She exhaled the stale air that had been trapped inside her lungs for Celestia-knows how long, the heavy puff of used oxygen sending particles of dust into the air. She gasped; panic flooding her mind as she struggled to take in a breath of life. Black dots ate at the corners of her unfocused vision, threatening to send her back into another endless sleep; one she wouldn’t wake from. Her mouth opened and closed, her nostrils flaring open, but the reviving air didn’t come. More and more of the unclear shapes were lost to the darkness that slowly filled her eyes. No… this isn’t… the end…
Sweet oxygen flooded into her lungs, filling her body with energy and life. The feeling of being soon returned to her legs as blood began to flow with the steady pumping of her heart. Her vision snapped into clarity, the small particles of dust that hung in the air were thrown into sharp relief. She was in a dark room, the walls glowing with a blue light that barely illuminated the space. There was a crushing silence, cut only by her occasional breath and the loud thudding of her heart. "Where... am I?" Her question seemed to stop in midair, sounding hollow and dead. She brought up a hoof to rub at her temple slowly, looking at the semi-foreign object with curiosity. "And... who am I?"
Silence greeted her words, yielding no answers to her questions. She shifted slightly, only now acknowledging that she lay on her side. The floor angled upwards slightly, and her head was pointed up to look at the ceiling. Her hooves clicked on the floor as she rolled over, her body moving in strange directions as she stretched involuntarily. She pushed into the ground, sending herself upward before falling back down. After several more failed attempts at standing, she finally managed to enter an upright position, her legs trembling slightly with weakness. She scanned the dimly-lit walls that surrounded her. "What is this place?" Her voice was weak, barely audible even in the silence that filled the room.
Her gaze swept back over the smooth walls, their cold surfaces revealing no answers to her questions. She staggered over to the closest one, her hooves dragging on the floor and her heart beating loudly in her ears. She lifted a hoof to brush along the wall, knocking away the layer of dust that coated it. A deep, radiant blue shined brightly into the room, cutting through the darkness and blinding her.
After the image of the azure flash dissipated, she looked back at the wall and flicked out another hoof to cut away at the dust. The particles of dirt hung in the air, catching the light and making the whole room seem full of blue magic. Magic? Yeah right... She shook her head and snorted, driving the thought away. She backed away from the wall and looked into its depths, a cyan pony with a rainbow mane looking back at her with a proud light burning in her eyes. She slowly lifted a leg, watching the reflection do the same. "Huh, so that's me." She kicked at the ground and turned away. "Still doesn't tell me who I am."
A loud ringing filled the room, cutting through the strange silence that hung heavily over it. She spun around, trying to locate the source of the noise without any success. Her hooves clicked on the ground as she stepped forward, the dirt sifting to make room for each of her hooves. Her hoof collided with something hard, producing yet another tone that pounded constantly on her ears. She backed away slightly, kneeling down to brush aside the particles of dirt that had piled up over time. Eventually the brown color turned into bright silver disk that was set slightly into the blue stones. She kicked into its surface again, the impact sending a tremor of pain up her leg. The ringing rose in pitch until it faded into nothingness.
Her hoof had punched a hole straight through the thin sheet of metal, gaining a few scratches and cuts on the way through. She carefully lifted the disk from its place on the floor, idly tossing it to the side after it was free. She looked around once more, taking in the room with its curiously-blue walls that she had been left in for however long it was; a place she would never see again. Yeah. Happy memories. Right. She smirked at the thought before jumping into the hole. Darkness formed a wall on every side of her; the sound of rushing air was her only companion as she fell.
A loud screaming filled the tunnel, causing her to jerk her head sideways to find the source of the ear-splitting shriek. A pure-white unicorn with a curled purple mane and way too much make-up plummeted beside her, the obviously-hoofacured hooves flailing wildly as her eyes darted about. “Who—“
Another shout came from above, reverberating in the pipe and swiftly becoming a roar. “Hold on Rarity, I’m comin’!” She watched in awe as a cyan blur shot past her, exploding in a prismatic wave as it grabbed the unicorn and darted around the bend.
“W-wait!” She flapped her wings hard, pushing herself to go even faster. The wind tugged at her, holding her back as she pushed against it. “I… gotta… talk… to… her!” She pushed past the resistance, a loud boom filling her ears briefly before all sound escaped her. It was only her agility that saved her from crashing into the wall as she turned the corner and came to a complete stop. There was nopony there, the only sight being a brief bend that led further downward. “What the hay?” She shook her head in an attempt to dismiss the cyan blur, but it still nettled at her. Who the hay is Rarity? She glanced back behind her before down the tube again.
She smiled as she approached the circle of light that was obviously the exit. Angling into another dive that made the air tear at her wings, she shot down the chute with an unmatchable speed. The light steadily grew in size and intensity, eventually becoming bright enough that she was forced to close her eyes against its blinding white color. The echoes of her wings stopped suddenly, and she flipped herself around so that her hooves were pointed downward. Barely a second later, a jolt passed through her body as her hooves collided with something solid. Painfully.
