The future set in stone

Chapters

The awakening
Race-'n-heist
The escape
The syndicate

The awakening

It has been thousands of years since Twilight began her reign; since they froze the evil three in stone.

The elements were never meant to turn flesh into stone, yet, they did it twice.

And for that, the giant price was paid.

“TWILIGHT, NO!” the hellmare screamed, watching as her best “friend”went through the agony of turning into stone. The terrifying look on her face. The words she never got to say…

Who was this hellmare, you ask?

You’re listening to her. It’s me; I’m the hellmare. At least that’s the name I gave to myself when the pain erased my real one from my memories.

Besides, what name better suits a mare who is serving her sentence in hell?

Reliving the same moment, feeling all the pain and suffering, emotions and regrets; unable to change anything.

The sins I never noticed before they became obvious. All the good I did wasn’t enough to pay for them and now they finally caught up with me. They forced me to live through that moment, to see all the bad I did at that party again, and again… and again… and again.

ARGH!

Sorry-sorry. It’s wrong for a lady to lose her patience… and mind.

Who am I kidding? I lost my mind when I lost her. Even now I’m talking to MYSELF TO KEEP COMPANY!

Sorry. It’s been so long.

The light?! It’s… Light! I can feel!

“I’M ALIVE!” I screamed as my body fell to the ground.

Is my sentence over? Why does everything hurt so much? Why is it so cold and bright?

I looked back at my body. I even forgot what colour it was… white. A cutiemark? Was it such a faded blue before? I may have spent an eternity in the stone, but I can always recognize a bad design… What is that?!

“Ahh!,” I screamed as I saw something grey hanging on my leg. That’s-! My voice… It’s been so long, I’d forgotten how it sounds.

Immediately after I screamed, something struck my leg, and whatever the grey thing was that I'd spotted hanging onto it shattered into a million tiny pieces that were now dirtying this weird room.

The room was uncomfortably white. Glowing lights were all around, and the weirdest part was that everything else was straight from the renaissance age, there was a bucking chandelier! Even a table had those hideous clippings depicting unknowingly what.

“Tschh! Princess, we have to go!” said somepony above me. His voice wasn’t very deep, and it sounded friendly. I guess any voice would sound friendly after an eternity spent in stone.

Princess? No-no. I’m not? Twilight! I forgot about her!

I just wanted to open my mouth, but immediately was cut off. All the friendliness disappeared as he began pulling me. I couldn’t do anything better, but try to comply. Even breathing was painful, and I’m not going to mention my hooves. My body wasn’t ready for trotting.

“Darling!” suddenly burst out of me. I didn’t know why I screamed it, but it felt so natural. “I maybe don’t know what’s going on, but I’m still a lady!” I lied, not wanting to talk about my poor physical situation — lack of exercise, a poor habit of eating too much ice cream and a really long time spent like a statue.

He didn’t stop, even the opposite. For sure it would’ve caused my hooves to have bruises. We quickly dashed through a set of rooms, each one of them as weird as the first one; each one of them made in a totally different style: renaissance, modern, or at least what I remembered it to be, pre-celestial with all of those hideous protruding shapes and even prehistoric room made from solid rock! Who in their mind would carve a couch out of rock?!

He suddenly stopped and looked straight into my eyes. “I do not care who you are right now!” His blue eyes were shimmering with something awfully familiar. “If we're still here when they arrive — we’re worse than dead!”

Dead? So I’m still alive after all and it’s not another circle of hell? “Who are ‘they’,” I asked softly, trying to calm him down and order my thoughts. It didn’t seem to work as the fur on his face became wet with disgusting sweat. Only now did I realize that he was wearing a hooded mantle, covering most of his body.

A herd of loud steps appeared from behind. “He meant us,” said someone dully. They sounded just wrong, unnatural. The only thing I felt in their voice was suppressed rage and anger. Nothing more nothing less.

Turning around, I saw a bunch of weird, bulk creatures. Their appearance brought a fun thought in my head — they looked like someone decided to cross Bulk Biceps and a hamster. Almost giggling, I noticed a weird shimmer coming from their necks and eyes. Different colours each, but nothing else seemed to be different.

“Fuck,” the pony who saved me said sadly.

My face turned red and I slapped him. “Don’t you dare to use curses near me!”

He facehooved as a few of those 'Hamster-Biceps' chuckled.

A few minutes later, we were thrown into some semblance of an old jail cell. At least the decor wasn’t that bad. Although the absence of a toilet and separate beds alarmed me. And rust on the jail bars suggested that the room was over-humidified which was really bad for my mane.

“Ok. Listen, we’ve got…” he pulled off a sleeve of his grey mantle, which was the same as the colour of his skin. Tasteless. A weird light appeared above his hoof, “thirty minutes. After that, it’s a point of no return and you can wish the future bye-bye.”

What is that thing? It looked fabulous, and those lights — more glorious than Manehattan at night! But what was that about the point of no return? And more importantly, what the hay is going on? So I asked him that.

He raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t know, do you?” His eyes widened up as a realization hit him. “That probably means good… maybe. Listen, In half an hour, our RC… I mean vessel leaves, and that is our only wayout! And I had other things to do here, but right now, you’re my priority.”

He seemed rather similar to Twilight. Not his appearance, but the way he does things, the way he talks, explaining all the smart stuff. The way he walks in circles trying to figure what to do now. The way his eyes twinkle when he looks at me.

“Vessel? Are we in the sea?” I asked nicely, “And what will happen if we’re too late?”

He suddenly stopped and looked into my eyes again. His eyes didn’t seem so blue anymore, they more resembled a colour of violet, adding a point into a piggy bank of his similarity to her. But one thing reminded me that he was far away from her; the shimmer — it isn’t hers, just a close replica.

“Slavery, probably rapes and many other things a sick mind can come up with,” he broke the illusion and my train of thought. What was bad about it was the way he said it, like it was nothing, old news.

Pardon? They are going to do what?!

“Don’t worry, I’ll find us a nice way out… Just need to get to that lever,” he explained. Outside of our old-styled prison, I saw a comically giant lever with a red ball at the end.

How cliched… “Let’s get out then!”

“Didn’t you just hear me?” he asked, probably questioning my sanity.

It’s been… sometime. Hope it still works.

With a simple thought, my horn lit up with a pale bluish light. A soft, barely seeable aura enveloped it. It is surely harder than I remember. Years without practice, I guess.

Sweat began showing through my fur which made me question my decision, but in the end, it wasn’t a matter of beauty, but rather a matter of life and death. Beauty can wait.

“What are you…?”

The same aura encompassed the lever, and it began creaking, resisting to go down. But I wasn’t about to give up.

If I learned at least one thing from her, it would be that you should never give up, especially if there are friends depending on you. I looked back and smiled at his shocked face.

Rusty bastard gave in with a loud click.

I almost fell to my knees, but it was done. Bars slid into the ceiling making our way out free.

The floor met my exhausted body with dirt, dust and drops of my sweat. This disgusting mix became my friend for the next few minutes, while I was rejuvenating.

“Good job! I have no idea what you just did, but we’ll talk about it later. We’ve got to run!” He complimented me and helped me up. A few seconds later, we left the cell and I began following him while he was, as he said ‘orientating environmental map’ on his wrist.

It took us some time, and by his words, we took a ‘stealth’ approach. Although it seemed like we were just walking without any goal. Choosing random doors, suddenly stopping and waiting for no real reason, or even just walking into a broom closet and waiting for minutes!

The only reason for not complaining I found was all the rooms we visited. And more importantly their designs. They all were poorly decorated, but they all were from different eras and the number of unknown unique styles suggested that time I spent in ‘hell’ was longer than I thought.

And then came the weirdest room I ever saw. Pure white box made out of metal plates. A giant gate-like wall. And thousands of, for the lack of a better word, weirdly shaped structures with unique markings on each.

He began banging on a beat-up structure. This one had "RC42gTS" written on it. It also stood up amongst the others because of its smaller and more flattered shape. And it's a disgusting swamp colour.

It really reminded me of a sparrow. A prolonged head. Small wings that are slightly thinner than the body. But it also had a note of something similar to pegasi. Twilight would probably call it 'aerodynamical'.

Something grey in the corner of the room caught my attention.

There was something familiar. Something like a statue that stared right into my soul, at least one of its eyes.

Those eyes… Why is it so familiar?! The Gala… She ruined it for me? Who is she… Why do I remember her and that weird dress?!

Like a sudden flash of a camera, my mind sparked. DERPY! How could I forget this cute muzzle, those beautiful yellow eyes and grey skin… Now it is all gone? She can’t be dead! I’m alive, so should be she, right?

I dropped to my knees and hugged her hooves. She was frozen rearing, with a smile on her face. Even the dirty floor couldn't stop me from embracing her. Her body was hard as stone and it was painful, but I couldn’t let go of her.

Oh god, is she going through the same thing as me?!

"Derpy! Can you hear me?!" I screamed at the statue. My new friend stopped banging on the vessel and turned his attention to me.

The door next to him opened with a loud creak, and he began calling me to come quickly.

I tried to move the statue, but it appeared to be too heavy to even budge. Magic wouldn’t help either. All I could do is to hope.

"I'm sorry Derpy. I'm so sorry. Just keep in there, wherever there is." Tears began dripping down my cheeks. I wished I could soothe her pain.

I began slowly turning around, my insides were screaming 'no!', but the body kept moving. My tears turned black as the millennial mascara washed off my face, leaving a black trail under my eyes.

I looked at him with that 'pathetic face', and I could see that he felt a fragment of what I was feeling. He cringed a little but pushed me into that thing.

He looked at me. His face was taken over by a frown. "Listen. I understand that she also might be alive, but we can't help anyone if we're dead, but I guarantee you, I'll do whatever is in my power to help you and her. That is my promise." He threw another quick sight behind my back and his muzzle turned into horror. The door closed with another creak, trapping us inside.

"What? Why?! Where's the ship you promised me? How the hay being trapped inside of this metal box help us?!" I continued sobbing, thinking about Derpy and others who might still be alive, living through their worst nightmares with nothing they can do. If hell exists, then this is it.

A head of a griffon appeared from behind a corner. "Whaaaat? Who is your new friend?" I easily became jealous of his happiness.

Loud clanks began coming from the door.

The pony stepped further into the ship, "Not now! J, get us the fuck out of here!" He immediately turned to me, his face crooked and rightfully so. "Sorry... I'll explain everything later. Now, please step towards this window and enjoy the scenery. I believe it might provide a smidge of explanation." He pointed at a little oval window.

Wow. It's like a… blanket with billions of gemstones sparkling with any colour imaginable.

At first, I kept looking directly at this blanket. It was beautiful, like she was. But then I realized that we were moving through it. "Are we in space?"

He nodded.

"Twilight and Princess Luna used to speak about it a lot. Even I sometimes took inspiration from it…" That dress she didn't want to leave. The one I made for our first Gala. The one she wore on our last Gala.

He came to me and gave me a white rag. It had some yellow stains on it, but I guess it was better than walking with smeared mascara.

Weird sounds began coming from the door, and it seemed like it became red and deformed. The pony whose name I still didn't know, rushed to, what I assumed, was the front of the spacecraft-vessel thingy. I plodded behind.

"J!" He screamed aggressively, but with a soft lining. It was a tone similar to a married couple who roast each other with love.

'Don't start now' type of voice, I giggled in my mind.

Griffon, whose name, or probably a nickname, was J, was laying on the cold metal floor under a big metal table. By a large amount of glowing and flickering buttons, levers and symbols, I assumed that the table was something like a control panel.

"I'm trying to fix that damn thing!" he loudly struck it. "One of the thrusters isn't responding, and I’m afraid if we turn it on it might brick for good!" His claws were wiggling all around, moving differently coloured wires similarly to sewing. I twitched every time they sparked.

Unnamed pony began walking in a really small circle, trying to jumpstart his train of thought and not to hit a wall. "Fuck! We can… no. We should… it won't work…" he continued mumbling under his breath as the strikes from the outside intensified.

"Fuck it! Just launch without it, chances of it failing are better than whatever might happen if they breach the airlock," he said and immediately pulled the griffon from under the table, helping him get up.

A button was pressed and the ship sped up.

The space moved around us as the ship 'sailed' through it. Gorgeous. The big dim blanket with millions of gems, each one of them willing to tell a story.

I need a notebook.

I asked for one.

"Hmm… you can use this; I guess? Be careful with it, this thing is expensive! " He handed me a swamp coloured bracelet. I noticed that it was the same as the one that he had on his hoof. "Why do you need it?"

I put it on, disgusted by its colour. "Do you have a blue one?" I stared at him, waiting for the answer, while he was staring with the same reason. "Right… to be fair, I didn't want to answer that question because I don't know how to… just looking at that picture makes something in my head shine. It makes me want to note it and use it for something later… "

He squinted his eyes and pushed his bracelet. Floating light appeared a few centimetres above it. Quick few presses and he lowered his hoof."If you want to know how to use it, you can check a guide inside. And what's wrong with its colour? It’s lovely!” He sounded almost offended.

Swamp colour…

A griffon's head appeared from behind a corner. "You can easily change that disgusting colour via any console.'' He burst out laughing when the pony turned to him with fuming eyes.

I get a feeling that Mr. Unknown has some interesting relations with griffon… Though it brings up a question.

I whipped my mane, smoothing it with a hoof. "You never actually told me your name.”

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Well, my name is," he said while travelling to a little white fridge, similar to one I once had. Sadly, his journey had to end without reaching its final goal.

The sheep suddenly shook, sending him into a flight, and soon he crashed into the very same fridge. It swung open hitting his unconscious body and revealing tons of booze-like bottles.

Not even a single elegant bottle… I need to focus!

"Goddammit, they are onto us!" the griffon screamed from the front of the ship. His voice was really stressed that it felt like it was about to jump off a cliff into the pit of madness. "Goldy! They hit the fucking thruster! It went offline!"

Ahm… oh no?

I slowly went around the corner of the ship and said softly, "I have some bad news about your friend."

Weird name, but I guess it's unique like mine… what was my name… A sudden panic of existential crisis flooded my mind. I should have a name, right? I'm… I'm…

"Fuck!" J pulled me away from my thoughts. "Get into the suit and go out there!" He pointed at a dark corner. A pony-shaped costume was standing there, looking right at me. "I don't know what's wrong with the thruster, but try redirecting the flow around the broken part… if it isn't helping, then use a flux tube. Understood?"

Unknowingly why I nodded.

What a load of gibberish was that? What did I agree to, a trip in the open space? It can't hurt, right? And why do I keep asking myself stuff I don't know?!

Not wanting to face embarrassment or death, I approached the suit. Lights around me immediately turned on and the suit began 'shining' with its green-purple colours.

Around the place where the head should be, was a big bubble made of a weird material similar to some kind of fabric and cellophane. With each movement of the ship, that bubble jiggled. On the place where the pony's cutiemark should be, was a picture of a wrench with "Rotlock'' written below it.

Eugh… they couldn't choose better colours? Or just some better designs in general? It is what it is, it isn't time to be picky, but really?!

Fighting my own disgust and the suit, I put it on. It was rather tight, especially at the back. My horn also was stretching the helmet-bubble. Tail, surprisingly, was hanging through a hole in the suit. It was rather comfortable, and I was grateful to those who created it for deciding to leave the tail outside of the costume, otherwise, it would ruin my tail and make it extremely uncomfortable.

Please, don't pop… why couldn't they make it suitable for a unicorn?!

"So, how do I look?" I approached J. He threw a quick look at me and all of his stress just vanished. Instead, laughter took over. Still, somehow he was controlling the ship without even looking forward. "Just get to the airlock and hang on tight."

How the hay did I become a laughing stock? I was a lady! Yes! That's it! I was a lady.

Turning around and hitting him with my tail, I stepped over Gold's body and approached the door which was called an airlock.

Wait. Airlock. Air-lock. Air lock. Does this mean it locks the air?

The answer came quickly. The airlock burst open and soon I found myself hanging on the other side.

A lot of pain flooded my body. I looked back and saw its source — my tail grasping the pipe, blocking an airlock from locking. If my tail hadn’t stuck, I would have probably just flown into the open space and gotten lost forever. ‘Pain for salvation’

Panicking, my brain began working like it never worked before. Eyes looking around, searching for a solution, hooves jiggling around, looking for something to grab on.

My scream and the sounds of metal would've spread around if there was air for it. My hooves did find something to hand on, sending another stream of pain.

Ouch!

I grabbed for whatever just hit my hoof. My body stopped wiggling, and I finally was at peace. If you can call pain and fright peaceful.

I turned around and my tail got free. Airlock finally closed and I was sealed outside. There was some good news. The pain left my croup. Although my hoof continued itching and every move brought some torture.

Looking back, I hoped that everyone inside was fine and that while the airlock was open, it didn’t suck all of the air.

And the very next second, I was reminded why we were running and why I was outside at all. Lasers flew past me, almost hitting the ship, but with a quick manoeuvre, we dodged it.

I turned around and saw a small fleet of ships. Most of them were the same — bulky constructions similar to eagles. Slightly crooked cockpits of faded yellow colour. Unlike the ship I was on right now, they were taller and more spacious. And all of them had weapons, big things shooting towards us with their beams of light.

One of them was unique. A ship more similar to a falcon with its thin massive wings. A lot of, what I assumed, thruster on each. And black as space itself front.

All of them were threatening to kill me with a lucky shot.

Ignoring the pain, I began climbing towards the thing that was sparkling. I assumed that it was the broken thruster. Thanks to the handrail thingies, it was rather easy, but the pain was awful, worse than that one time when…

With a flashing memory of the past, about some group of fillies, a thought struck me.

Oh god. If I fail, are they both going to die? Not even just them. Derpy, what will happen to her?! Is Twilight still alive? What if she is still turned into stone, reliving her worst nightmares? There must be others. Those ponies that flash through my memories. I have to save them! If not me, then who?

There is no other explanation for why I woke up — fate must have plans for me. And if I fail now, those plans will be ruined… Gold and his 'friend' J. Whatever is between them will also be over… I can't let that happen, can I? I can't die now. Not until I see her smile one more time.

Screaming internally, I continued my mission.

So this is the thruster? I'm not a mechanic, but I'm sure that those wires shouldn't be hanging out exposed like that. I should've asked how to fix this thruster…

I sighed.

My memories were the only thing I had then, and something did resurface. Mind is a weird thing.

A crusaders party, whatever it is. The party where I got shocked so many times… The one I really didn’t want to attend. If I can carefully put together and…

With a few easy telekinetic tricks, I twisted the wires together, grouping by colour and it seemed to work. At least they stopped sparkling. But still, that thing didn’t want to work.

Hmm? What's that?

I looked back at the thruster. There was something glowing right next to it.

A little shiny stone was stuck between the thruster and the hull of the ship. I slightly pushed it with telekinesis, and it flew from there like a bullet, hitting me in the face, bringing even more suffering.

The thruster began erupting purple fire and I assumed it meant that everything was ok.

Ships began to slowly fall behind as I began my venture back through space.

A laser hit me in the leg which almost forced me to let go of the ship. Pain surged through my body once again, but it didn't feel like usual, it was dull and calming, almost pleasant.

A sudden feeling of warmth and comfort erased all the pain and thoughts that were filling my mind. It became hard to breathe. A big lavender glowing silhouette appeared in front of me.

T-twilight, is that you?

I tried to scream, but almost nothing came out. I didn't even feel my mouth moving.

Twilight, slightly higher than me, horn as pointy as a needle and hair as beautiful as evening, came closer and lifted my face with her gentle soft hoof. I could feel it's warmth on my face. That very warmth.

"Rares…" She spoke everywhere and nowhere at once. Her voice was calm and beautiful like I remembered. The voice I couldn't get mad at no matter what. "You have to save them… "

The void-black space and the ship my body was barely hanging onto were becoming even darker. Twilight became blurry. I began shaking.

"Save them? But Twilight, they are too far away, and I heard that they are made out of hot gas!" I told her with a weak, almost drunk voice.

Twilight looked straight into my eyes. Tears were running down her cheeks. Then, she looked behind me, at the fleet, her horn lit up. "I'm so sorry…" She gave me a kiss and her horn blinked.

"Aghhh," I shouted as yet another wave of pain shot through my body. Twilight disappeared, leaving nothing behind. I looked back at my leg and saw a hole in it. It was awful to be able to see through it. At least blood wasn't leaving my body. I felt dizzy.

A sudden angry, harsh voice burst into my ears, "Get the fuck back!" It was Gold.

The sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up.

I finally saw something important. A hole in my bubble-helmet. I was barely breathing, but I wasn't ready to believe that Twilight was a hallucination. She was there, I knew it. And if she wasn't, what are my reasons to live? You have to save them… What did she mean by that?

"Bwah!'' I finally entered the airlock. Gold kindly opened it for me, rubbing his head. Booze hit the head. I almost chuckled at my own joke through panting.

Dropping on the ground, I began coughing. My throat, as well as the rest of my body, hurt as hay. My head was spinning, and I couldn't leave the floor. That beautiful metal floor.

"Go-go-go!" Gold screamed and almost immediately my body felt the dash of the ship, trying to throw me back into the open space.

I turned over and lay on my back laughing. "We survived! Hahaha. Haha. I'm never going back there!" I raised my hooves in the air, happily waving them.

Gold raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I guess we did… Most ponies usually are more excited about spacewalks. He looked at me, judging" I guess you have your reasons… are you feeling alright? "

I saw the J looking around the corner. He looked pretty shocked.

"Yeah! Better than ever!"

He coughed a few times. "That's what I thought… Can you quickly stand up and lay on that table?" He pointed at a small green room next to where I took the suit.

I asked him, almost laughing, "Why?"

"Well, soon, the effects of adrenaline and drugs from the suit will wear off, and I can guarantee, you won't like feeling additional holes in your body."

Through the agony, I fell asleep on the ‘medtable’, as J called it. They promised that it would make things better.

But that pain was nothing compared with what was to come. As I fell asleep, the scene of Twilight's soft, kind smile on that last Gala of ours came back again.

Author's Note

Hope you liked reading it!

Race-'n-heist

“So… where are we now?” I asked. I could understand that we were in some kind of a spaceport, but I wanted to know more. The book wasn’t really helpful on that but it referenced a lot of places and stuff I had no idea about.

He left the ship and I followed him. “The city of Restania. The capital of Lostara. This place is ruled by King Festovious; he’s considered one of the most powerful creatures of this galaxy,” he said with the enthusiasm of a guide. I could feel pride for his knowledge leaking out of his words.

“This place looks nice. At least the decor is much better than the cacophony I saw so far… I mean, you guys should work on your base,” I said with a little smuggy voice. At least a base on an asteroid sounds cool on its own!

He sighed sadly. “Let’s not talk about decor or fashion. It’s a rather painful topic… Hey, do you want to try Kaster’s hog?” He changed a topic as soon as he saw a little food stand right next to the exit from the docs. The smell of burnt stuff hit my nostrils like a punch.

“Eww! Eating animals?!” I gave way to my disgust. It came naturally, like it was in me on the level of instincts, unlike him. “Aren’t we herbivores?!”

“Maybe you are.” In a few seconds, he returned with a piece of meat in his muzzle. I had to force myself not to puke. Seconds after he handed me a kebab saying that it was vegetarian. Tasted like cabbages.

He began going somewhere. I followed. “So who’s Scoot?”

“She’s… a friend. An old one with whom we parted our ways a long time ago. She’s a pegasus who taught me how to fly when my legs got broken. For a long time she was my guiding light,” he sighed with sadness.

Giggles came from somewhere above. “So that’s who I was for you?” Orange pegasus jumped from above, landing in a roll. She appeared in front of us with a little smug, that was almost covered by a weird helmet-thingy similar to flying glasses.

The hard, concrete-like ground rustled under my hooves. The shadow of surrounding buildings hid most imperfections, like thrash laying on the ground. However, ponies on the streets, wearing rugs, covered in weird fungi and sitting next to the fire were ruining the picture of a mediocre street.

This city looks awful. Beautiful on the outside, rotten to the core. Poor ponies…

Scoot turned around the corner. An empty alleyway appeared in front of us, and with it my smell. I had to stop the flow of vomit that was about to appear. The burning sensation spread across my nasopharynx, bringing that annoying type of pain.

With no wish to tolerate such a ruthless feeling, I remembered something else that I had.

Painkillers. Those things work awfully long and for some reason partially? I wonder what will happen if I…

Quickly levitating a syringe behind my friends, I brought it close to my leg. A slight hesitation made me pause. The thought of coming pain from the needle was overweight by another rumble of my stomach. ‘A little mosquito bite, that’s all,’ I told myself.

Seconds after the shot, a slight orgasmic pain surged through my body. All the awfulness of this place disappeared into the background as my friends stopped near a weird wall.

Trotting in a drunk-like state, I caught up with them.

“Fake wall?” I asked. Its slightly different colour (about a quarter-tone difference), and a tiny square gap around it sealed the deal. The very cliched trick used a lot in detectives.

My body was hesitating, trying to keep the balance. I leaned across the wall and fell right through it, a long set of stairs met me with hard hugs. The pain of rolling down them just simply wasn’t there, just some sort of bliss forcing a wide grin across my face. My eyes shut as I reached the bottom.

There was just plain darkness and some fragments of the past. Constant slithering and images of my friends were flickering in front of my eyes. The scene of Rainbow leaving, and a scene of green pony and a griffon looking for a room.

Then, my eyes forced the harsh world onto me. The cacophony of sounds and feelings followed next, replacing the orgasmic bliss with the cruel reality.

I squeaked from overwhelming pain that quickly turned into plain reality. The wooden image quickly disappeared as I lifted my head, looking around. Two familiar voices were having a conversation to the left of me, and in front was a pony wearing a black apron with a white shirt underneath. A piece of a tie stuck out from underneath his apron.

He was wiping a glass mug while searching for something on a wall full of beverages behind him.

I grunted, feeling the pain of my probably broken hoof. Bartender’s ears perked and he quickly turned around. “Oh, you’re finally awake! I was getting scared that you fell down dark. Do you want to order anything?”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to see through the blur of my ruined mascara and tears, but all the drinks were too far away. “Can I get some water?”

He nodded and quickly trotted away. Seconds later, there was a bottle of water in front of me, with a little note — ‘Free of charge.’

Well that was quick.

“I hope you won’t do that again...” Scoot took my attention as I gurgled the bottle down. “It’sh really expenshhive to… cure any addictions around here,” she said, her speech followed by a loud hic.

I tilted my head like a dog.

“She means painkillers. They’re really addictive and, as we saw by your example, quite dangerous to use often,” Gold explained. His voice maybe was normal, but I could smell alcohol from his mouth.

“You tell me this, yet you’re more drunk than Dash on Cider Day!” I cried out. I began feeling the effects of alcohol vapours. That place was full of drunks. They noticed our rumbling

“Don’t tell her what to do! She deservesh it!”

“Yeah! Messh with her — mess with ush!”

“Wait, somebody is arguing agains Scoot?!”

If there were different sides, the crowd would be on hers. Even ponies who seconds before were sleeping on the floor were saying something good about Scoot.

I see she got her followers. I guess one more reason to trust her.

With periodic hiccups and rollings of her tongue, Scoot said, “Guysh! Guysh! Guysh! Don’t worry about it sow much! She’s… She’s a friendo too!” Seconds later, her head fell on the bar. “Whatcha said ‘bout’a Dash earlier?”

Her muzzle squished by the bar and her eyes sparkling with tears and booze were hopefully staring at me.

“It’s… nothing but a memory. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Loves cider a lot. Very cool. Always ready to come and help you even if you fucked up and blow her self-esteem into the ground by flashing everywhere with your new super-fancy new wings.

“She’ll always save you even if you argued a lot about stupid things and then you ran into the Everfree forest and got lost and was about to get ambushed by a stray of timber-wolves because you’re so stupid to go there on their mating season, after what she won’t even lecture you about it and she’ll just carry you home and make sure that everything is alright before spending a whole night by your side because you both are sorry,” I said, pausing only to take a few breaths. After it, I finished my bottle of water and ordered whatever those two were having. I got one more problem to deal with.

Where the hay did those feelings come from?! I know I love Twilight, so why does my heart began beating so fast! I thought I was an alien to her, only connected by our love for books!

Now I remember that evening more clearly, the rest of my feelings were in motion, trying to break out. Perhaps that was the reason she left AJ then.

But what happened between us? It couldn’t be because of Twilight, could it? Did I fucked everything up as I usually do?

I have to have at least one memory of Spike. What had happened to us there. Did he choose that griffon? Celestia, I hope he did.

But why only now I remembered that there was more to my past than dresses and love to Twilight. Why are my memories so selective?!

A drunk voice knocked me out of my thought line, saving me from falling into another existential crisis. “Shounds jusht like her.” Scoot closed her eyes and began snoring.

Gold chuckled, not letting me get back to my thoughts. “Huh. She finally reached her limit… We can take her to her ship, or… we can stay here for some time and maybe talk about our pasts? You seem like you really need it.”

“So what you’re saying is, she just jumped down?!” I was consumed by the story Gold was telling me. They both had a long past. Adventures, crimes, which I would normally be against, but as far as I know, they’re more like Robin Wing than anything else. “What did she want to accomplish?”

He pointed at a picture on the wall of Scoot’s ship. It depicted the very mare, but much smaller, in almost foal age, although her wings were the same size as right now. Her left forehoof was angled by ninety degrees upward, bandages covering her head and a genuine smile across her face. “I believe she thought that she would either finally spread her wings and fly, or grab onto something like a vine… It was our first big thing — inspired by old books about a mare-adventurer. We thought we would be cool like her.”

“I said to you more than a hundred times already! I saw a wire hanging there, I just wasn’t able to reach it!” Scoot got up from her royal-sized bed. “What’s the time?” she asked, rubbing her head.

Gold looked at his wrist bracelet. “First day of Equus seeding. Around lunch,” he answered with a little grin.

She sighed. “Can you be more local? Please.”

“Sixth of Deka? Around… nine am? Twelve hours after you passed out and vomited everywhere.”

She immediately jumped off the bed and put on her helmet-thingy. “So! You two are probably wondering why I called for you?

“As you might know, today will be a competition. An annual planet race, looping around the Restanian palace. We’re going to pull a heist right in the middle of the race!”

She pulled a giant blueprint out of nowhere and put it on a table. It was full of not-so-elegant squiggles and drawings.

“The plan is fairly simple. There are 3 parts for each one of us. The first one is the race. I’ve got that covered, but I’ll need to use my…” she gave an awkward cough,” ~your ship. It’s faster.

“Before that, someone, i.e. you,” she pointed her hoof at me,” will have to get into the palace through the forcefield and find an access hatch from which you’ll find the vault. It’s hidden pretty well so I hope you’re good at finding secrets.

“The last part is on you. Like before, you’ll have to be our computer guy. Everyone got everything? Questions? No? Good!” she finished without even giving a moment to insert a word.

I was left stunned, looking at her dully, trying to process everything she just said. “So. I’ll need to… break into a palace and… steal something?” My brain felt like it was at its full capacity. When was the last time I slept? How long have I been running everywhere under the influence of painkillers?

Gold stepped in. “Let’s not make it more complicated than it should be. As I understand, I’ll guide you into and through the palace to a specific location and then you’ll use some explosives to get into the vault. That’s your part of the plan.”

“Correct! Mostly,” Scoot sang from somewhere on the ship. Noises of trash flying everywhere following her words.

I rubbed my head. “Why would I do that?” Was my fairly simple question. There was no exact answer for me. I’ve been following after Gold for no reason, just to find out more about this world. And now I was getting entangled in a serious crime. The decision that was spinning in my head was just to leave. Find my own way even if I’ll have to live amongst those poor homeless creatures.

“Well. I mean. I thought you’re just going to help us as friends. To be fair, I asked some~” Gold was rudely cut off.

Scoot stepped into the scene, dragging some dirty cloth on her back and looking at me with eyes I only remember from my worst memories. “Why would you do that? Why?! Well, let me tell you why I’m doing this.

“You saw those ponies on the streets? You saw how they look! The sole reason for this is this piece of a kingdom! That bastard forces them to work against their will and if they don’t he drops tons of toxic gasses on slums. They can’t even leave this place! They’re too poor and most of them are too kind to even consider asking help in fleeing this place! Their wings are tied and they are forced to stay on the ground without any hope of a better life!” Her rant ended in a few long sighs. Her fur and her wings stood spread and her eyes were filled with a familiar fire.

Gold immediately jumped between us. “Girls, girls, girls. Calm down! There is no reason to fight! As I was saying, I asked one person to help us find more statues!”

Us two?

I stepped around him. A tear washing the rest of my mascara. “Scootaloo. One of the crusaders. Friend of Sweetie Belle!” Another memory of the past flashed in front of me. A little white filly, wrapped in a blanket, doing all sorts of cute noises. Then she again, but standing on a stage with two other fillies one of whom is in front of me. Their first performance. “Please tell me you know where she is!”

She shared my tears. “I don’t. But it’s good to know that I’m not alone.”

The clock on the wall struck ten times.

“You know. I think you would be better in my place. I still remember how you three used my boutique to earn your cutie marks in rock climbing,” I noticed when I was climbing a wall of a giant floating palace. Below me kilometres of free fall, and above me an open window.

Giggles came from the other end of the wire. “You want to trade our places? You’re free to drive the ship… Listen, can you tell me more about the past? Most of my memories washed away from the years spent here.” Her voice filled with familiar sadness.

I jumped into the window and dropped all of that weird futuristic gear that was keeping me stuck to a wall.

“Not exactly. All I remember is the pain and pain I cause to others. I still don’t want to admit it, but I believe I… I created a love triangle because I couldn’t choose between two. Like those old cliched soap operas. And all because I couldn’t forget Rainbow.”

Scoot coughed, almost gagging. “Wait, you don’t mean~”

A different cough came from the transmitter device. “I know you all about the past now, but it’s not exactly the best time. There is a guard coming your way, try hiding under that table.”

“Excuse me! Our little talk is only beneficial! At least now I know the reason why Dash didn’t want to go to the Gala… Makes me love her more since she went there for me… What happened between you two?”

Calming my breath and following Gold’s instructions, I found my way into a corridor. “Twilight happened. Or… our shared tragedy to be exact. People important to us tend to leave and… it so happened that we were together at that moment. She stole my heart like it was nothing and I did the same in return.

“We were stuck at Canterlot then and most of the stuff we did together. She even asked me to make her a dress! It was so lovely. We became each-others comfort pillows and when Dash came to check on me… It all went to sapphires. Afterwards, I feel all I did was wrong. It was harming all three of us.”

Stepping down the corridor of nostalgia and reality, I turned right. A vent Gold was guiding me towards what appeared in front of my eyes. A big symbol of two crossed wrenches was engraved on it.

“Through it you should be able to get to the vault.”

Weird noise began coming from them. “Listen, the race is about to start and I’m afraid that the speed might cause disturbance in our communication. Turn on the explosives right in three minu~” His voice was cut off, leaving me and hundreds of my reflections alone.

“I really wonder now. What happened then? Twilight would’ve known…”

A few meters ahead, the hollow sounds of the metal changed into more deep ones. With my best guess, I put the explosive box and crawled further ahead until I found my way out of the ventilation.

As I was asked, I put explosives in what seemed to be three minutes. But when I left the vent to get away, I saw a guard coming in. I hid in a closet and sat there, waiting.

Suddenly my transmitter turned on, pushing through the voices of my companions. “Fuck! Flash is busted! Did you even check it before the race?!” Gold screamed. With all my hope, I prayed that the guard wouldn't hear it.

“What?! Fuck. Find another distraction! The mission is failed otherwise!” Transmitter turned off and I breathed out. Sneak-peeking through the slit, I saw a robot's croup standing right in front of me. I was trapped.

But soon after, I heard it. A loud explosion deafened me.

When a heatwave threw the guard away, I found my way back into the vent and into the vault. No other guards came, so it seemed like their plan worked out.

Inside, I quickly realized how stupid I was. Piles of gold, or at least something similar to it, were spread on the floor, obstructing my movement. I could move, but I had no idea why I was there in the first place. It’s not like I could take all of this. Scoot only mentioned something about an artefact that is worth much more than everything else here.

She forgot to tell me what it looks like… Think. Think… First of all, it should be unique, different colour or texture, maybe? And in a world like this, it’s most likely some sort of device, or maybe an artefact from the Equestrian past?

Anyway, I doubt it will be buried. Perhaps there is a special storage unit? Like I used to hide my most precious gems under my bed, like that fire ruby Spike gifted me.

Trying to contact my friends didn’t prove helpful. Only static and rare voice excerpts. And what was much worse was that I couldn’t see properly. A minute or so after I entered that vault, lights turned on. The ‘gold’ reflected it like a cheap dress would, blinding me.

Perhaps a defect of construction. Perhaps additional protection? Maybe there is a spell for that… Dang, it. The only thing that comes to mind is that gem detection one. It’s useless when I can’t see anything.

My best bet was plain telekinesis. If I could turn off or break or even obstruct those lights, then I’m victorious. If not, well, I guess I’ll be fried up by them.

With a rather rageful spell, I picked up the ‘gold’ around me and threw it everywhere. At first, it seemed like my plan failed as I still couldn’t see a bit, just sounds of metal falling on the ground.

Then, my eyes finally adapted to the semi-darkness. Only one particular lamp stayed alive. A lamp right above a transparent case. Inside there was a velvet cushion in the shape of a four-leafed clover. On it was something long and pointy on one side, and sharp, ‘broken off’ edge on the other.

It took a closer look, and broke the case, safely levitating whatever it was outside. It had curves like my horn, but it was longer. It was grey and it really reminded me of something.

The escape

“Be careful there, would you? You almost pierced me with it!” I said somewhere in the past. My memories will be haunting me no matter what.

She chuckled. “Sorry Rares, I’m not used to this sudden burst of growth yet.” Her horn lit up, and a kettle with two cups appeared in front of us.

“It can’t be! It’s simply impossible! I heard her saying stuff to me before! She saved me while I was in open space!” immediately burst out of me. The very thing I was levitating was Twilight’s horn, broken off from her petrified body!

Once again — tears. A simple reaction all ponies have in different situations. In the past, I cried a lot, often eating my tears with ice cream, laying on a sofa. Now, those tears were something different. It was tears I cried when mom and dad went away, right before I became much closer to Twilight. Tears of loss.

I collapsed on hard ground. Her horn was levitating in front of me. My vision became blurry as I stared at it; followed its curves with my eyes.

She’s gone. Like everyone else… I never should’ve left that statue. I should’ve stayed dead.

“Answer, goddammit!” Gold’s voice deafened me. The ear bloom began working again and I heard his voice loud and clear. “If you can fucking hear it, get to the ship! Someone is chasing us in the middle of the race and authorities are doing nothing! The mission is compromised!”

I rubbed my tears.

I can’t let them have her remains.

I left the vault the way I came in, kicking the unconscious guard along the way. And let me say that, it felt amazing, my hooves on their body. I only wished I could stay and kick everyone in that awful place, but the time was running out and so was I.

I found my way back to the balcony and jumped down, using the gear they gave me. It was risky, but by that time I stopped caring for my life. In the depth of my heart, I even wished for it to fail.

I landed on the ship that I flew here. A few lessons from Scoot and I knew how to use an autopilot. Although it felt really uncomfortable to control something so big and dangerous.

Turning it on, I set a location far away from the planet, waiting for my friends.

They came shortly. An image of Gold appeared above the control panel. He said some things about coordinates and the ship did something on its own.

“I’m sending the ship to a rendezvous point. Wait for us there until we throw them off our tail!”

The ship arrived at the planet's orbit.

To my greatest sadness, the planet was Equus. The planet I was born on. The planet I lived on. The place where I have met all my life.

The continent of Equestria was right in front of me, all black. The planet was dead.

With a single fallen tear, I kissed Twilight’s horn and pressed some buttons.

The ship’s thrusters turned on and I felt it moving.

I put my hoof on a lever and pushed it to the top.

As the ship speeded up into the planet, I heard a loud creak of an air-lock.

The second I turned around, I heard two voices, one god-like voice I loved the most, and one voice I just met.

“STOP!”

Author's Note

If you read it, I hope you liked it. I really wanted to create this universe, but I think I'm still lacking skill. Perhaps one day, I'll get to it and write it all properly.

I'd like to know your opinion about this fic.

The syndicate

I was at that terrible party again.

Since our first Gala, Pinkie worked towards making it more fun and pleasurable for everyone. This party was the culmination of those efforts. Better music, more delicious food, not-so-snobby ponies! Even polka and MMMM were included, although I have no idea how she convinced Cakes to make it.

It almost feels like I'm there, but at the same time not there, it's like reading a book.

Ahh. Here she goes. Me of the past, awkwardly entering the palace late because I/she was late preparing my/her speech. The new dress was shining on her brighter than the stars and moon together; the dress that she spent eternity on because she knew that this Gala would be special.

The dress was destroyed. I suspected that it was because only my flesh was turned into stone, while the dress was only surrounded by it. Time can destroy anything, even the most exquisite fabrics.

Heh. There are Sunburst with Cheerilee arguing about the best teaching methods, while Flurry snores on his back.

And there's an orange pony with apples on her flank arguing with a blue pony with a rainbow mane. I know their argument was really silly because the rainbow pony left as soon as I came.

My best guess was that she left the little fillies room. Although her face cringed a little weirdly.

All the friends I forgot I had. The flaws that made us. All adventures and all that stuff that we experienced together was the product of our friendship.

Those two, a green pony with turtles and a griffon leaving to, I imagined, find a room.

*giggles*

And that weird coldness that was following me. Like some kind of snake.

I could feel the picture screaming at me with it’s wrongness, with everything weird, like pineapples instead of lavender in pots below the roof, but I never noticed it because of…

Twilight. Her beautiful contagious smile and blushed cheeks. The way she looks at me makes my heart skip a beat even now. The dress I made for her all those years ago for our first Gala looked brand new on her. But she isn’t herself. The moment she saw me, she began walking away with some kind of excuse.

The climax of the party was supposed to be me publically asking her out…

Instead,

No. Don’t make me watch it again!

The party never reached its ending.

*Gasp*

I jumped out of a rather rough bed and almost immediately face-planted the floor. My nostrils began burning.

“For the chaos of Discord, why is there so much dust?!” Dry throat turned my attempt of screaming into a husky whisper and throat pain.

Why does it feel like a hangover… Hope I wasn’t wrong about those two and they didn’t drug me…

I jumped up, trying to land on my hooves, but they slid into different directions, forcing me back on the floor where I finally caught the smell.

Oh, that smell, it was awful, the rot wasn’t even the worst part of it! It smelt like a year-long uncleared toilet.

“What are you doing?” The room filled with soft, warm, calming light and I saw Gold in a door frame. It still was too dark to see his face, but I believe it was filled with confusion.

I wasn’t thinking about it then, but my mind, as everyone else’s isn’t that simple. While you might be actively thinking about something, your subconsciousness works in the background doing tonnes of little things. One of those things, collecting puzzles into pictures. Gold was one of those pieces.

It’s like when you try to create a dress. You might not know why you hate a specific combination of fabrics and colours, but your mind still forces you to change it.

Seeing him made me feel a little calmed and stressed. All that happened was real, but what else was real. I really hoped that Twilight that I saw while I was in space also was real. It was just too hard to believe that it was a hallucination, especially that kiss.

*click!*

The room lit up, revealing all the horrors that it contained. Trash, ‘biowaste,’ even pink toys I didn’t want to think about filled it. And many things I didn’t even want to know about. I, as the main exhibit, was in the centre. The bed I was laying on before — a table.

“Where am I?!” I cried with a genuine fear of illnesses or being betrayed by him. Although could I even be betrayed? I didn’t know his intentions, or even if they were friends to me. I could only judge them based on that one or two-hour-long escape, in which they seemed really friendly; but what they were showing me could’ve been a deception, I’m the one to know the benefits of lying…

He looked at the door, and said with a serious voice, “Room C137. I hid you here to… well… to be sure you and your body are safe while I was away. I would give you my room, but I already lent it to someone.”

What had I got myself into? The phrase ‘keep your body safe’ only brings a few really awful thoughts to my mind.

“Stallions here can do such things to ladies?!” I raised my voice almost to the point of screeching. I maybe even slightly deafened myself.

He rolled his eyes, “Not just Stallions. Any creature with a rotten heart would do so gladly. Hence why I hid you here. And no, the possibility of doing anything bad to you didn’t even cross my mind,” he looked in a random direction, rubbing his head, ”I said that to build up some trust between us, a book about friendship suggested it.”

This new world seemed worse with each second. I even lowered my expectation to the minimum, yet it still somehow was managing to impress me. At least there were a few good things. I looked at the stallion with soft judging eyes.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to learn friendship by book. I mean, it already led you to hide me in this god-awful place where I could’ve gotten raped by anyone!” It brought him dangerously close to her, to not the best side of her. Reminds me of that time how we had a slumber party in the library.

“Don’t worry! Not everyone is so bad here. It’s like they say ‘Don’t paint everyone black because of a rotten few!’ Ahm… rotten third… half?” By the end, his voice slightly quieted down. Perhaps he slightly lowered his pink glasses, or maybe he didn’t want me to begin questioning him.

Seeing my unimpressed look, he sighed. “Don’t think you won. I’ll continue hoping for a better future, and the future is in this place!” He turned around and left through the door, waving me to follow.

I got up and fell again almost immediately. Pain surged through my body once again; I had already begun to get used to it. The holes were gone, but it felt like my other hoof wasn’t alright.

He quickly ran to me and looked around. “Ooh… Ahm… gimme a sec,” he plunged his head into a pair of nearby saddlebags. Seconds after, he pulled out a small syringe filled with green liquid and stuck it into me without asking.

Rude.

The pain was gone but the hoof felt wrong, like pale numbness. The smell and the feeling of dryness in my nose also disappeared. “Painkiller?” His nod made me roll my eyes, but in my mind, I thanked him for doing it. I was slightly afraid of needles and if I had my choice, I would probably turn it down.

“Here, take these. I put your bracelet there, a few more painkillers and a flash device for the bracelet; it should contain some information I found about the past few decades,” he handed me the bags. “Oh! And also I found a gem in the suit you used. It’s in there. You can do whatever you want with it.”

I levitated those bags to me. His face lit up with curiosity. “What are those divine powers of yours?” His eyes were brighter than foal’s on a Heartwarming eve.

I raised my eyebrow. “Magic? Any unicorn can do it!” Only now did I notice his horn, it was more pale compared to the rest of his body.

Perhaps something changed in the past… Luckily now I have some information about it. It also brings up the question of how long I was stuck in the stone and how fashion changed.

His hood flew back and he looked up, tensing up a bit. “It’s not working for me. I can’t… I don’t think any of us can? Not like there’s much of us anyway…” His eyes widened up a bit and he looked at me. “Listen, you don’t know anything about this world, you’re a divine unicorn with god-like powers, you’re white and you love art, right?”

I nodded slightly. Not all of this was true. Those powers and my powers for sure aren’t god-like, Twilight’s maybe. And I wasn’t sure how artsy I was. I know I made that dress I saw in my dream/past. But there was no reason for me to say no.

“Come after me!” He jumped out of the room and rocketed down the empty corridor.

At my request, he kindly slowed down, and we slowly walked. Grey walls and rare doors sometimes added some colour to the corridor, but all in all, it was empty.

To simply put it, our walk was long and boring.

“So… where are we?” I tried to dilute the mundane walking. I live in this world now and I guess I need to start learning about it.

He was silent for a few steps. We stopped near the end of a corridor. A door, similar to others, polluted the surroundings with a cacophony of muted noises. “M’lady, let me introduce you to,” he pushed the door open, “Syndicate’s main base. Stick close to me and everything will be fine!”

A whole world opened in front of me. Thousands of creatures were walking inside of it. Griffons and pegasi were flying above us, looking down with upturned noses. The ground under them was polluted with other creatures for some of which I didn’t even know a name.

The cacophony didn’t end on creatures. Flashing lights were all around the place, some advertised shops and different stuff, and some were just depicting the art of different kinds.

Floors towered up to the sky and down to the hells of Equus, which was probably far away from whatever planet we were on. I couldn’t even count how many floors I saw from down there. It made me feel small, like a little sewing needle on a giant dress.

Something poked me in the back. “Let’s go.”

“Syndicate?”

He shrugged. “That’s what I and some others call its place. Creatures united here with a sole reason to be free and well… they’re free. No slavery or blackwork. But it comes with a price. Laws aren’t exactly strict and… bad things happen… And it is also really hard to keep this place running when you’re constantly getting attacked by different governments and impudents thinking it’s easy to rob this place.” He stopped for a second and looked into the ceiling. “Honestly, I think it only strengthens this place. We are all together against everyone else.”

"And everyone else is?" I asked with genuine confusion and concern for whatever I was tangling myself into. On the other alternative I can just escape and find my own way?

“Help, somebody!” A sudden scream came from a dark corridor. Three figures were quickly moving there and it was obvious that something wasn’t right.

Gold quickly stepped behind me and began pushing me forward. “Don’t pay attention and go quickly. We can’t help her right now,” he said like almost nothing was going on. By his tone, I could guess that It was happening a lot here.

Leave her there? And he says that he believes in this place! I can’t keep with him, I need to find my own way after.

I stopped, forcing Gold to fall, and turned around. Changing my pace into trot, I quickly reached the source of screams — a corridor was something like a dead-end alley and the figures were right at the end of it. Two of them were moving rapidly and the other one was still, almost motionless.

“Stop that!” I screamed, igniting my horn up. Rage filled the emptiness in my stomach I forgot existed, and my hooves felt hard like stone. The silhouettes slowed down and I could see their eyes reflecting dim light from my horn.

One of them made a really loud stomp towards me. “What did you just say?!” he said with a voice devoid of any elegance and modulation, it was just awful and gravelly. A perfect voice for some alley-bully. Time to be a hero again…

“I said…” My horn lit up a bit more and I coughed a few times. “STOP THAT!” burst out of my mouth with enormous rage and loudness. A bottle near them exploded into a million pieces and wetted them with whatever was inside. A simple voice amplification spell.

The one who was behind winced, while the other proceeded forward. “That’s all? Some cheap tricks? Joe, take her!” He began trotting towards me.

A hoof from behind pulled me out of his way and Gold slid right past me. He stepped between us. “Don’t you dare touch her!” He reminded me of a stereotypical hero from some book that always stays in front of a mare in distress; sadly that illusion was quickly destroyed by him getting hit in the face by a bully's hind-hooves.

“Now that your protector is out, you’ll pay.” He began menacingly walking towards me. Gold was out cold a few steps from me. Tartarus!

I began stepping back, looking for an answer to this riddle and I could believe I just found it. A can of trash standing a few metres behind him. Focusing my magic while slowly backing away, I tried to levitate it as quietly as I possibly could.

He fell to the ground as the can crushed him. “I guess you’ll have to take money from me next time.” A cheesy one-liner as all stereotypical heroes do.

“Whatever you did. You shouldn’t have. Those ‘bullies’ as you called them… They are law enforcers,” he said. His face cringed as he realised how it sounds. “Foreseeing your question. Yes. I know it’s awful. But I ask you to consider the following, do you think I would stay here if there was someplace better?”

I had nothing to protest. I wasn’t a politician pony, neither did I see what’s with this world. All I could do then was just to follow Gold hoping for a purpose or an opportunity to fall on my head from out of nowhere. Leaving him would probably bring death to me.

“Eh. You were good yourself. If you didn’t kick the second one he would’ve got me. You have some strong hooves, just like my friend used to have.” I remembered an orange pony with apples.

He sighed. “It’s ok if you don’t want to stay here. If everything works out as I hope it will, this place as well as the rest of all civilizations will rise and unite under the rule of one true leader from the past. So let’s hope I was right and that this leader is you.”

What?!

He opened a door and quickly pushed me in without letting me ask even a single question.

Dim lighting enveloped us and my fur seemed yellow-coloured. But what was worse was the room itself. It was almost empty — a single mud-coloured table and a chair of the same colour. Two doors and a clock. Orange tiled floor. And a single pony sitting in the chair. He wore a black business suit with a red tie.

“Ah, Gold, finally decided to show up, I see? Would you be so kind as to surprise me with a success or disappoint with another failure?” he said with the most emotionless voice I ever heard. Afterwards, he took a sip out of a black mug. “And please be so kind as to acquaint me with your…” he took a pause, looking over at me, “simple friend.”

My urge to show the disgust I had was stopped by Gold stepping forward. “Sire. The mission didn’t go as planned, but! I have a strong reason to believe that this,” he pointed a hoof at me, “Might be her. The old ruler of Equestria — Princess Sweetie Belle.” He did a little bow and stepped to the side, signalling me to go forward.

Princess Sweetie Belle? Me? A princess? No, that can’t be true, Twilight was the princess, and I know I’m not her! And what kind of a name is Sweetie Belle?

“Step forward then, Princess. We’ll see if you’re another fake to follow this idiot,” he said with slight disgust and disappointment. But I was too stunned to do anything. My mind was racing trying to find anything that could contradict it, but there was none. For all, I knew I could’ve been that Princess. I could’ve been Sweetie Belle.

Gold stepped closer to me and began pushing me forward again. “As we all know, after the fall of the old world, the true Princesses took over the throne and the new age began, but in the end, no one knows what happened to them. And for all I know, she might be the one, she matches the description perfectly! The way she speaks, her colours and her manners, I even saw her doing art and her voice is amazing! Sweetie Belle was a brilliant singer!”

But if that is true, what does it mean to… It can’t be true. It just can’t. I know I wasn’t the princess, I was in love with the princess and nothing more. I was her friend. On the other side of the dress, he said true Princesses.

“Enough. Gold, it isn’t the first time, I know that story… But tell me, do you really believe that this dirty simpleton could really be her Majesty?”

Gold dashed forward. “Yes, I do!”

Simpleton?

“And are you really sure that it isn’t a mistake like with others you brought to me?”

Dirty?

The anger boiled in me like never before. Years trapped in stone made me soft and more sensitive. I maybe was some kind of a ‘friendly’ pony, but I wasn’t about to allow some dirty rag to call me simple.

“Excuse you! How dare you call me ‘a a dirty simpleton’? Do you even know who I am?” He shook his head. “Me neither, but it doesn’t give you a right to call me dirty or simple. It doesn’t give you a right to cross me out of a ‘princess list’! Who do you think you are, darling?!”

The pony behind the desk brought his hoof to his face. “Interesting,” he mumbled and stepped away from his table.

“Gold, as you could’ve heard, one specific name had resurfaced recently. One of your ex-princess candidates — Scoot.” Gold’s eyes lit up. “She has a deal for Syndicate — a chance for an old artefact worth more than all Starlit’s gold, but she wants specifically you to aid her in this. In return, she promised us that the money and whatever you find there will be ours. She didn’t specify anything else.”

“No,” he said with a face full of rage.

The pony in front raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me? Didn’t you forget who’s in charge? And didn’t you forget who owes me?”

Gold lowered his head.

“That’s better. Leave now and take your girlfriend. And don’t you even dare to fail this one.”

After we left the room, Gold wasn’t himself. All the joy and optimism I saw in him before, disappeared, leaving no trace. He kept looking into the ground all the way back.

I tried to lift his spirit up, but he just kept ignoring me and answering with grunts.

Nothing happened until we reached the lowest floor, the floor where I woke up. There were much fewer creatures than before, and I saw a rather horrible picture. A row of ponies sitting on the ground, asking for money.

At the beginning of the row was a little filly. Her grey fur was covered by dirt and her brown mane was roughly cut, making it look ugly. Her body was dotted with abrasion.

I came closer to her and gave her that gem from my bags. It may have almost killed me but it's worth something.

In the end, I don’t know much. Maybe I should consider his point of view. For one thing, I know for sure, this place needs someone. Those poor ponies, awful designs, perhaps someone needs to fix it.

“Can you finally stop?!” I cried. We finally were in the hangar. A pretty familiar ship stood in the corner, with bits of smoke coming from it periodically. I guess a few dents can’t harm that girl. But some colours would do wonders!

He stopped right next to the ship. “Ugh. Fine. Maybe meeting an old friend will help us. Sorry for not telling you about the princess stuff earlier. I feared that you might just run away. If it’s worth something, I really believe that you might be a princess.” I maybe wasn’t Applejack, but I could feel the sincerity in his voice.

Probably long contacts with her taught me a few things… Applejack. She also must be alive!

Pinkie. Twilight. Applejack. Flutter-something. Rainbow. And I. I couldn’t forget about us, could I? Those names came with such ease when I wasn’t thinking about them, but why couldn’t I remember before?! And what’s more importantly, where could they be now?!

I levitated that hideous bracelet out of my bags and put it on. “How do I use it?”

A few boring lessons and guides later, I got enough abilities to use a notebook. I documented everything I managed to remember plus some clues including my dream.

“Ok… Listen, we need to find five more statues. And not to be a party-pooper, but I’m not a Princess. Name Sweetie Belle does ring a bell, but it doesn’t resonate with my soul. And I bet you that if we find other statues everything will become more clear,” I tried to explain to him. He was half focused on me, the other half focused on piloting the ship.

From here it seems so easy to control it. A joystick and a few dozen buttons.

He pushed another button and left his chair. “Huh, other statues are also alive? I guess it wasn’t a double coincidence then.” He looked at my bracelet, where I tried to illustrate my friend as to how I remembered them (Although I think I drew Fluttershy a bit chubbier than in reality). “I might know someone who can help us, but it’s for later. Now, we need to complete this contract or all four of us, including J who is doing something else right now, might not live another day.”

Huh. He isn’t with us? But I thought…

“Wait, who’s fourth?” An immediate question came to my mind. By his smirk and the stuff he said before, I tried to guess, “Is it someone who unfroze before me?”

He looked slightly impressed. “Not just someone. One of the best pilots this world has seen. She calls herself Scoots, while I call her Scootaloo, like one of the lost princesses of the past. Perhaps seeing her might shine some light on you.” All that time he was keeping his cards a secret. Scootaloo, whose name did ring another bell, his knowledge of the past and his intentions towards me. It pushed me onto a thought of What else could be hiding?

For the rest of our flight, I spent by drawing images of space in the notebook and reading the information that Gold left to me. History wasn’t my favourite subject, but when it’s combined with clothes of the past it becomes something unbelievably interesting.

It led me to read a book named ‘Costarious army now and then'.

Author's Note

Well. It is what it is. I wish I could make it better, but I wrote it while being not in the best mood.