if you don't trust me yet, but I want to help you find the… You-Know-What."

Was she for real? On one hoof, it would've been extremely useful to have a resident of this dimension helping me find this thing. Especially since she's the only pony here besides myself who actually knows what the T.S.D. is, how it works, or what it looks like. However, this also could've been a trap. What if she took it and sent me straight back to Argo's as soon as we found it? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But I'd rather have her near me where she's always in my sight.

"Alright," I said. "I'll let you help me, under one condition."

"Name it," said Rainbow Dash.

"If we find it, you're not allowed to touch it. You so much as lay a hoof on it, and you join the headless horsemen club. Heard they've been looking for some new talent."

Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her chest. "I swear not to go near it."

Twilight and Fluttershy got up from the table and joined us. "Rainbow Dash, is it possible for me to-"

I pointed at her with my hoof. "And she's not coming," I said firmly.

"Jason, Twilight is a really close friend of mine," said Rainbow Dash. "She's one of the greatest friends a pony could ask, and I trust her with my life. I honestly think we could use her help."

"I don't trust her," I said. "She keeps glaring at me as if I'm about to attack every time I even look at her. She is not willing to trust me, and I am not willing to be used by her. Honestly, I think she's worse than Argo, because at least Argo never played the 'good guy' card. This benevolent ruler with a heart of gold shtick honestly makes me wanna puke."

Rainbow bit her lip while I droned on.

"I mean, the way she treats me is somehow creating way more discomfort to me than Argo ever could. I'm not trusting her, Rainbow, and that's my bottom line."

"Rainbow Dash is one of my best friends, and I completely trust her judgment," said Twilight. "I am willing to help if you tell me what's going on." I shook my head. The day I trusted her with that kind of secret would be the day she'd take a step down and talk to me as an equal.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a black figure moving outside the window, steadily approaching the building at a rapid pace.

"Totally random question, Dash, but don't they keep a tracker on you guards in case of emergency situations?" I said, as I slowly made my way to the counter. "Just a funny rumour that was passed around in the slums." Rainbow Dash jolted still, her face went pale, and she slowly placed her hoof over the back of her head.

"They... did. Standard guard procedure."

"And you wouldn't happen to have, I don't know, activated the tracker before Twinkles could get that spell working on you?"

Rainbow Dash was frantically tapping the tracking device at the back of her neck with her hoof. "What am I gonna do?" she said, panicking.

What would Argo do to her if he found out she went rogue? My best guess was that Argo would sentence her to death for mutiny.

"Well here's hoping there you've got acting skills to put half of Hollywood to shame. No pressure," I said as I ducked behind the counter.

"Umm..." Rainbow Dash's head darted frantically from left to right, trying to compose herself, but she was too late. The guard entered the room, and had seen her immediately.

"You!" the guard snapped. This one was definitely a he. I listened intently, as his hoofsteps slowly approached Rainbow Dash. His hoofsteps came to a stop, followed the sound of a gun being cocked. "Listen here, Rainbow Dash. We need to talk... in private." A loud ear splitting gunshot sounded and the next thing I knew, everypony in the building was screaming and running for the exit. Within seconds, the place went silent, and the three of us were presumably alone, unless Fluttershy and Twilight had decided to stick around. Glancing upwards, there was a fresh bullet hole in the ceiling.

"That's better," he said. "Now, what are you doing out of your uniform, Lieutenant?" Rainbow Dash just gulped. "Never mind that now. We got your distress signal. What's the situation?"

"I-" Come on Rainbow! Don't let me down. I really hope you're better at bullshitting you way out of situations than Ethan… I can't believe I just thought that.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it a false alarm, Sir."

"How come?"

"Clearly, Jason's not here."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"Then what was with the distress call? I thought you either found him, or that something was wrong."

"Well..." You're doing so well. Please, don't slip up. "I did find him, but he's a lot stronger than I thought. I spotted him, activated my tracking device to call in reinforcements, and attempted to apprehend the target. I think he was ready for me, because he attacked me and got away. He's the reason this happened to my throat."

"Wow," said the guard. "Jason did that to your neck?"

"Sure did, Commander. Broke my wing too. I underestimated how competent of a fighter he could still be, even when injured. The dude was shot, and he still got away from me."

The guard snickered. "Let me get this straight. Argo's number one most loyal and capable servant, the fastest Pegasus in Equestria, got her ass kicked by an injured Earth pony?"

"Umm… yeah. I did."

The guard exploded with laughter. Stupid Argo and his stupid ideologies. Just because we couldn't fly or cast spells didn't mean we were incompetent. It took him a moment to collect himself and focus.

"That was hilarious, Dash! Definitely the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Ah, we're going to hold this over your head for weeks. But seriously, one does not simply just lose an Earth Pony. If he ran off, you would've caught up to him in ten seconds flat."

"He broke my wings, Sir!" Rainbow reiterated. There was a notable shift in her tone, as she struggled to regain control of the situation.

"Even if he did get away," said the guard. "You would've deactivated the device until you found him again."

"I forgot to turn it off!" It didn't take a genius to notice the palpable panic in Dash's voice.

"Forgot to turn it off? I find that unlikely. Tell me something, Lieutenant. Where is Jason?"

I slightly peeked over the counter. The guard was leaning forward, almost touching Rainbow Dash's muzzle. Rainbow's legs were nearly about to buckle and crumble apart like wet toilet paper at any second. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Twilight and Fluttershy hiding behind a knocked-over table.

"I-I don't know where he is."

"Don't play dumb with me!" the guard yelled. "You know exactly where he is! Why has it taken you this long to capture him? You even said yourself that you found him. Based on your reputation, I would've figured he'd be captured by now. Especially if you were involved."

"For the last time, HE BROKE MY WINGS!"

The guard slapped Rainbow across the face. "You will treat your commanding officer with respect. Do I make make myself clear, Lieutenant?" Rainbow Dash shakily nodded. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and this time, I expect a real answer. Where. Is. Jason?"

"I..." Rainbow Dash faltered. "I don't..."

"What do you want with Jason?" Twilight emerged from the table, cautiously approaching the guard.

The gun instantly pointed to Twilight. "Who the fuck are you?" he snapped. "Explain why you were listening on our conversation!"

"I'm sorry," said Twilight. "Rainbow Dash is just a close friend of mine, and-"

"Wait a minute!" said the guard. "Did you just say you know who Jason is?" Oh God no! If Twilight was planning on complying with him, I was so beyond fucked.

"No!" Rainbow Dash said quickly. Too quickly. "She doesn't. She has no idea who Jason is."

"Why are you defending that guy?" said Twilight. Rainbow Dash used every single facial expression she could trying to signal Twilight to shut up. It seemed like she either didn't get the memo, or was just plain ignoring it. "Ever since that pony showed up, everypony that has gone near him has ended up in danger!"

"Don't worry, I don't want any trouble," said the guard. "I just want to know where exactly Jason is, and then I'll be out of here. If you tell me his whereabouts, I promise Jason will disappear forever."

A bolt of fear shot up my throat.

"I trust you at least would have an idea of his location, Rainbow Dash. Considering you saw him earlier, and you were the one tasked with capturing him in the first place."

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I can't find him. I've been looking ever since he attacked me and got away, and I can't find him anywhere. He can't have moved too far from this location, and the more we argue the higher the chance he'll slip away."

The guard slowly moved closer towards Rainbow Dash, until their muzzles were almost touching. He was looking into Rainbow's eyes, who was now quivering. "Rainbow Dash, why are you lying to me?"

Rainbow Dash gulped. "I-"

"You've seen him," he said. "I can see it in your eyes. Tell me, where he is. Now."

Rainbow Dash took a few deep breaths, and gulped again. After a final deep breath, she spoke again. "I don't know. After he attacked me, and disappeared without a trace. I have no idea where is."

The guard backed away from Rainbow Dash. "Very well then," he said. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to officially label you as a traitor."

"Wait, what?" said Rainbow Dash in horror.

"Not only did you lie to me, you are deliberately trying to sabotage our mission. You also have proven that you are incapable of following the simplest of orders. Argo gave you one job, Rainbow Dash! And he made it quite clear to us your penalty for failure. Death!"

Rainbow Dash gulped for a third time. She was shaking violently, and her tiny eyes were bulging.

"Stop!" Twilight cried. "I know where Jason is!" Twilight, please! If you tell him where I am, you'll get me killed! And then you and your friends will be next. I quickly ducked back down, so I was completely hidden behind the counter.

"Do tell," said the guard, sounding amused.

"If I tell you where Jason is, will you promise to leave Rainbow Dash alone?" Twilight, you're making a huge mistake!

"Cross my heart." Twilight! No! Don't trust him! Don't fall for it!

Twilight sighed. "He's hiding just behind that counter." Fuck you, Twinkles!

"I knew you'd be reasonable," said the guard smiling. "I'll deal with you in a minute, Jason!" I removed my gun from my strap, and cocked it as quietly as I could.

"Now, let her go," said Twilight.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm afraid Rainbow Dash is still going to have to be terminated for capital treason."

"No!" Fluttershy cried, most likely emerging from behind the table herself. "You can't do that to her!"

"You monster!" Twilight yelled. "You promised!"

That was it. The guard already knew I was here, so there was no point in hiding, and Rainbow Dash was risking her life for me. I couldn't just leave her there. I had to do something. I took a deep breath, and climbed to the top of the counter until I was standing on top of it.

"Put the gun down!" I said in a firm voice.

The guard instantly turned towards me. "Well I'll be damned, the little bitch was telling the truth."

"All three of you, get out of here! Now!" I yelled. "I'll take care of this bozo. Go!"

"Give me one good reason why I should take orders from you!" said Twilight.

"Twilight, we should probably do as he says," said Rainbow Dash, trying to usher the three of them towards the exit. "Come on! Let's go!"

A brown force of magic generated from the guard's horn, and wrapped around Rainbow's tail. She came to a dead stop, and the guard slowly pulled her towards him."

"Oh no you don't!" he said. "You're not going anywhere!"

"DASHIE!" Fluttershy screamed.

"Help!" Rainbow Dash yelled, her hooves helplessly scrambling across the floorboards.

"Leave her alone!" I snapped, leaping off the counter and landing directly on top of the guard. The guard dropped his magic, and Rainbow Dash stared at me with a shocked look on her face.

"You... just... saved my life," she said. As the guard tried to get up, I smacked him in the face with my hoof, still lying on top of him, letting out a loud yell in sync with my hit. I looked back at Rainbow Dash.

"RUN!" I screamed. Rainbow Dash scrambled to her hooves and ran for the exit. Now it was just the two of us. The guard managed to shake me off and kick me in the chest, propelling me across the room and landing onto a table, smashing it under my weight. The impact caused my hearing to muffle, and my vision to haze. Not again!

In the time it took for me come to and to get up, the guard was already aiming his gun at me. I jumped towards another table, falling over as I landed. I pushed the table so it was standing vertically on its side. Bullets were rapidly flying past me. I sat down with my back against my makeshift shield. Bullets punctured the wood around me, leaving trails of lights to pass through in their wake. Others whizzed past my ear. A sharp stinging pain struck me in the face, as a bullet narrowly whizzed through my left cheek.

The bullets came to an eventual stop, as the gun made a clicking noise. I knocked the table down with my hind leg. It crashed upside down onto the floor, and I ran around it straight towards the guard. Screaming, I lifted my right foreleg as I prepared to thrust it into the guard's face. Before the hit could connect, it came to a sudden stop, magic wrapped around my extended hoof. I tried to pull my hoof away, but the magic was too strong. The magic had a vice grip around my foreleg, and I could subtly feel a force pushing on the underside of my fetlock. I yanked myself backwards, trying to pull my leg free. The guard just kept piling on more pressure. I grit my teeth, breathing in and out heavily as the sensation went from minor annoyance to burning pain.

The tension in my leg grew tighter. My teeth grinded, and my eyes watered as the tension continued to grow tighter, and tighter, until…

Crack!

It sounded like a bullet being fired off as the bones in my forearm could no longer withstand the pressure and snapped in two. My eyes bulged, and I screamed at the top of my lungs, howling in agony.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I screamed. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

The guard lifted my entire body off the ground and threw me onto the counter. I rolled over and fell off the other side, knocking over everything in my path. I crashed face first into the ground behind the counter. Glasses, plates and bottles fell off the counter, smashing all around me. Shards of shattered glass were flying everywhere, coating the floor with millions of tiny glass fragments. It felt like my leg was on fire. Burning hot, searing pain shot from the fracture point up to my shoulder. I nearly hurled when I saw sharp, white bone fragments breaking through my skin. As I attempted to push myself up with my left hoof, it landed in a pile of shattered glass. I barely registered the numerous glass shards now embedded into my hoof, nor the blood dripping from the cuts like a fountain.

My entire body grew tight, and paralysed, as I was wrapped in a shield of magic. My legs dangled above the ground, before I was flung across the room, smashed back first into the wall. The mirror behind me shattered, leaving me lying in the middle of another large pile of shattered glass. Blood was trickling out of my mouth. I just laid there. Everything hurt. Everything was excruciating. It would've been so easy for to just lie there and embrace blissful nothingness. My head throbbed, my back ached. I saw my reflection through the shattered remains of the mirror. I had a swollen hoof covered in glass, and the pain in my broken leg had fallen back to a dull throb. Not to mention my wound being completely ripped open and leaking blood onto the floor. I really wish I hadn't left the hospital.

I realised that I physically felt weaker, and I could barely lift myself up. How much blood have I lost?

Coming from behind me, I could hear talking.

"He's not moving." said Rainbow Dash. "I think he's dead!"

"Do something, Twilight!" Fluttershy cried.

My body lifted from the ground, as the guard picked me up with his levitation, and placed me right in front of him. He pulled out his gun, and pressed the nozzle right to my forehead. All I could do was stare at him through barely conscious eyes.

Before the guard could pull the trigger, he froze. A pink force of magic wrapped around the guard's whole body, paralyzing him.

"What the...?" said the guard.

I looked behind me. Twilight was holding the guard in place with her magic. I honestly didn't know how to feel about Twilight of all ponies coming to the rescue. Without letting the guard go, Twilight gently pulled me back to safety behind her, and used her levitation to grab a nearby rope, and tied it around the guard's legs, binding them together. Twilight released her magic and took a deep breath, a smug sense of pride radiating off her. The guard just stared flatly at his legs. Grabbing the rope with his magic, he effortlessly untied the knot.

"Seriously?" he said. "That was your plan?"

"Oookay," she said, starting to back out of the building. "Looks like I'm going to have to try something else."

The guard turned his attention away from me and walked straight towards Twilight, placing his gun on her forehead.

"TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy screamed in unison. While the guard was distracted, I removed my gun with my teeth, that little movement causing my broken leg to flare up in pain before calming down. Without letting off a single sound, I placed it in my other hoof.

"You ponies are so pathetic!" said the guard. "You could have done anything just then. You could have tried to stab me, steal my gun, cast a killing spell. Literally anything, but you're too bloody soft."

I picked up my gun, cocked it with my teeth, and aimed at the guard's head. Pieces of glass dug deeper as my hoof pressed against the handle. It hurt like hell, but I tried to ignore it and focus on my aim. My leg strained as I tried to prop it up, as if I was swimming through molasses with how difficult each movement felt.

The guard chuckled. "Next time you get the chance to kill someone, don't hesitate!"

I pulled the trigger, and fired. The bullet whizzed past Twilight and penetrated the guards' skull.

"Thanks for the advice," I said, smirking. With that, my leg collapsed onto the ground, panting as sweat matted my mane, and dripped from my muzzle. Rainbow Dash walked towards me, looking down at my bruised body. She towered over me, but this time she was lacked the intimidating and dominating presence. She was bending down slightly so I didn't have to strain myself to look at her.

"Done being the hero yet?" She had a hint of a smirk on her face.

"I feel like I'm going to pass out," I gasped. "So I'm going to say yes." Rainbow's face changed from a smirk to a look of genuine concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Well I'm not dead, so that's a bonus," I chuckled.

"Here, let me help you." Rainbow Dash knelt down, and allowed me to grab onto her as she pulled me up. All of my pains woke up all at once and I hissed as I let go of her hoof.

"Actually, I think I like the ground more. Think I'll just stay here till the ambulance shows up. Wonder if the doctor will be happy to see me again so soon."

Twilight and Fluttershy were standing at either side at the fresh corpse of the guard. Fluttershy's eyes were tiny, and her mouth was covered by her forehoof. Twilight was stunned. She stood there, looking horrified at what I had done, before marching over to me and giving me a withering look.

"I can't believe you." she said. "You shot him. You actually shot him."

"You're welcome," I said. "Feel free to thank me when the mood strikes."

"You... you murdered him!"

"Twinkles, twinkles, twinkles," I said to her as if lecturing a six year old. "I'm currently bleeding from several spots, have glass lodged into my hoof, several broken bones, and I think I emptied my stomach when he flung me over the counter. Do you think this is the best time to have this discussion? And try not to show too much sympathy to your 'would be' murderer."

"I had it under control," Twilight insisted.

I snickered. "Listen, what I just did wasn't murder, it was self defence. Learn the difference. It could save your life one day. Besides"—I gestured with my head to our dead friend—"Guys like him lost the right to be called a pony a long time ago."

"Wow," said Twilight. "Unbelievable. You just killed a pony in cold blood, and you don't even feel bad about it? How cold and insensitive could you possibly be?"

"Insensitive?" I hissed, flabbergasted. "Insensitive? You think I'm a cold blooded monster who kills everyone with no emotion? You listen here! I've had a really messed up week, and I just saved your fucking life! The least you could do is show me a little respect, and—what are you doing?" Twilight suddenly seemed abnormally calm and collective. She was breathing slowly and silently, her eyes were closed, almost as if she was meditating. Then her horn glowed white, and she bent down. "Twinkles? What are you doing?"

Her horn connected with my forehead. In an instant, a soothing and drowsy sensation washed over me. My body felt much more... relaxed. Everything was going numb, and I couldn't feel anything. Any energy I had left completely vanished. Everything was rapidly fading. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as I blacked out.

Chapter 3: Compassion

Beeping. A loud, obnoxious beeping noise had been going off repeatedly in my ear for the past ten minutes, but I couldn't be bothered to open my eyes to see the offender. My entire body throbbed with pain, as if someone had taken a wooden club and proceeded to beat the stuffing out me like a pinata. I immediately recognized the signature sting of stitches around my wounds, and I could feel a large gauze wrapped over my chest where I had been shot. Despite the lingering pain, it felt nice and warm—all wrapped up in a soft, thick blanket. I didn't know where I was, nor did I particularly care. In my current state, the last thing I wanted to do was to get up; I'd rather just lie here and sleep until the pain goes away.

The incessant beeping continued as I reluctantly opened my eyes to see where I was being kept. I was in a hospital, if the heart rate monitor I was hooked up to was any indication. An IV had been hooked up to my right forearm and placed right next to a computer. Wait a minute… Where was my stuff!? My saddlebags had been removed, and I couldn't feel my weapon holsters. I felt around my neck with my right hoof. The locket! It was gone! I panicked for a brief moment as I quickly pulled my left hoof from the blankets and sighed with relief. I still had my Hooficator; most likely because the doctors were unable to remove it without chopping off my hoof first.

That reminded me—what happened to Ethan? Was he okay? Had he escaped, or had he been caught? I opened the flap on my Hooficator in hopes of contacting him to see if he was alright, but all I got on my screen was No Signal in yellow pixelated text. Fantastic. This meant I had no way of contacting him until I meet him in person. Why was my Hooficator doing that anyway? They were usually highly efficient, so why was it short circuiting now? I slammed the screen shut with a huff and slumped back onto the bed.

Calm down, Jason. I told myself mentally. Ethan is smart, strong, and very resilient. He's saved your life more times than you can count, and he's more likely to be worried about you than you about him. Ethan is going to be fine... I hope.

...

Bad, Jason. Let's think of something else. Like how nice the ceiling tiles are, or how clean the place is, or that piece of paper next to the bed.

My train of thought stopped as my brain processed that last sentence. There, on the bed stand right next to the triage, a newspaper clipping had been left behind by whoever was in this room last. Slowly, and with painstaking effort, I reached out to try and grab it.

"Come on, almost there." Finally, after several missed attempts I managed to get a good grip on the a corner and pulled it closer.

Even up close, the front page photo was still relatively unclear, as if the photo was taken in a hurry. Everything was slightly blurry, but I was still able to at least somewhat tell what was going on—a large blue portal open in the sky. The headline read:

UNIDENTIFIED PONY FALLS FROM MYSTERIOUS PORTAL IN THE SKY.

"Well that certainly isn't comforting."

Something else caught my attention about the photo. At the bottom of the photo, almost out of the shot, was a small black, rectangular shape, too small to pinpoint what it actually was. I looked back at the portal. It was identical to the one I was sucked into. Wait a minute, what happened to the T.S.D? Then it hit me. Ethan's disappearance, my faulty Hooficator, the blue portal and vortex—I had jumped dimensions! If the device was back home, did that mean I was stuck here with no way back? Deciding that I would worry about that later, I read through some of the actual story.

Published June 16th 2024.

Within the outskirts of Ponyville, a strange blue portal mysteriously appeared from thin air in the sky on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Shortly after opening, a strange, black Earth Pony fell from seemingly within the portal. The Earth Pony was lucky enough to have survived the fall as a bystander Unicorn, who wishes to remain unnamed, attempted to use her magic to slow down his descent. As of yet, nopony has been able to identify who this pony is or where he originates from. The Earth Pony has since been transported to the nearest hospital where he currently remains in recovery.

Following the Earth Pony's arrival, other ponies dressed in black suits seem to have emerged from the portal. These ponies have been seen to showcase extremely aggressive behaviour, and caution is strongly advised to anypony who is approached by one.

A strange device was spotted lying on the ground in the middle of the town. This device seemed to be linked with the portal. The Doctor was quick to arrive on the scene and successfully used the device to close the portal. He has since claimed to have no knowledge on what the device is or how it works, but states it could be potentially dangerous if it falls into the wrong hooves. The Doctor claims that he will be taking it with him back to his lab for further analysis, and has yet to make a statement since. The princesses had the following to say about the incident...

The newspaper slipped from my hooves before I realized I'd stopped reading. This was really bad. Worse than the time Ethan and I had the bright idea to try hot-wiring a hover-car. Not only had a bunch of Argo's guards followed me through the portal, but the T.S.D. was here! I had to find that thing and get the hell out of here before those guards did.

My train of thought was interrupted by an orange Unicorn stallion entering the room. He was wearing a white coat, a pair of glasses, and had a stethoscope hanging around the back of his neck.

"Great," he said, approaching my bed, "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Completely smashed," I said.

The doctor just nodded. "Your injuries were quite severe. You had large flesh wounds, and we found a few small pieces of metal in your chest and barrel, that we have fortunately successfully removed. We've also found some bone fragments in those same areas. They were too small for us to be able to repair, so we had to remove those as well. Don't worry, you're going to be fine. If all goes well, you should be fully recovered enough to leave in a few days, however your bones will take about six weeks to fully recover."

A few days? I didn't have time to wait that long. The sooner I had the T.S.D. back in my hooves, the sooner I'd be able to get home and find out what happened to Ethan. Every second spent lying here was another second Argo would be utilising to get his hooves on the device. I couldn't afford to let him have it. Not this time. How much time had I already lost anyway?

"How long have I been out?" I asked.

The doctor looked down at a clipboard on the end of my bed. "According to your medical sheet, you've been unconscious for approximately four days."

My eyes widened, and I jolted up in a sudden state of panic. I immediately regretted sitting up so quickly, as an excruciating sharp pain shot through my entire body as I did, and I grew dizzy a few moments later.

"Hold it," said the doctor. "Take it easy. If you keep moving like that, you're going to pass out again."

I wasn't listening. I was too focused on what he'd just said. Had I really been unconscious for that long? By that time there was a strong chance Argo already had the T.S.D, and Ethan was already dead. That is, if he was caught. The lack of a working Hooficator to communicate with him only increased my anxiety.

"Where's my stuff?" I asked urgently, frantically looking around the room.

"Don't worry, your belongings are just under the bed," said the doctor reassuringly. He used his horn to levitate something, and my saddlebags emerged from under my bed. He gently placed the bags next to me on the bed. Next to the the saddlebags, he placed my weapons. It was a surprise to me that he allowed me to keep my weapons under the bed, unless guns weren't a thing in this world. Probably also assumed the dagger was just a knife I used for cooking or something. I slowly sat up and shifted through the bags to make sure nothing had been removed. Fortunately, my bags had everything, including Hannah's locket—thank goodness! There was no way I was losing that thing again.

"Alright," I said, closing my saddlebags up. "I'm ready."

Almost immediately, the doctor turned his head from below the bed to face me. "I'm sorry, ready for what?"

"I really appreciate all you've done for me, but I really have some urgent stuff I've got to do. I have to leave this hospital immediately."

The doctor frowned and shook his head. "No can do. You're still recovering from your injuries. I can't in good conscious let you go for at least another few days."

"I haven't got time!" I said, my panic levels increasing. "You need to understand, I've had worse injuries than this before. I know how to handle myself outside of the hospital when I'm injured. I wouldn't ask to leave if it wasn't urgent, but it is."

"You're saying that it's an emergency?"

"Yes! As in, the life of a friend of mine could be on the line kind of emergency. I can't stay here. If I stayed here, and something happened to him, I would never forgive myself. You have to let me go. Please! I'm begging you!"

The doctor stopped to consider what I'd just said. He took a deep breath. "Well, provided that you're aware of the consequences, and it's not a matter of life or death, you do have the right to refuse treatment."

"Trust me," I said. "I know the risks."

The doctor sighed. "Alright. I'll let you go early... under one condition."

"What is it?"

"Take it easy on yourself. Avoid doing anything that's physically demanding. If you're required to do something that could strain your injuries, please get somepony else to do it for you so they have time to properly heal." Yeah, that wasn't going to happen, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

"Is that it?" I asked.

The doctor nodded. "Just be aware that by leaving early, you're leaving the hospital without a full recovery. You're likely to experience increased muscle fatigue, internal injuries may worsen if you do any physically extraneous activities, and you will experience occasional short blackouts as your body works on healing your injuries. Those shouldn't last too long, a couple seconds at most if you're giving your body the care and rest it needs. I strongly advise staying here until full recovery."

"I acknowledge that," I said. "But I still insist." I was more than likely going to end up in another brawl within a few minutes of leaving the hospital, but there was no way the doctor was going to let me leave if he knew that. It didn't feel right lying to him, but I had to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Very well," The doctor walked over to the IV, hesitated, and looked back at me. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm positive," I said. The doctor disabled the machine and proceeded to remove the chords attached to my body, while I slipped my saddlebags, weapons and jacket on, preparing to leave. A fresh burst of pain shot through my wounds and I felt bile climb up my throat as I got out of the bed, but I made an effort not to show it. The doctor might've thought I was too unfit to be let out of the hospital this early. To his credit, I probably was. In any other situation, I would have stayed. But Equestria needed me. I had to find that device. While I didn't know it for a fact, I had a creeping feeling in my gut that Ethan's life depended on it.

The doctor escorted me to the exit. Despite my stitches, and carrying the extra weight of my saddlebags, I managed to reach the front of the building with little difficulty. It probably helped that I was used to coping with injuries of this nature. I learned quickly to just suck it up and ignore the pain as long as possible. Upon arriving at the waiting room, he instructed me to wait while he finalized my departure.

While waiting, my mind went into overdrive planning my next move. Obviously I had to find the T.S.D, but how was I going to figure out where to look? My only clue was that some random 'Doctor' was keeping it locked up in some top secret laboratory. This lab and Doctor could be anywhere, so I didn't have a point to start from. My attention snapped back to reality as the doctor approached me with a clipboard.

"Alright, you're good to go," he said. "You'll find the exit just outside those doors." He pointed to a set of glass double doors in front of us.

"Thanks," I said. At that moment, a thought entered my mind. "Wait, I don't have any health insurance, not here at least. Who's paying for my hospital bills?"

"Don't worry about that," he reassured me. "The pony who brought you here insisted she'd take care of that."

I nodded in understanding "I'll have to thank her if I see her then." Assuming I could figure out who she was.

"Take good care of yourself," said the doctor, turning around.

"One last thing," I said before he left.

"Yes?"

"I heard rumours about this device being found by a 'Doctor', who had taken the device for safekeeping. Any idea who this might be?"

"I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the newspaper was referring to The Doctor."

"The Doctor?" I asked. "As in, Doctor… Who?"

"Just The Doctor," he said. "Don't worry, his name confuses everypony, but he's simply known as The Doctor. He's a light brown Earth Pony with crazy hair, wears a blue tie—sometimes a multi-coloured scarf—and he has an hourglass for a cutie mark."

I almost asked what a cutie mark was, but decided it wasn't important right now.

"Do you know how I can find him?"

The doctor shook his head again. "The problem with The Doctor, is that he's nearly impossible to catch. He spends most of his time in his laboratory, and the location of his lab remains a secret. The best way you're going to catch him is if you see him out and about. You'll find him with some luck. Or he will find you."

"Thanks." The doctor turned back around, and disappeared down the hall. I approached the doors, took a deep breath, and walked out of the building, and immediately was assaulted by blinding light raining down upon me. Bloody hell, since when did the sun get so bright? Spending most of my life in the dark, it had been years since I'd last seen this much sunlight. I blinked owlishly a couple dozen times, standing there blindly for what felt like a few solid minutes. When my eyes eventually adjusted, I looked at this brand new dimension laid before me.

The Ponyville in front of me was nothing like the one I was in before. The sky was clear, and incredibly blue. I can't remember the last time the sky wasn't ashen grey. I took a deep breath through my nose, sniffing the air, which smelt wonderful, like… I don't even know, but it was something else. The grass looked pure, and healthy. The buildings towered over my head, so full of colour. Everything was vivid, luscious, colourful and alive. Sarah would've loved it here.

To top everything off were the citizens that occupied the streets of Ponyville. They had uniquely coloured coats, having every colour I could've imagined. Everypony looked healthy, casually trotting through the village, smiling, and chatting with the ponies they happened to be walking next to. There were no cruel guards or an evil dictator threatening them in sight. They were smiling. They were free. And most importantly, they were happy. I had never seen so much colour, or such a pleasant place in my entire life. I closed my eyes, sniffing the beautifully fresh air for a second time. There was only one word I could find to describe this place: Peace. The kind everyone dreamed of back home.

For a single fleeting moment, I was at peace, until that sense of peace was eroded by bitter rage, anger, and envy. What in God's name have the ponies of this world done to deserve this utopian Equestria, while we were forced to suffer under the cruelty of Argo? We had to slog through the wastelands, barely making it to the day's end as thousands were slaughtered by the hour. Yet this, this was what was lurking on the other side, only just out of our reach. It's… it's just not fair! I thought as red-hot tears threatened to fall across my cheeks. We deserve better. And then, as if a lightswitch had been turned, my eyes hardened. I will make this our reality for everyone back home. Even if it kills me. Even if it's the last thing I do. I swear it.

As I walked down the streets, many ponies were staring at me, fixing me strange looks. Some of them were glaring at me. Others were slowly moving away, shielding their children from my presence. Quiet mumbles, whispers and murmuring broke out between some of them, no doubt all about how I looked. I didn't blame them. In my dimension, ponies who looked like—well—like myself were the norm. But in the eyes of these ponies, I was the outcast. The anomaly.

One particular pony seemed to recognize me, a yellow Pegasus with pink flowing hair, green eyes, and a strange image of three pink butterflies on her flank. She rushed over immediately upon seeing me.

"Oh my goodness!" Her voice was very quiet, calm and gentle, but also carried a sound of genuine concern. "I've been so worried. How are you feeling? Are you doing okay?"

"Excuse me, but how could you have been worried about me? I don't believe we've even met."

The yellow Pegasus froze, her eyes widened. Did I really just frighten her? All I did was ask her a question. She was quivering, and seemed to be at a loss of words.

"Oh-I-um-I'm so sorry," she said in a quiet, high pitched and almost whispering tone. "It's just-I-uh-you-ah-you were unconscious."

Okay, fair enough, but what was the deal with this Pegasus? The way she was shivering and stumbling over herself while saying the most mundane things, made me afraid that she would scream and run the other way if I as much as said hello. Was it my appearance that was scaring her?

"Are you feeling okay? You seem terrified."

Great, now she was hyperventilating.

"Calm down," I said, trying to sound as quiet and soothing as possible. "I'm not going to hurt you, Miss. Is my appearance that intimidating?"

She didn't reply. She just looked towards the ground. Her eyes were darting from side to side, and she was kicking the grass with her hoof. After about thirty seconds of watching her collect herself she looked back up to me, and slowly nodded.

"Don't worry," I said. "I get it. You're not familiar with ponies of my… type." I think that was helping, because her breathing was slowing down, and seemed like she was gaining at least a little more self control. "Now, would you care to explain how you found me?"

The Pegasus just gulped. This was going to be harder than I thought. If only Argo's guards, or better yet, Argo himself was this easy to intimidate.

"It's okay, talk when you feel ready"—I subtly backed up a little to give her more space—"I just want to know what happened. How did you find me, and what did you do afterwards?"

The yellow Pegasus took a deep breath. "Umm… well… I was just walking through Ponyville, until a strange portal appeared in the sky." She was slowly shivering again.

"Go on. Then what?"

Her breathing was getting faster, and faster. "You fell!"

'No shit, sherlock' was what I wanted to say. I probably would've said it if I was talking to somepony like Ethan, but seeing how this Pegasus seemed terrified of me just by standing here, anything mildly aggressive would've sent her running for the hills. Instead, I just slowly nodded.

"And I fell… where?"

Her eyes bulged. "You-fell-right-in-front-of-me!" she snapped, determined to get the conversation over with as soon as possible.

"So, you're saying, I landed directly in front of you?"

"Mmm hmm," she said, nodding. "I saw your belongings scattered about you. You were injured. You were unconscious. You were bleeding. For a while, I thought you… that you were… you were…"

"...Dead?"

The yellow Pegasus just gulped, as if the mere thought of the word had choked her up.

"Wait," I said. "Something doesn't add up." The Pegasus looked petrified, as if I was about to accuse her of some heinous crime. "I read in the newspaper that a Unicorn used levitation to break my fall. How is it that I almost landed right in front of you if a Unicorn tried to catch me?"

"Oh," she said. "That was my friend, Rarity."

"Rarity, Rarity," I said, commiting the name to memory. "I don't think I've met her yet."

The Pegasus shivered again. "That's probably because she left town after she helped me drop you off at the hospital."

"Anyway, so she sees me falling, tries to use her magic to catch me, fails spectacularly, causing me to crash in front of you. And you two decided to transport me to the hospital, is that right?"

Once again, her only response was a simple nod.

"What about my stuff, did you bring them with you?" She nodded again. "Okay then, that's all I really wanted to know. Well, don't you worry about me. I'm still quite sore, but the doctors say I'm going to be fine."

The Pegasus was staring at my injuries, and was fixated with a perplexed look on her face. "What happened? It looks like something awful happened to you." I noticed that she was looking at all of my scars—not just my more recent gunshot wound—which were still slightly visible under my jacket. I quickly grabbed the zipper and pulled it up to hide them.

"Let's just say where I'm from, it's a tough neighbourhood. I have a lot of enemies, and I get into a lot fights."

The Pegasus gasped, taking a step back. Her eyes appeared to have shifted from my scars and was now staring at my flank. She looked extremely baffled.

"What?" I asked, a little irritated at this point.

"Umm... how old are you?" she said, not changing her facial expression.

That question was enough for me to get my muscles tense. "I'm twenty four. Why do you ask?"

The Pegasus was stunned, and her mouth was agape into a comical 'O' shape. Why was she so surprised to hear that?

"Well, if you're a fully grown pony," she momentarily paused to take another quick glance at my flank, "then where's your cutie mark?"

I relaxed as I glanced back at the flank myself, then looked back to her.

"I'm sorry to answer a question, with a question," I said. "But what exactly is a cutie mark? Is it that tattoo you have on your flank?"

The yellow Pegasus's eyes noticeably widened and she flinched back as though struck. "You really don't know?"

"No. I don't."

"Who are you?" asked the yellow Pegasus.

"The name's Jason," I said. "Jason Colby." I expected her to respond by either telling me what her name was, or by telling me 'it was nice to meet you'. Instead, she just raised an eyebrow. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Jason Colby? That's your name?"

"Yeah, it is. Why? What's wrong with it?"

"N-Nothing," she said, turning her gaze to the ground. "I've just never heard a name like that before."

"Really?" I said. "Well, what's your name then?"

She hesitated for a minute, before responding. "Umm... my name is..." She mumbled something very softly. She was so quiet, I was sure mute ponies could make louder sounds.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that."

She raised her voice, speaking slightly louder, and clearer. "My name is Fluttershy."

Fluttershy. Wow, that had to be one of the strangest names I had ever heard since Rainbow Dash. Even then, I always assumed Rainbow Dash was a nickname or something.

"Nice to meet you, Fluttershy," I said, lending out a hoof to shake, but she took a step back instead.

"So, what brings you out here?" she asked.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but it's kind of private."

"Oh, sorry to intrude," she said. Then a thought occurred to me.

"You saw my belongings when you found me, right?"

"Yea. You carry a lot of stuff."

"Did you happen to see a strange device? It looks like a black box with a bunch of buttons on it. Kind of looks like a projector. Did you see anything that matches that description?"

Fluttershy shook her head after a moment of hesitation. "I'm afraid I haven't. If I had, I would have left it with the rest of your belongings." I was positive the tiny rectangle in the photo in the newspaper was the T.S.D. That meant it should have been somewhere around my person. If the T.S.D. was right there, then why would she have left it behind? Whatever her reasons were, this meant this so called 'Doctor' got to the device before she did. "Umm, if you don't me asking, but what exactly is it?"

"I can't tell you that," I said. "But I need to find it immediately."

"I'll help you look for it then."

Okay, it was kind of her to help when she found me on the ground, but that was where I drew the line. "No way, Miss. I have to do this by myself."

"Why's that?"

"Too dangerous."

Fluttershy looked alarmed. "D-did you say d-d-dangerous?"

"Yes, dangerous. The ponies who gave me these scars are after me, and trust me when I say you do not want to be around if they find me."

"But, you're still hurt."
"So what?" I shrugged. "That's not going to stop them from trying to kill me, and in my current state, they will probably succeed," Fluttershy gulped, her eyes shrinking. "Which is why for the sake of your own safety, I respectfully request that you stay far away from me." I checked around for eavesdroppers on our conversation.
"So," I continued, "unless you know who The Doctor is or how I can find him, I'm afraid this conversation is over."

"Alright then," Fluttershy said, "I hope you find him. He's a very hard stallion to find when you need him. But if need me for anything, please let me know."

"I will, promise."

Fluttershy smiled and turned around to walk away, but stopped. "Oh my goodness, you're back already." She was addressing two ponies who were approaching her. The one on the left was an Earth Pony with an orange coat and a yellow mane, and wore a brown Stetson hat. She looked like a stereotypical cowgirl you could find in a children's book. All that was missing was a straw for her to chew on. The one on the right was a white Unicorn with deep blue eyes and one of the fanciest purple manes I had ever seen. Not once in my life had I ever seen a pony that looked so unbelievably clean. What baffled me though were their expressions. While everypony that surrounded us looked rather cheerful to me, these two were walking somberly, as if somepony had died.

"Did you find her?" Fluttershy asked them with more confidence in her voice than during our entire conversation combined. The two of them shook their heads.

"I'm afraid not, Fluttershy," said the white Unicorn before looking to the side, the pain in her voice all too apparent. Fluttershy's head hung low, and let out a sigh as her resolve just seemed to evaporate at the words. Despite having zero context on the situation, just seeing her down in the dumps like this made me pity her. The orange pony approached Fluttershy and hugged her reassuringly.

"We're sorry, Fluttershy. We looked everywhere, but we can't find any sign of Dash."

My ears suddenly jolted up. Did she just say Dash? As in, Rainbow Dash? As in, I-tried-to-kill-you-a-few-days-ago Dash? Or was this an alternate Rainbow Dash, and the one they were talking about was complete separate entity to the one back home? I opened my mouth and prepared to speak up, but refrained from saying anything; I didn't want to interrupt Fluttershy's moment with her friends. The white Unicorn opened her hooves and joined the hug with Fluttershy and the Earth Pony.

"I miss her," whispered Fluttershy through the tears. "I miss her so much, Rarity. I just want her back."

So this was the elusive Rarity, the pony that fucked up her attempt to catch me while I was in free fall.

"Don't worry, darling," said Rarity in an attempt to console her friend. "We'll find her. She can't disappear forever." Her eyes shifted from Fluttershy over to me. She gasped to the point where she almost shrieked, as she stared vacantly at me. Her mouth was wide open, clearly trying to say something but unable to find the words.

"Uhh... hi?" I started, trying to break the ice. At that moment, Rarity and Fluttershy separated. I leant out a hoof, but she just leaned backwards, pulling her hoof as far away from mine as possible.

"My goodness gracious!" she sputtered. "Why do you look so-so-"

I sighed and put my hoof back down. "I guess you're not a fan of the rugged look."

"Well, no offence, but it's just that you don't look very appealing. I mean, your hair. Your coat. And are those scars?!" She screeched, and I barely resisted the urge to plug my ears from the offending sound. "I mean, what in the name of Equestria happened to you?"

"Why are you so surprised by my appearance anyway? Aren't you the one who tried to catch me while I took a swan dive off the deep end? I thought Fluttershy helped you transport me to the hospital."

"I did," said Rarity. "At least, to some extent. Yes, I did try to catch you, but I was doing it from far away. When I ran over to see if you were okay, Fluttershy explained to me that the ambulance had already picked you up, and just wanted my help bringing your belongings. This is my first time seeing you up close."

Throughout the entire conversation, the Earth Pony was staring at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Let me get this straight," she said. "You're the one who fell from that portal the other day?"

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to get this reaction a lot so long as I'm here?" I asked, thinking out loud. "Anyway, yeah, that's me. Howdy."

The Earth Pony tilted her head. "Who in tarnation are you?"

"Name's Jason."

"Really? Jason?"

"I know, you think it sounds weird. I really should come up with an alias to fit in better. Well, I'm Fluttershy's acquaintance, and you are?"

"Well, you seem alright," the Earth pony said, visibly relaxing a little. "Clearly you've met Fluttershy over here, but this here is Rarity," The Earth pony pointed her hoof at Rarity. "And I'm Applejack."

"Yeah, I'm just going to call her Jackie if that's okay with everypony," I chuckled. "So, I couldn't help but pick up that apparently somepony's gone missing?"

"You're right," said Fluttershy. "Several months ago, a very close friend of ours disappeared. Something happened to her, and nopony's ever seen her since. We've searched everywhere, but we can't find her. We believe she may have been kidnapped."

"That's terrible. I know what it's like to be in that situation. Just keep looking. I'm sure you'll find her eventually. There is no such thing as the perfect crime. You'll find a clue if you look hard enough"

"You really think so?"—her eyes started watering again—"Well, that means I just have to keep looking."

"There you go. That's the spirit," I said with the best fake smile I could muster.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Jason," said Applejack. "But we've got to go. We need to report to Twilight that there's still no sign of her."

We exchanged farewells as Applejack and Rarity walked past us and disappeared into the crowd. Fluttershy just stood there next to me. I turned towards her. "You should probably go with them. Like I said, you're in danger as long as you're with me."

"What is it about you that makes it so dangerous to travel with?" asked Fluttershy. "I mean, my friends and I have saved Equestria literally a dozen times from all kinds of evil. Maybe we could help you with whatever it is you need to do."

"Listen, you and your friends may have saved Equestria before, but probably not from the kind of stuff I deal with back at home. I'm gonna be blunt with you, those ponies that gave me these scars? They know I'm here. You've probably seen one or two around. Bunch of tall stallions dressed in black suits known as guards. I have something they want, and they will stop at nothing to get it. If a pony gets in their way, it's the last thing they will ever do. It's because of them you had to take me to the hospital a few days ago."

"Oh my, they sound awful," she said.

"Trust me, they are. I swear, I've had several near death experiences because of those fuckers."

Fluttershy winced. "Can you please watch your language?"

"Sorry," I said. It sounded like I really needed to keep my language under control… nah, that's not gonna happen. No way Jose. "There's this one particular guard you need to be careful of. She's probably the worst of the lot and, out of them all, she's the only one who has successfully managed to arrest me. Her boss is now essentially blackmailing her to kill me, so now she really wants me dead. What sucks for me is that she's really good at her job. If she decides you're her enemy, you're pretty much a goner."

"She sounds terrible," said Fluttershy. "How will I know if it's her?"

I froze. What was I supposed to tell her? How was I even supposed to know whether or not they were the same Rainbow Dash? I was afraid to ask, but I had to do it for her safety.

I took a deep breath. "You said that a very close friend of yours is missing, right?"

Fluttershy nodded. "What about her?"

"What was she like?"

Immediately Fluttershy jumped on the defensive, "Why do you want to know?"

'Because there's a strong chance that this friend of yours will try to kill you if you push the wrong buttons', but I bit my lip and made the smart choice. "I just want to know. I mean, she sounds like a really close friend of yours."

Fluttershy eyeballed me suspiciously. Slowly, she started edging away from me while looking around for an excuse to leave this conversation. Meanwhile, sirens started going off in my head.

Code red. Suspect is retreating. It's showtime Jason. Time to put on the Colby charm. "Listen, obviously I'm not from here. You can probably already tell but I come from far away."

Fluttershy's eyes were still darting around "And your point is?"

I sighed. "I don't want to get your hopes up just yet"—I paused for effect—"But I think there's a chance I might have met her."

Fluttershy froze after my statement. In an unexpected bout of energy, she jumped forward till her face was an inch away from me. "You have?"

I jerked back in surprise. "I don't know. That's why I need you to tell me about her." And hook, line and sinker. See, Ethan? This is how you make up bullshit on the spot.

"Well," Fluttershy started. "She's a Pegasus."

I just blinked at her. "Do you think you could be a little more specific? What does she look like?"

"Oh, right. Umm, her coat is cyan. She has rose coloured eyes, and her cutie mark consists of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it."

"And just to specify, those tattoos you have on your flanks, those are cutie marks right?"

Fluttershy fixed me with a strange look. "I still don't get it. How can a fully grown pony like yourself not know what a cutie mark is?"

"Cutie marks aren't a thing where I'm from," I said dismissively. "I had never heard of them before today. Besides, it's not important. Keep going."

"She's fast."

"Again, Fluttershy, that's not specific. I know lots of ponies who are fast. Hell, I'm fast."

"Not as fast as Dash. She even joined the Wonderbolts."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "The fuck is a Wonderbolt?"

"Language!"

"Sorry." I cleared my throat. "The bloody hell is a Wonderbolt?"

Fluttershy just rolled her eyes. "Never mind. The point is, she's the fastest pony in Equestria."

"And her name is Dash, right?" I held my breath, praying that she didn't say-

"Yeah. Rainbow Dash."

Well shit. Despite my best efforts to suppress it, a loud groan escaped my mouth.

Fluttershy stared devastatingly at me. "What is your problem? I just described a very close friend of mine that I have lost, and that's your reaction?"

How was I supposed to tell her? I guess it was best to tell her as it is.

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" I quickly tried to cover up my mistake. "It's just... "

Fluttershy went from looking offended to concerned. "Just what?"
There was no point in trying to prolong it. I had to tell her. I took a deep breath.

"Fluttershy, I can confirm that I have definitely met your friend. Very recently, might I add. I know what happened to her."

Fluttershy's lip started quivering, "What do you mean? What happened to Dashie?"

I hesitated. "Hearing this is going to hurt you, Fluttershy. I know it will."

Fluttershy was tearing up. "It's going to hurt?"

"A lot. I honestly wish I didn't have to tell you. But I have to, for the sake of your own safety."

Tears were now pouring down her muzzle and coalescing into a puddle at our hooves.

"I don't think she's the same Rainbow Dash that was once your friend anymore. The night before I came here, Rainbow Dash caught me. She took me to a place where I was to be executed, and if my best friend hadn't broken me out in time, that would've been the end of me."

Fluttershy looked horrified, and she broke down into even bigger sobs than before. Soon, she was attracting the attention of bystanders nearby, most of whom were giving me the stink eye. "I don't believe you! It can't be true. Rainbow Dash would never do that. She couldn't."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed we were gaining an audience. A relatively large group of ponies were starting to surround us. The fact she was crying made things look terrible on my part, and I didn't want the information about Rainbow Dash getting out in the open. At least not yet.

"This isn't the best place to talk about this," I whispered in her ear. "Do you know anywhere we can discuss this more privately?"

"Well"—she paused to collect herself—"there is one place I know."

"Alright, here we are."

Upon the sight of our destination my ears drooped, and my jaw started scraping the pavement. In front of me was the craziest looking building I had ever seen. While the main structure of the building seemed normal, what really stuck out to me was the roof. The first two stories were topped by an enormous roof that looked like the icing for a chocolate cake, decorated with white sugar frosting around the edges. In the middle of the roof was a third storey in the form of a giant cupcake, which was literally topped off by a fourth storey in the shape of a slightly smaller cupcake. At the very top of the building were three giant candles. The entire building looked like a life sized gingerbread house. It was a sight to behold. If only I had a camera with me. No one's gonna believe this when I get back.

"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner," said Fluttershy.

"Wow," I sighed. "This place is amazing! I've never seen anything like it."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Fluttershy's muzzle. "Wait till you taste the food inside."

As we walked through the entrance, a tiny bell rang. Then the smell kicked in. Oh God, the smell. A very sweet scent of hot sugary pastries, as if they'd just come fresh out of an oven. The smell grew stronger as we approached the counter. My mouth was watering heavily at this point, and my stomach was churning as if it hadn't eaten in days, which was most likely the case. We arrived at the front desk, and I stared at the glass counter. The shelves were jam packed with some of the sweetest and most delicious looking desserts I ever could've imagined. This place had hoof buns, cakes, donuts, cookies, pies, puddings, and heaps more that I had never seen before in my life. The sheer amount of choices I had were overwhelming.

Fluttershy rang the silver bell sitting on the desk. In the blink of an eye, a pink Earth Pony popped up from behind the desk right in front of my face.

"HI!"

"Jesus bloody Christ on a fucking pogo stick!" I yelled and started backpedalling in shock, startled by her appearing out of thin air. She was completely drenched in vibrant pink, had lively blue eyes, and a wild poofy mane. She kind of reminded me of Hannah, except much older, and I don't think I had ever seen a pony look so cheerful. While many of the ponies I had seen just outside looked pretty happy, this pony looked like her face was going to split in two any second. She had a massive smile, and seemed like she was just exploding with joie de vivre.

Upon the sight of her, Fluttershy instantly seemed to have lightened up. "Hey, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie? By this point, I had grown just to accept that this is how names worked in this world. As Pinkie caught a glimpse of me, she froze, and stared at me without saying a word. She was making me feel uncomfortable.

I lifted a hoof and waved at her with extreme caution. "Hello? I come in peace. Please don't hurt me."

Pinkie Pie gasped, and all of her attention locked onto Fluttershy. "You didn't tell me he left the hospital! How am I supposed to organise a welcome party if I don't know these things?"

Fluttershy shrugged. "I just met him."

My list of questions was increasing at an alarming rate. Like how the lack of a party was what was bothering her, not the fact I was carrying several weapons and was covered in scars.

"Excuse me, a welcome party? You mean to say you would have thrown a party to welcome me to Ponyville had I not been unconscious?"

"Well of course silly! How else are you going to make friends if you're new here?"

I could feel the migraine building up the more I started thinking. Fuck it. I have lost the ability to care. My mental health is not worth this. "Pinkie, it's fine. I don't need you to throw a party for me. I'm going be moving along soon, so no need to put in the extra effort ."

Pinkie started giggling, "Silly pony. It doesn't matter that you're staying for a short while. You're here now, so you get the same treatment everyone else does, or my name isn't Pinkamena Diane Pie. Now, whose name should I put on the invitation letters?" She pulled out a neat stack of envelopes from beneath the counter.

If I was born here, what would my name be? I asked myself. Ah, fuck it, I'll go with my real name.

"Colby. Jason Colby."

Pinkie smiled at me sincerely. "Nice to meet you, Jason." Finally. It was kind of a breath of fresh air to for once be able to state my name in this world without receiving a weird look. Maybe that was because this pony looked just as eccentric as I did. She turned to Fluttershy. "Anyway, what can I get you two?"

Fluttershy placed a hoof on her chin as she analysed the contents of the glass counter. "Hmm… I'll have a Caramel Sundae please."

Pinkie Pie beamed. "Coming right up, and what about you, Jason? What would you like?"

Her extremely positive and friendly behaviour was really throwing me off. The only ponies I knew who were this approachable were my best friends, especially Sarah. I looked at the menu and back at the glass counter for a solid twenty seconds.

"Can I please have a Chocolate Pie with a large Chocolate Milkshake?"

Pinkie Pie smiled again. "Okie Dokie Loki!" After Fluttershy paid, Pinkie turned around, and disappeared into the kitchen. Fluttershy and I sat down at one of the tables while we waited for Pinkie to serve our food.

I checked around the rest of the room to see if anypony else was here. It was just the two of us. Good. I looked at Fluttershy.

"How are you feeling? About the truth?"

"That's just it, Jason. There's evidence to prove that you're mistaken. How can you say for sure that it's the same Rainbow Dash? I mean, the way you described her, that's completely out of her nature. It's not like her."

"So there are two Rainbow Dash's in Equestria that both happen to have the exact same rainbow mane?"

Fluttershy sighed and bent her head low.

"Look," I said. "I'm only telling you this because you have the right to know. If she finds me, and you see her, and you're unaware of the pony she has become, it will not be pretty."

Fluttershy sniffled. "But why? Why would she go down this path?"

"I don't know," I said.

Pinkie Pie walked up to our table with a metal tray on her hoof. Sitting on it was the food that we ordered. She placed the tray on the table and Fluttershy grabbed her Sundae, while I grabbed my Chocolate Pie and Milkshake.

"Thanks, Pinkie," I said. Pinkie didn't respond. She was looking straight at Fluttershy.

"What's wrong Fluttershy? Why the long face?"

Fluttershy looked at me, then up at Pinkie, then back to me. "Should I tell her?"

I mulled it over in my head. "It's up to you. You make the decision on who to trust to keep this a secret."

"What secret?"

Fluttershy turned to face her full attention towards Pinkie. "Umm… Pinkie Pie? We need to talk."

Pinkie sat down next to me. "What is it?"

Fluttershy turned towards me. Without saying a word, I used my hoof to signal her to proceed. She took a deep breath. "There's something I need to tell you."

Fluttershy spent the next five minutes explaining the situation about Rainbow Dash to Pinkie Pie. She took it surprisingly well.

"Do you know if there's any way we could bring Dashie back?" Pinkie's voice wasn't anywhere close to being as over the top as before. Now, she sounded calm and in control.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I don't follow."

"Well, if she's acting so out of her nature, it's clearly not Rainbow Dash. Physically, she might be, but there's no way she'd act like this by her own free will. If you ask me, I think somepony has either brainwashed her, or is controlling her."

My eyebrow raised. "Do you know if that kind of thing is even possible?"

Pinkie turned towards Fluttershy. "Remember how a couple years ago, Discord did that to us? How he brainwashed us into acting the opposite of who were are? Same thing, but different user."

I shook my hoof, motioning Pinkie to pause. "Wait, wait, wait a minute, hold the phone. Who the hell is Discord?"

"Weeell-"

"It's a long story," Fluttershy interjected.

"Never mind then," I said. "That actually makes sense. If she was under the control of Argo, that would explain why she's done a complete one eighty. And if it has happened before, then there is way to reverse it." I stared contemplatively into my Milkshake. "Although, I don't think I'll ever forgive her for the things she's done, the ponies she's killed. Whether she was in control or not, her face is a symbol of our oppression, and I don't think I will ever look past that."

Pinkie looked puzzled. "Rainbow Dash is one of the greatest friends I've ever had. If we can find a way to bring her back to normal, you should give her another chance, Jason. You shouldn't condemn an innocent pony to the death penalty. If one of your best friends was being brainwashed, you wouldn't be saying that."

My voice became very low and quiet, almost passive aggressive. "That's different. My friends would rather die than have something that horrible happen to them."

"But she's-"

I thrusted my hoof in front of Pinkie's face. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

I stared back at my Milkshake and Chocolate Pie. My stomach growled, as I came to the realisation that I had been so engrossed in the conversation I barely touched them. As my mind shifted back to the food, the subtle smells of chocolate and cinnamon hit me like a freight train. I took a piece with my fork, and stared at it. It was still hot, the chocolate oozing where I had applied pressure. Up close it looked more appetizing than ever. I licked my lips, prepared to enjoy every single bite… then it hit.

Oh God, this is the best thing I've ever had in my life. I took another bite. The sweetness, the slight saltiness of the crust, I never want this to stop. Another bite. I am never going back to eating chips from a shitty vending machine after this. I...I...Flashes of my life raced through my mind. Another bite. How could I be so fucking selfish? My friends are all cramped up in a tiny ratty hideout back at home. Everypony I care about is starving, sometimes going a full day without any food. And what about Ethan? Assuming he had been captured after I disappeared, was he being fed at all down in the dungeons? Or was Argo's method of execution going to be allowing him to slowly die of starvation? Tears started building up in my eyes. Another bite. All the while, I'm sitting here in this fancy ass cafe, eating this fancy ass pie, and relishing every second of this delicious pie while everyone else I care about is suffering! What a disgrace.

Tears were openly falling down my muzzle now. Another bite. Why? Why must I do this to them. It's not fair! It's not fair to Ethan, it's not fair to Sarah, nor is it fair to anyone else. Why did my world have to be so cruel? I would've been better off not knowing this place existed. Another bite. Why can't I provide this exact same luxury to all of my friends. This dimension has been the best place in the world. My friends and I always spoke about what we called The Utopian Equestria, where everything was just right. This place. This place matched our description perfectly. This is our dream Equestria. Here I am, finally relishing the world we've always dreamed about… without my friends… and I. Fucking. Hate it!

The fork clattered against my now empty plate as I grabbed my Milkshake, and guzzled it down my throat. It was just as beautiful as the pie. Not wanting to think about the luxury, I tried to put my mind on lock down. My throat was repeatedly making a loud gulping noise as the Milkshake poured down my throat. As I kept chugging on the beverage, some of the Shake escaped my mouth and dripped down my face, mixing with the tears.

I slammed the empty glass back onto the table with a sigh, followed by a sniffle. Fluttershy and Pinkie were staring at me looking baffled, completely unaware of my reasons behind my emotional breakdown. Pinkie gently patted me on the back, seeming remorseful.

"Jason? Are you-"

I launched at her and wrapped my hooves around her in a tight hug, and cried into her shoulder. She jerked backwards for a brief second, caught off guard, but was quick to return it.

"Thank you," I whispered between sobs. "Thank you so much, Pinkie."

"You're an emotional little fella, aren't you?"

I tightened my grip and sniffled a few more times. "I just wish my friends were here right now. They would've loved this."

Pinkie slowly separated from me. "Have any of your friends been here before?"

I shook my head.

Pinkie moved away from the table. "Give me a second. I'll be right back." She walked back behind the counter and disappeared into the kitchen. About a minute later, she came back to the table with a white box and held them out to me. "Here. Take these."

I took the box, opened the lid and looked inside. The box contained a dozen delicious looking chocolate icing covered donuts, all of them half covered in sprinkles.

"Wow," I said, closing the lid. "They look amazing," I held the box in front of her, "but I'm afraid I cannot accept this."

"Why not?"

"I can't afford it. I don't have any money to pay for it."

"Please, take them." She pushed the box into my chest. "Free of charge. For your friends."

"Really?"

Pinkie smiled warmly. "Some things are worth more than a price tag." I clutched the box to my chest, as I was tearing up again.

"Thank you, Pinkie. Thank you so much. They're gonna love this. You have no idea how much this will mean to them." I gave the box a final glance before slipping it into one of my saddlebags. "You know, you're probably the kindest pony I've ever met."

I took a couple moments wiping my face down into something a tad bit more presentable. "So if you don't mind me asking"—I turned to focus my attention on Pinkie as she spoke up—"Where are you going from here?"

I sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. Truth be told, I'm actually looking for somepony."

"You looking for The Doctor?"

"How the hell did you know that?"

"Oh, I just guessed. Seven times out of ten somepony is looking for The Doctor."

I turned to Fluttershy. "When-why-how did she-"

Fluttershy smirked. "It's Pinkie Pie, just roll with it."

"Well, The Doctor is a very hard pony to catch," said Pinkie.

"So I hear."

"But what I can say is that you'll most likely find him in his laboratory."

My ears perked up. "Do you know where it is? Can you take me to it?"

Pinkie rested a hoof below her muzzle. "It's really hard to tell for sure where he's going to park it next."

I stared at Pinkie, questioning if she even realised what she'd just said. "Excuse me, but how the hell do you park a laboratory?"

"That's the tricky thing about The Doctor's lab," said Pinkie. "The reason it's so hard to find, is because it moves."

My mouth fell open. Was this pony taking something? "The-lab-moves?"

Pinkie nodded. "It sure does."

"Can't you use your Pinkie Sense?" asked Fluttershy.

Pinkie shook her head again. "That's not how my Pinkie Sense works. It only works on instant things, and only things that happen nearby. I can't use it to actively go looking for something."

I scratched my head with my hoof. "What are you two even talking about?"

Fluttershy slumped in her seat. "Never mind."

"Anyway, you'll know it when you find it," said Pinkie. "You'll know you found it because it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"You mean it's larger on the outside and smaller on the inside?"

"Nnnope."

"But that doesn't make any-oh, fu-" I took notice of Fluttershy raising her eyebrows. "-dge it. I'm just going to assume a lot of things don't make any sense here." Damn censoring myself like that felt weird. Cheers to me never saying that again.

"Phew," said Pinkie, wiping her fringe with her hoof. "For a second there, I thought you were going to say… something else."

"I do say it," I said. "All the time. I'm just censoring myself for Fluttershy's sake."

"But why?" Fluttershy decided to voice her opinion on the matter. "Why would you say something like that? It's not a very nice thing to say."

I shrugged. "That's just how my friends talk. It doesn't help we're always in extremely stressful situations. Quick and easy way to reduce stress."

"Anyhow," Pinkie spoke up. "I think you would have better luck finding him if you went looking for one of his companions."

"Companions?"

"Yeah. The Doctor typically brings another pony to travel with him, and they're usually hanging around Ponyville whenever they're not with him. If you find one of them, they will probably be able to help you out."

"Do you know anypony to look out for?"

"Your best bet will be either Derpy, or Roseluck."

"Can you describe them?"

"Depry is a grey Pegasus, she's blonde, has yellow eyes, and has bubbles for a cutie mark. Rose is a cream Earth Pony, her hair is—well—rose coloured, and has green eyes."

"Right," I said. "Got it."

Our conversation was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing. The door swung open, with a Unicorn behind it. She was mint green with a lightly coloured mane. She had amber eyes, and had a harp for what I believed to be her cutie mark. Her eyes were bulging, and she was panting uncontrollably.

"Everypony!" she gasped. "Hide! Dark Ponies! Three of them!"

"Wait a minute," I said, turning to Fluttershy. "What's a Dark Pony?"

"It's what we call ponies dressed in those black suits," said Fluttershy. "Wait, didn't you say they're called guards?"

My ears shot straight. "Shit! They found me!"

I jumped off my seat and removed my gun, cocking it and removing the safety cap.

Fluttershy stared at the gun nervously. "Jason, what are you doing?"

"Picking off dandelions!" I hissed. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"You're not planning to fight them, are you?"

"Ideally, no." I grabbed my saddlebags and slipped them on. "In my current position, I'd probably last thirty seconds, tops. But if they see me, I'm going to need to be prepared. Pinkie, Fluttershy, I strongly suggest you go and hide. Now!"

"But what about you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Don't worry about me, I know how to defend myself. Go hide, now!"

Fluttershy and Pinkie ran into the kitchen. I approached the one of the windows and peeped out. There was a large crowd of ponies screaming and running in every direction, as two guards were scouting the area. One terrified looking Earth Pony had been cornered into a nearby building by a Unicorn guard, no doubt being interrogated by him, or her. Shit, one of them was heading straight for this building.

I held my gun in position and jumped in front of the door as it swung open and a pissed off looking Pegasus guard walked in. Her mask had a tear that spanned from her left eye to the right side of her forehead. The left glass eye hole was shattered, exposing a rose coloured eye. The rest of the tear exposed her cyan face, and an all too familiar rainbow mane. I inhaled a deep breath through my nostrils and breathed out slowly.

"Fuck me."