Chapters Exhausted, I dropped into the seat unceremoniously. My legs splayed out before me as I leaned back in the chair as far as I dared. I tried to take long deep breaths in order to calm my heart rate, and after a minute or two it began to work. The ache in my side began to relent slightly as the pounding in my head also began to ease. My dad walked into the room, and looked at me laid out in the chair grinning. Sometimes I really hated his stupid grin.
“You okay there, honey?” he asked, his smile not faltering in the least. “When you asked to come running with me I thought you would like it.”
I took a few more calming breaths before I was able to choke out anything. “Yea, it was fun. At least for the first mile or so. How can you run so long when you’re so old?” I asked trying to take the attention off of my sad state, but only made him laugh.
“We are only as old as our hearts,” he said, after he finished chuckling. He walked over and slapped me on the thigh to try and stir me into action. “You should really shower before you sweat too much into your clothes.” He exited the office to make his way to his own bathroom.
Groaning loud enough so that he could still hear me in the other room, I pulled myself out of the chair. My clothes didn’t quite want to relinquish their wet hold on the leather, but they eventually relented and came along with me. I couldn’t ever remember a time when climbing the stairs was as difficult as it was then. After a minute or two, stopping halfway up, I reached the top of the eighteen steps and crawled back to my feet.
When I had told my dad that I wanted to join him on his evening jog I thought that he would slow down to accommodate me. He had been bugging me recently about the lack of father to daughter time; so I had decided to join him for his benefit not mine. He was the marathon runner in the family, not me. He had a dozen medals that he kept displayed down in the living room to make sure no one ever forgot that fact.
I was definitely not built for long distance running. Sure, I had been fortunate enough to inherit his slim physique and athletic build, but I had no real interest in personal training. My passions lied more along the intellectual pursuits such as writing, and learning about the sciences. As I walked down the hallway I stopped for a moment to glance at a picture that we had hung on the wall. The smiling faces of a mother, father, and daughter stared back at me for a few moments until I broke my gaze and continued to my room.
I sighed and stumbled my way into my room. It was by no stretch a small living space, and every inch was decorated. The bed was the simplest part of the room, and was still unmade since I had slept in it last night. A couple of pillows laid on the ground at the side of the bed showing just how little I cared for keeping it organized.
The simple black desk that was set up facing the wall had my computer resting atop it. I really loved my top of the line computer that my dad had been kind enough to buy my for my birthday a couple of months ago. Sure, it had been a hassle to set up since I didn’t really know too much about computers, but when I got it running I was amazed at how much more stuff I could do with it.
Empty cans of soda were strewn across the top of the desk as well. The trashcan that sat to the side of the black furnishing had overflowed long ago, and empty Taco Bell bags were tied tightly closed in small piles around it. I should have probably taken the trash out a long time ago, that corner of the room was beginning to smell like burritos.
Still dragging my feet, I made my way to the open closet. It, unlike the rest of my room, was very organized. Each different kind of garment was hung in the closet in a colored order. I had learned long ago that I desperately needed some sort of sorting system when it came to the clothes that I wanted to wear on any given day. I shuddered a moment as that disastrous day in eighth grade came to the forefront of my mind.
Tired, I grabbed a simple white t-shirt and some pants off of the hangers. I also grabbed some underwear from a drawer, and then cradling the clothes, quickly left the room so that I could get to the bathroom across the hall. I didn’t bother looking around the small white washroom as I dumped the clothes I was carrying on top of the toilet, and began to undress.
My dad had been right telling me that I needed to shower before the sweat set in. As I removed the blue sweatshirt I dared to take a sniff, and subsequently threw it aside in revulsion. I moved the bath curtain out of the way, and turned on the shower. The cold water hit my arm as it started pouring from the overhead fountain causing me to momentarily flinch.
I held a few fingers in the stream as I waited for the water to heat up. Roughly thirty seconds later I was standing in the warm water as it washed the grime from my skin. I spent the majority of the twenty-minute shower trying to get my hair completely clean.
I shut the water off, and blinded momentarily by some soap that found its way into my eyes, searched for the towel that was hanging on a rack near the shower. The stinging chemicals were soaked out of my face as was all of the water that still clung to me as I ran the towel over myself. Though still naked the humid air didn't chill me very much, so I just tossed on my panties and T-shirt before heading to the shower to brush out the tangles that had inevitably found there was into my long blue and blonde hair. Yes, I had taken the time to and hundred and fifty dollars to get my hair professorially done with the two alternating colors, and I absolutely loved it. Another big bonus was that it drove my dad nuts.
Bitter, that far too much of my hair had ended up parting ways with my head so that it could live in my brush, I stumbled over to where my jeans still laid out on top of the toilet and slipped them on before making my way back to my room. The warm soft embrace of the bed greeted me as I flopped down on the pillow top exhausted, I didn't even bother to pull the blankets over myself before reaching over the edge of the bed and snagging my pillow. Yawning a little, I put the pillow under my head and tried to drift off to sleep.
I wish I knew why my dad preferred to run at night when everybody else did it in the morning. I sighed, maybe I would ask him tomorrow morning after at least eighteen hours of sleep. I felt sleep start to overtake me, and I allowed it to pull me into the black abyss. It didn’t take long before I was resting peacefully on my bed without a care in the world.
“Okay, Spike. What is on the schedule for today?” Twilight Sparkle asked, turning to her number one assistant.
Breakfast had gone its usual route, and Spike had been kind enough to clean the dishes without any fuss. The library itself was a complete mess, and dozens of books were stacked around the center table in disorganized heaps. It had been a very late night of studying for the young unicorn, and the cleanliness of the library had taken the greatest hit.
Spike cleared his throat as he retrieved a list that table. “On the list for today… we need to organize the library after last nights study session. Then we need to stop by Rarity’s on our way to Sweet Apple Acres, and pick up that hat that you ordered last week.” Spike perked up when he saw that they would be visiting the fabulous seamstress.
“After we stop at Rarity’s we will all go to Sweet Apple Acres, and help Applejack harvest the apple trees. After that it looked like you allotted a couple of hours for hanging out with the girls, and having lunch,” Spike finished looking back to Twilight.
“It will be nice to hang out with our friends,” Twilight agreed. “After lunch though I think that…” Twilight was cut off as rainbow colored blur shot into the library and crashed into a bookcase. Twilight, used to the event happening a couple of times each month, rolled her eyes as she turned to help her blue friend who was lying in a heap on the floor.
The mare, who half the ponies in Ponyville would immediately know to be Rainbow Dash since they too had grown used to these impromptu visits, was buried under a pile of books with just a single hoof indicating that she was even under the mountain of literature. As Twilight walked over to help her get back to her hooves Rainbow Dash leaped out off the floor and zoomed over to Twilight. The librarian was stunned for a second, but then noticed that her friend had been talking to her.
"and then it completely wrecked the market and started throwing things everywhere. Applejack said to come get you, and that you might know what to do." Rainbow Dash seemed panicked, which was something that she rarely displayed so openly.
“Rainbow, start over. You are talking faster than Pinkie after she discovered coffee.” Rainbow Dash pushed Twilight’s hoof off her face with a huff, and took a deep breath so that she could start over.
“There is a monster rampaging through the middle of town, and we need your help to stop it,” RD explained again.
Twilight was tempted to roll her eyes as the sky-blue pegasus rocketed into action in front of her. It always seemed like just when everything had calmed down, some unknown terror would attack the town, and she would have to go fix everything. Twilight quickly levitated Spike onto her back, and ran after Rainbow Dash.
It didn't take long to reach the center of town where all of the commotion was taking place. Ponies were running for their lives, away from whatever creature was attacking them today. A food cart rocketed out of the street that Twilight was about to turn onto, and smashed against a building, sending wood and produce flying in every direction. Twilight heard Spike gulp from where he was perched on her back, and she had to suppress her own unease at the situation.
Carefully, she turned onto the street where all of the excitement was taking place. Most of the stalls that comprised the farmer’s market were lying in pieces in the street. Food was strewn about haphazardly, and some ponies were scattered around trying to find a way to out. Twilight saw Applejack twirling her lasso getting ready to throw it at whatever was causing all of this.
She followed her friend’s gaze to the creature that was at the epicenter of the destruction. It was about twice as big as a normal pony, and stood on two legs. Twilight immediately noted that it was wearing some simple clothes, and had a dark red aura surrounding it. Its two-toned hair hung down around its shoulders as it clutched its head. The most terrifying thing about it was the screaming.
Twilight was sure that she had never heard something cry out in as much pain as the creature that was stumbling around in front of her. The shear volume of its wailing was causing some of the windows of the buildings lining the streets to crack. Without wasting any more time Twilight ran as fast as she could to where Applejack was standing.
Hardly noticing the lavender unicorn running up to her, Applejack threw her lasso in hopes of tying the thing down. The rope made contact with the creature, and immediately the red aura that surrounded it lashed out and burned the rope away. The lasso caught fire and at a blinding speed it began to spread down the rope that Applejack still held in her teeth.
The orange mare spit out the rope just before the fire reached her, turning the rest of her trusty lasso into ash seconds later. She looked back up from the ground to the creature that was stumbling around still crying out. A flash of blue caught her attention, and she looked up to see Rainbow Dash trying to dive bomb it.
Moments before the pegasus reached the howling creature a wave of red energy struck out, knocking her away, as well as sending wood and debris flying through the street. Rainbow Dash righted herself in the air, and began to climb high again so that she might get another chance at attacking the thing.
Twilight saw her friend take once again to the air, and tried to call out to her, but she was already too far away. She turned her attention back to whatever it was in front of her, trying to figure out a plan.
“What is that thing, Twilight?” Applejack asked from beside her.
“I don’t know. I have never seen or read about anything like it, but I do know that it is in a lot of pain. Maybe I can reach it somehow.” Before she could hear her friend try and protest, Twilight had already cast her mind out trying to connect with the being in front of her.
It was strange. Twilight wasn’t actually incredibly adept at mind magics, but she knew the basic principles fairly well. She tried to make a connection with whatever it was in front of her, but something was trying to keep her back. Frustrated, Twilight tried to overpower the force that was opposing her.
The force reared up, and defended itself heroically but it was woefully unprepared to face the most powerful unicorn in Equestria. After a few moments she had overtaken it, and could feel the mind of the creature just a slight reach away. Stretching out her thoughts once again she touched the mind in hopes of making contact.
She wasn’t ready for the massive wave of pain that crashed against her skull. Twilight collapsed to the ground, spilling Spike out along the road. Worried for her friend’s safety Applejack kneeled down beside Twilight trying to rouse her.
A few seconds passed before Twilight woke with a gasp. She looked around and realized that she had been knocked unconscious by the pure emotion that the creature was carrying. Shakily making her way back to her hooves, she looked back across the clearing to the being screeching uncontrollably.
“What happened, Twilight.” Applejack asked as she glared daggers at the creature that had hurt her friend.
“I don’t really know. What I do know, is that we have to help it.”
The dream was fun enough as far as dreams went. I had realized a short time ago that I was in fact dreaming, and began to wander around on a whim. It was a kind of strange dream to be sure, but when talking about dreams, strange doesn’t seem to be an adjective seldom used.
I walked along the streets of a town that I had never seen. It looked like something that would come out of a fairy tale. The houses were all painted bright colors, and the doors were made for something that was a lot smaller than the average human. Maybe the town was for dwarves?
The streets were deserted, but I didn’t mind just wandering. It was a nice enough day outside, and if I did ever get bored I could just dream something else up. It wasn’t very often that I actually got to have a lucid dream so I liked to take the time and enjoy them when they did come along.
I felt the loose gravel under my feet as I walked through town, sometimes wincing as something uncomfortable struck the soft bottom of my foot. I listened to the road crunch under my feet as I wandered around, looking at the world around me.
The town looked like it was built somewhere in the country based on how many trees were running through it. In the city where I grew up there were trees here and there, but they were always in little segregated groups, put there to make the place look better. These trees however, where scattered, seemingly at random, as if the town were built around them and not the other way around.
I smelled something sweet, and began to wander in the direction that the smell was coming from. In front of me stood a large house made out of what I assumed to be gingerbread, which made complete sense to my dream brain. I pushed open the door, and heard the bell ring as I made my way inside.
It looked like the gingerbread house was actually some kind of baked good store, but nobody was running the place. Snacks were laid out everywhere so I picked up a cupcake, and bit into it. The flavor exploded in my mouth instantly, and I quickly devoured the tasty confection. Smiling, I grabbed another cupcake and examined it.
It seemed like any old cupcake as far as appearances went, but it tasted like something that would cost a whole lot of money. Shrugging, a hundred dollar bill appeared in my hand, and I tossed it onto the counter as I made my way out of the store. The door closed behind me and the sound of the chiming bell was swiftly cut off.
I looked around again, and started walking with no real purpose. As far as dreams went this was pretty normal. Often I would find myself in completely abandoned places just looking around admiring the scenery. It was always interesting to me to see places without any people in them.
If there are no people around are buildings still homes? Philosophy, I had to admit, was something that I would probe at from time to time. There was no way that I was any kind of deep thinker, but tricking myself into thinking that I was was a good way to pass time. This town was definitely one of the weirder places that I had visited in my dreams, but what were you going to do?
I stopped dead in my tracks as someone stepped in front of me. I only got a small glimpse of him, but I could see that he was wearing all black. Pain blossomed in my stomach, and I looked down to see a knife sticking out of my chest. My cupcake fell to the ground unnoticed as lines started to spread out from the wound, and wrap around me.
“Hello, Dreamer,” he said grinning.
That is when the pain really hit me.
Twilight jumped to the side as another cart came hurtling towards her. The creature had stopped screaming a couple of minutes ago, and was now just lashing out at everything. Rainbow Dash lay in a pile of wood with her legs sticking up in the air twitching.
Twilight was really worried about her friend, but had to concentrate on the situation in front of her. If this thing kept rampaging like it was now then all of Ponyville was in jeopardy. She sent another bolt of magic sailing at the creature, and struck it in what she assumed was its chest.
It stumbled back for a moment before it regained its footing, the red aura began to surround another cart before it sent it flying through the street at her. Instead of moving out of the way this time, Twilight caught the cart with her magic before it got to her, and pushed it aside. She wanted to minimize the damage that was going to be done during this fight.
She knew that this creature was in an extreme amount of pain, and just lashing out at whatever it could, and Twilight really pitied it. She wanted to find a way to help it, but no matter what she did it only seemed to enrage the thing more. Making up her mind, Twilight began to build up energy for a very powerful spell.
Another cart rocketed at her causing Twilight to roll out of the way, narrowly avoiding injury. She couldn’t spend any more of her magic on stopping the projectiles if this next spell had any chance of working. She chanced a glance to where Rainbow Dash was lying, and saw Applejack had started to dig their friend out of the rubble.
Feeling that she had built up enough energy, Twilight raced across the expanse between her and the creature. It saw her coming, and Twilight could swear that she saw fear in its eyes for a moment before it turned once again to rage. A large crate was hurled at Twilight, but just before it hit the unicorn teleported out of the way.
She reappeared in a flash in front of the creature, and loosed her spell. The purple beam of energy struck it square in the chest, and it just stood there looking stunned. A moment of silence passed before the creature fell to its knees unable to move. The red aura that surrounded it started to recede. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the ordeal was finally over.
In a flash the red aura began to attack its host. It swarmed over the creature, completely obscuring all of its features. Twilight heard it begin to scream once again in agony as the red began to overpower it. The unmistakable sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh reached Twilight’s ears, and she began to panic. She hadn’t meant to actually hurt it. She had only tried to knock it out so that it would stop destroying the town.
Suddenly, it stopped thrashing and screaming, and the red aura once again began to recede. This time however, instead of a strange creature that she had never seen before kneeling in front of her, Twilight found a normal looking unicorn mare staring back at her.
She had a simple dark blue coat with a short and straight mane that hung over the left side of her face, alternating colors between azure and stark white. Her cutie mark showed a waning moon crashing into the sun. Her penetrating red eyes stared back at Twilight for the longest time as she continued to stand completely still in the epicenter of the destruction.
Twilight saw that mare’s eyes roll back into her head, and she began to fall over unconscious. Twilight reached out with her magic, and caught her before she hit the ground. Considering all of the things that she had been through over the years, this was probably the third strangest thing she had ever experienced.
Groggily, I began to come back to the world of the living, though my head was aching terribly. My head wasn’t the only thing that hurt however; my arms and legs were also aching with every pulse that my heart sent through them. I wished that I could just go back to sleep, and deal with my weariness when the sun was up.
I lay there trying to push myself back into the bliss that sleep offered, but the constant ache in my arms stopped me. I didn’t feel tired enough to think that simply lying still would eventually lead to me passing out so I decided to bring myself all the way to consciousness. Ascending from the sweet depths of oblivion I noticed that I couldn’t feel my hands.
It was odd to say the least to both feel an incredible numbness, where I assumed my wiggling fingers were, and an aching pain racing through my arm. I shifted my focus to my legs and found that my toes had also gone numb. While I concentrated on my legs I also noticed that something was off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong.
I opened my eyes so that I could truly wake up, and maybe find out why my body felt so strange, but everything in front of me was perfect black. The incredible awkwardness of the situation crashed down on me as my mind finally started to run at a hundred percent. Something was on my face stopping me from being able to see.
I panicked and tried to bring my hand to my face to see what was there, but as much as I tried, my arm wouldn’t move from where it was. It felt like something was holding onto my elbow and restraining my movement, but with how much pain my arm was in I couldn’t be sure. I tried to roll back off my side in an effort to free myself of whatever was holding onto me, but found that my other arm was similarly bound.
Now I was really starting to freak out. I kicked my legs in an attempt to gain some sort of purchase, or at least I tried. Whatever was holding down my arms was also snugly fastened around my legs. I tried repeatedly to pull myself free of whatever restraints had been placed on me during my sleep, but nothing I did worked. No amount of force would even cause my arms or legs to budge, and eventually I was too tired to continue.
I found that my neck was also securely fastened to whatever soft mattress that I was lying on, and as I lay there panting, something caught my attention. It was faint, but I was able to make out voices coming from what sounded like another room. I strained my ears harder than I thought humanly possible in hopes of picking up some of the conversation going on in the other room.
“Do you think that she will wake up,” someone who sounded like a pre-teen boy asked.
“There isn’t anything actually wrong with her so I would say that it is likely. I am just worried about what sort of state she will be in if she does wake up. I wish we didn’t have to tie her up,” the second voice responded. I was really not liking where this was going.
“Ah don’t think we should take any chances here. You saw what happened in town,” a third distinctly southern voice added.
“I know, you’re right. We can’t take any chances here since we don’t really know what is going on,” the second voice admitted. “How is Rainbow doing?”
“Ah shucks. That girl’s been through much worse than a spill into a wagon. She will be fine.”
“Thank Celestia. Do you think it was okay to send her flying off to round everypony up though?” the second voice asked hesitantly.
“Ah reckon she knows her limits better than us. If she needs to take a break she will.”
As exciting as the conversation was, I had regained enough strength to continue to struggle against my restraints in vain. I had no idea who was holding me captive, but they had tied me down for some reason, and I wasn’t very keen on finding out what exactly that reason was.
I was lying on my right side so I eventually just put all of my effort into freeing my left arm. From there I would probably be able to get the rest of my bindings off, and get the hell out of there. I felt my shoulder start to burn as I pulled against whatever was wrapped tightly around my arm. I felt it start to cut into the flesh of my arm, but I couldn’t care about that at the moment, and continued to pull.
After several strained seconds I heard a soft snapping sound, and my arm came free. I had to catch myself from uttering a scream of joy. My lips stayed sealed, and I moved my arm around to try and free my other limbs. It was then that I realized that I still couldn’t feel any of my fingers, and therefore wouldn’t really be able to do anything unless I could actually see what I was doing.
I lifted my numb stump of a hand to my face, and tried to wipe away whatever I felt wrapped over my eyes. In my blind stumbling I managed to punch myself write in the eye, and unfortunately for me, let out an involuntary curse. “Fuck!”
“huh?” I heard the boy ask from not too far away. He gasped, and I heard the sound of him running off to some other room, most likely to tell the others that I wasn’t asleep, and was trying to escape.
My panic started to whirl up again as I tried desperately to free myself. I pushed my limp hand against the binding on my other arm as hard as I could, but I was unable to slip it the same way that I had the other. The sound of footsteps ascending stairs reached my ears, and I picked up the pace.
Unfortunately, all of my effort was for not when I heard several pairs of feet enter the room, and then felt someone leap on me, restraining my only free leg.
“Get mah rope, Twi. We gotta get her tied back down.” I tried to kick out at the woman that was wrestling me back down, but my one free arm was woefully outmatched.
“Applejack, I don’t think that is the answer here. You are scaring her,” The second voice from earlier replied.
“Get off” I screamed, still struggling. Hearing my voice seemed to stun my opponent, and she momentarily froze, allowing me to pull free my arm long enough to punch her as hard as I could. I think I hit her square in the jaw.
She fell off of me for a second, and I think I heard the other woman rush over to her. I put my arm back to the task of freeing myself, and felt the restraint on my right arm start to come loose. I smiled as the binding continued to loosen, but was stopped once again as someone grabbed my left arm, and pulled it away.
“Y’all are gonna pay for that one.” she didn’t sound like she appreciated my little love tap too much. We continued to struggle against each other for a while before the other woman finally had enough, and decided to get involved.
“Enough!” she yelled, startling the other woman once again, and allowing me to get another hit in. I smiled as I felt my fist connect with her face again. If I was going to be tied up in some unknown place against my will, then inflicting a small amount of pain on my captors was enough to bring me a small amount of joy. It’s the little things in life.
“Stop that,” the second voice continued, “Applejack, get off her.” The woman that was on me didn’t feel like complying, and we continued to struggle against each other.
Suddenly I felt her lift off of me, though I continued to hear her struggle. “Consarnit, Twi put me down,” she said to the second voice.
“Applejack, I don’t think that wrestling with her is a very productive thing to do here.” I figured that they were going to continue their bickering, so I went back to freeing my other arm. I was extremely unhappy when I felt something pull my arm away. “And you need to calm down.”
I assume that she was addressing me, but that didn’t stop me from trying to wriggle my other arm away from my restraint. The same thing that was holding my left arm in the air clamped down on my right, completely immobilizing it. I continued to struggle futilely; at that point I think I was just doing it so that I didn’t break down completely.
“Stop struggling and calm down. You aren’t going to go anywhere until you have calmed down.”
“Screw you! I am not going to wait around here in your rape dungeon!” I screamed back at her as I tried to pull against whatever was holding me in place.
“My what?” she balked. I think I also heard the kid from earlier snickering at the entrance to the room. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you if you just stop struggling for a second.”
I knew that she was lying. She had to be lying right? If nothing bad was going to happen to me then why was I tied up and blindfolded in the first place? None of this made any sense so I ignored her and kept tugging again my restraints.
“Fine! We’ll do this your way.” Something struck me in the head, but it was unlike anything I had felt before. It wasn’t so much as something actual hit me in the head, but more as if something hit my brain itself.
I would have said that I started to see the lights fade, but since I was blindfolded I couldn’t tell one darkness from another. I did however, begin to feel very tired, and I couldn’t bring myself to struggle as hard as I had before. Eventually I couldn’t bring myself to move at all. I began to feel the sleep that I had so desperately wanted earlier start to take a hold of me.
I tried to fight against it, and stay conscious, but it was no use. Slowly but surely, my mind started to shut down, and give itself over. The last thing that I heard before I passed out was the southern woman asking the other something about overdoing it.
____________________________________________________________________________
Twilight slammed the door behind her as she left the room. Spike hurriedly moved out of her way as she stormed to the stairs and began to descend. Applejack and Spike shared a worried glance before following the flustered unicorn down into the main library.
Halfway down the stairs Twilight heard the sound of the front door opening. She was about to tell whoever had come that the library was closed for today, but sighed in relief when she saw that it was her friends. Rainbow Dash ushered the other three mares into the room before closing the entrance to the library behind her.
“Oh girls, I am so glad that you came,” Twilight said as she made her way over to her friends. She heard Spike and Applejack reach the bottom of the stairs behind her.
“Of course we came, darling. Rainbow Dash said there was something extremely important going on so we dropped everything and rushed right over,” Rarity replied.
“Yea! Dashie said that you had a new special friend in the library, and of course I wanted to meet them right away,” Pinkie Pie added as she bounced in front of Twilight.
“Well I don’t know about that. She isn’t awake right now.” Twilight looked back to Applejack for some form of support, but the farm mare didn’t have anything to add.
“Oh well why don’t we just wake her up then?” Pinkie Pie asked innocently.
“She was just awake, but she started freaking out so I had to put her to sleep with a spell,” Twilight admitted.
“You used magic on her?” Rarity exclaimed, causing Twilight to flinch.
“There was really no other option. She kept hitting Applejack, and refused to calm down, even when I asked her too repeatedly,” Twilight defended.
“…oh my,” Fluttershy said from where she was sitting against the wall.
“Woah she beat you up, AJ?” Rainbow Dash flew over to inspect her orange friend. “Wow, it looks like you are going to have a nice shiner.”
“Psh, she didn’t beat me up. All she did was get a good hit off or two. Girl has an awful powerful left hook,” AJ admitted, as she pulled her hat over her damaged eye.
“Well I hope you got a good shot in for me,” Rainbow replied as she landed.
“Naw, I didn’t hit her none. She was just scrambling around and tryin to get outta the ropes so I jumped in to stop her. That’s when she whacked me in the face… twice”
“Ropes?” Rarity inquired. “Oh dear, are you keeping some poor pony tied up, Twilight?”
“I don’t even know what she is. One minute she is this creature that is wrecking Ponyville and everything she sees and the next she is a normal looking unicorn. I really just don’t know what to do about this situation.” Twilight sank to the floor and rubbed her temple.
“So are you saying that this mystery mare is the one that caused all of the destruction downtown?” Rarity walked over and took a seat beside Twilight.
“Yes. When I finally managed to stop her she suddenly turned into a pony. Ugh, just thinking about it makes my head hurt.”
“Maybe we should tell the princess about this,” Fluttershy added.
“I thought about that, but at the moment I think that we have things under control here. I don’t want to worry her until I know that she needs to know.”
“Well then lets go say hello to our new friend.” Pinkie Pie seemed to never lose the bounce in her step.
“Like I said earlier, she will be out for a while.” As if to prove Twilight wrong a somepony started yelling upstairs.
“Somebody help me I have been kidnapped by crazy people!”
“Oh my, it seems that she is awake then,” Without waiting for anypony else’s input, Rarity walked to the stairs and began to climb to the second story. Not wasting anytime, Pinkie Pie bounced right after her friend.
“Wait for me, Rarity,” The party pony said as she also made her way up the stairs.
“Now just y’all wait a second.” Applejack raced off after her two eager friends.
Sighing, Twilight looked back at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash before she also left to join her friends upstairs. The two pegasi followed quickly behind the librarian, uncertain about what to expect when they reached the top of the stairs.
The mysterious mare was being held in one of the many backrooms that the library had on the second level. The door that led into the room was locked, and Rarity stood patiently as she waited for Twilight to open it. Twilight however, was refusing to even contemplate letting all of her friends inside with the obviously unstable mare.
“Come on, Twilight,” Pinkie whined. “You can't just keep a new friend all to yourself. I want to meet her too.”
“I just don’t think that it is a good idea,” Twilight replied, she was getting pretty tired of explaining herself at this point.
“But how can I plan a welcome party for somepony if I’ve never seen them before. I wouldn’t know when they arrived and the surprise would be ruined.” Pinkie Pie’s logic was as always, infallible.
“She is not in a state to be meeting a lot of ponies. When she calms down some then I will be glad to let everypony meet her, but until then I just don’t think that it’s a good idea.”
“Honestly Twilight, I thought you would have a better view of the situation than that,” Rarity said.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she turned to her friend.
“How would you expect anypony to remain calm if they are tied to a bed and blindfolded against their will. If you won't let anypony see her until then, then we will be waiting forever before you let us inside.”
Twilight had to admit that she had a point. In the same situation as the mare that lied just on the other side of the door, Twilight believed that she would be doing anything possible to escape. Maybe she needed to make the first move for the situation to progress peacefully.
“Fine,” Twilight finally conceded with a heavy sigh, “but if anything happens then I’m getting everypony out of there immediately.” She looked at each of her friends in turn and they all gave an understanding nod. “Okay then,” Twilight’s magic encompassed the door knob and it began to turn, “here we go.”
“Oh my…” Rarity said, as she saw the mare lying there, tied down to a bed, and chewing on the ropes that were binding her.
At the sound of someone else entering the room, the mare stopped and tried to look around, but she wasn’t able to see at all with the blindfold securely over her eyes. Her fur and mane were all out of place, not that the poor dear could be blamed with her current state and all, but Rarity did think that she was in dire need of a good spa date.
“Who’s there? If you want to go for another round I’ll knock your head off,” she said, trying to put up a brave front, but Rarity was experienced enough with ponies trying to mask their fears to know that the mare was terrified.
“Oh don’t worry dear,” Rarity said, as she hurriedly made her way across the room, “I will have you untied in just a second.”
“Rarity I don’t think…” Twilight began to argue, but the glare the fashionista shot her stopped her dead in her tracks.
The mare froze as Rarity pulled the binding on her left hoof free with her magic, and when she finished untying her completely she immediately shot against the wall where the bed rested. Pinkie Pie bounced into the room, undeterred by the rising tension in the room, while everypony else just watched from outside, wary of what was going to happen. The mare sat there, pressed as much against the wall as she could possibly be, while Rarity cautiously approached her.
“Okay,” Rarity began, “now I’m just going to…”
“Stay back lady!” the mare shouted, holding a hoof out pointed at the approaching unicorn. “Just...leave me alone.”
“I was simply going to removed the blindfold, dear.” Rarity’s horn lit up again as her magic surrounded the blindfold over the unicorn’s eyes, and gracefully untied it. It floated into the air with Rarity’s aid to reveal the shining red eyes of the panicked mare.
The mare continued to sit there, but as her eyes slowly adjusted to the room the first thing they locked onto was the white pony standing in the middle of the room. She blinked, several times in fact, before her eyes roamed past the white unicorn to the other two ponies in the room, one of which was bouncing impossibly up and down. There were more ponies just outside of the door looking in, and a weird purple lizard thing watching her as well. A loose scrap of linen was floating in the air next to her head, surrounded by a very strange aura. All of it was so bizarre and out of place that it brought a smile to the unnamed mare’s face.
“Oh thank god, it’s just a dream. I was really freaked out for a second,” the mare said as she let out a sigh of relief, her shoulders visibly relaxing.
“Umm…” Rarity began, biting her lip.
“Oh cool we’re in a dream,” Pinkie Pie excitedly said as she bounced onto the bed the dark blue unicorn was in. “I always wanted to go into other ponies dreams, but it’s like really hard, though one time I did meet this pink starfish riding a seahorse. Man that game was really fun, but we ran out of quarters.”
“Ponies?” The blue unicorn asked, raising a hoof in front of her face, her eyes bulging as she inspected it. She turned her hoof all sorts of ways before looking over to the other one and doing the same with it. “Being a pony and tied up in a bed against my will, kinky. I should really see a psychiatrist...and stop trolling 4chan.”
Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy all turned a deep crimson a the mare’s words, but they only caused Rainbow Dash to snicker uncontrollably. Pinkie Pie however simply stopped bouncing and tilted her head to the side.
“What’s 4chan?” she asked.
The blue mare was about to say something before Twilight stepped forwards and cut her off. “You aren’t dreaming,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Of course I am, strange purple horse,” the mare replied simply. “Not the weirdest I’ve had, and it took me a bit longer than normal to realize it, but yeah, totally a dream.”
“I’m a little worried that you don’t understand what is going on,” Twilight went on, trying to guide this mare onto a much saner path. “If you could just answer a few questions for me, like how you got to Ponyville…”
“Heh, Ponyvile. Classic. Not very imaginative, and here I am trying to be an amatuar writer while my subconscious can only spit out lame puns.” the blue unicorn interrupted.
“Look, you aren’t dreaming okay,” Twilight replied, her patience being sorely tested.
“Twilight, I think it best that we try and proceed with care,” Rarity said, displaying a strained smile to her friend.
“Look!” The mare yelled at Twilight, pointing a hoof at her accusingly. “There is no way this isn’t a dream!” As if to prove her point she quickly moved her hoof to her face and bit down her her leg before anypony could stop her. The group stood there in silence for a few moments as the mare’s eyes slowly turned from smug righteousness to stunned fear. She pulled her leg from her mouth and looked down at it, her bite mark still a visible outline against the fur, no doubt going to leave a nasty bruise.
“That...hurt,” she said, still staring down at her leg. “This is real, that...that can’t be. There’s no way it can be real, but…”
Seeing the mare injure herself, Fluttershy immediately rushed into the room to help, but was stopped in her tracks as the blue mare started to scream her head off.
“Aaaaaahhhhh….*huff huff huff*...aaaaah….*huff huff* aah…*huff pant* uh.” I was too exhausted to go on, my lungs deciding that my hysterical screaming just had to come to an end. The horses, or whatever the colorful creatures were, finally opened their eyes and looked at me. All except for the pink one, which had just been staring at me the entire time watching with interest.
The yellow one took a step forwards, it had wings on its back, freakin wings. “Um,” it began, “can I take a look at your hoof please,” it asked.
I looked back at my arm, or what should have been my arm, but all that was there was an alien appendage covered with some blue fur. I took in a deep breath, fully planning to start screaming again when a magenta light clamped my mouth shut.
“Please don’t do that again,” the purple one said. That one had a horn, and it was glowing the same color. I exhaled forcefully and stared at that one, my head being held tightly in place. The yellow one took the opportunity to grab the leg I had bitten and inspect it.
“Oh...my…” she said as she turned it over. I had picked up by the voices that all of these brightly colored horses seemed to be female.
“Is it bad?” The white, I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, unicorn asked as she stepped forwards.
“She hurt herself pretty badly,” the yellow *ugh* pegasus replied.
I made some fake gagging noises, pretty fed up with whatever was holding my mouth shut, and the purple unicorn immediately turned her horn off and took a sheepish step back. “Oh, sorry.”
I opened my mouth and made a show of sucking down air, before pulling away from the yellow pegasus. “Stay back!” I nearly screamed.
She looked hurt as she took a few steps away, but at the moment I couldn’t really care. I was just thankful that she was moving away, which is why I was so pissed when another pegasus, this one blue, flew right into my face. “Hey!” she said, her own voice matching the volume of mine, “nopony yells at Fluttershy.”
“Um...Rainbow I don’t think…” The yellow one started, but immediately stopped as I took a swing at the blue pegasus. She nimbly avoided my right hook, something I hadn’t quite expected, the force of the swing sending me off balance and falling off the edge of the bed. My head hit the ground with a crack, and a shooting pain slammed me right in the middle of the forehead.
I sat up, trying to rub away the ache in my head, but finding my hoof connecting with a long cone protruding from my forehead. I followed it all the way up to the tip that was actually quite pointy and tapped it a few times before it finally dawned on me. “Oh my god, I have a horn.” This was all too strange, far too strange.
“I got the mirror Twilight,” the miniature Barney said from the door. That weird magenta aura surrounded the mirror that he was holding and it began to float in the air over to the purple unicorn.
“Thank you Spike,” she said as she turned over to me and started approaching slowly. “Okay, I know you’re scared and everything, so I think that it is for the best that you take a look at yourself now rather than later.”
I just stared back at her, my brain utterly refusing to bring any words to my mouth. The mirror moved in front of my eyes and I gasped at what I saw. I had figured out by this point that I wasn’t me anymore, or at least not human. I didn’t know how, or why, but I was just like these strange creatures in this room now. My face looked like theirs, bright red eyes staring straight back at me as I looked into the mirror unblinking. A crop of short and straight blue and white hair fell over the side of my head, and plastered onto the center of my forehead was a long and sharp horn. I just continued staring into the mirror for the longest time, eventually reaching out and grabbing it. I didn’t even notice when the yellow one returned to my leg and started wrapping it in a bandage.
“This...how?” I asked after a little while, looking back to the purple unicorn.
She sighed and walked over to me. “I don’t know,” she replied, “what do you remember?”
I tried to think back, it was hard for me to remember what had been going on before I woke up here, but but all of a sudden it came rushing back.
“I just got off a run with my dad,” I said, as the memories started flooding back in a torrent. “I showered and went to bed. I had a dream that I was walking through a town, and then some guy stabbed me.”
“You were stabbed?” The yellow one gasped, quickly flitting about me and checking me out thoroughly
I continued staring at those red eyes, those foreign orbs in the mirror that wouldn’t let me look away, my eyes. “Then this has to be a dream right?” I asked, the question seeping with desperation.
“I’m afraid not,” The purple one said, slowly pushing the mirror down until it was resting on the floor. “This is real.”
I stared down at the floor, my eyes starting to water. It took all my willpower to push back the tears that wanted to spill out; I had promised myself long ago that there would only be one more time I let myself shed tears, and no matter how strange this situation was it didn’t qualify. My legs shook as I leaned on them heavily, but they held me all the same.
“Okay…” I eventually said, exhaling a long and shaky breath.
The purple mare in front of me laid down, so that she could catch my eye. “Look, I don’t know what happened to you, but I will work my best to fix it okay. Right now though, I think we need to get to know each other a little better. My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said, gesturing to herself with a hoof, “and these are my friends. What is your name?”
“I’m…” I started, taking a calming breath and trying to gather my courage. “My name’s Gabrielle, but my friends call me Gabby.”
“Gabrielle, that is a beautiful name,” the one called Twilight said.
“I agree,” the white unicorn said, approaching me. “My name is Rarity, and it is a great pleasure to meet you.”
I looked up, finding that Rarity was smiling gently as she looked at me. In fact, the rest of the creatures all around me were looking at me with something akin to cautious optimism. Except for the blue one that was standing on the bed glowering at me. I guess I couldn’t blame her, I did try to take a swing at her, I kind of wanted to again. What, with her face just sitting there being all...hitable.
“Yes,” I said, trying to adopt a more positive outlook and cheer myself up a little. I brushed the hair that had fallen over my face back over my ear, a little nervous habit that I had. “Nice to um...meet you I guess.”
“And I’m Pinkie Pie!” the pink one said as she jumped right into my face, invading my personal space far too much. It was all I could do not to take a swing at this one too, but she genuinely seemed to be absolutely no threat so I managed to stay my hoof, for now.
“Hello?” I replied, as that same magenta aura surrounded Pinkie Pie and she was lifted away from me. “What exactly...are you all?” I asked.
“We’re ponies silly, like you,” Pinkie Pie said from where she was suspended in the air upside down.
“Like me…” I slowly repeated, looking back to my hoof. The mere thought put a significant chink in the facade of ‘alrightness’ that I was trying to build, and it must have shown.
“Gabrielle,” Twilight said, pulling my attention back to her, “I know that this is quite a shock to you, but when we found you, you were rampaging through town and wrecking everything. When we finally managed to calm you down you kind of turned into a unicorn.”
I tapped the horn on my head again, and knew that what she said was probably the truth. For some reason, god only knew, I was here with a bunch of colorful ponies and I was one of them. “Okay,” I said again, laying down on the ground and sighing.
“Oh it’s not so bad,” Pinkie Pie said, hugging me tightly, having some how freed herself from floating in the air. “Plus, being a unicorn is pretty neat. Not that I would know, with me being an Earth Pony and all, but the whole glowy horn magic thing is pretty neat.”
I stuck a hoof between us, and pushed her swiftly off of me. She seemed a little disappointed by this, but didn’t let her cheery smile falter for more than a split second. “Right, magic…” I said sarcastically.
Twilight and Rarity both screwed up their face at my remark, like I was the crazy one, which would have definitely been one explanation for everything that was going on right now. “Yes, unicorns can perform magic,” Twilight stated.
“Uhuh,” I simply said with a nod, everyone knew there was no such thing as magic.
Again, Pinkie Pie floated into the air surrounded by a magenta aura, Twilight’s horn lighting up at the same time. “See,” she said, holding her friend there like it was proof.
“Suuuure,” I nodded along while sitting back up. “Magic.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open, as Pinkie Pie giggled. I looked over to the orange pony that was still standing in the doorway as she snickered at Twilight’s expression. Rarity stepped forwards and put a hoof on my shoulder.
“Do they not have magic where you come from?” she asked.
“There’s no such thing as magic,” I said simply.
“Look,” Twilight insisted as Pinkie Pie shook up and down in the air.
“Weeeeeee,” she exclaimed, enjoying the ride.
“Darling,” Rarity calmly continued, “while I don’t know if they do or don’t have magic where you come from. Here in Equestria magic is a very real thing.”
It, well it wasn’t completely out of the question. How else would I have gotten here really if it weren’t for some weird freak accident, or some act of god. Magic, that was a little hard to believe, but I guess it would make a certain amount of sense. Plus, the whole floating pony thing was some pretty good evidence.
“Okay,” I said after thinking it over for a minute. “How do you do it then?”
“I’m sorry?” Rarity asked, taking her hoof from my shoulder.
“Magic, she said that unicorns could do magic and stuff so how do you do it?” I asked, folding my hooves across my chest. I looked down and marvelled that somehow this body was able to keep it’s balance in this position, even though it was quite difficult.
“Well it’s um...Twilight?” she said, turning back to her friend.
“I really don’t think that is what we should be focusing on right now,” Twilight said as she put her friend once more on the ground.
“So it’s just a trick then,” I replied with a shrug.
“A trick...no, it’s just that I think we should be focusing on…” Twilight tried to rationalize.
“If it’s just a trick then that’s fine. Not like I care,” I said.
“It’s not a trick but...fine look. Telekinesis is the easiest spell a unicorn can do. You simply need to focus on what you are trying to move and force your will upon it,” she explained.
“Uhuh,” I said, staring down at the mirror and trying to get it to jump sideways, or fly to the ceiling, or something; knowing full well it wasn’t going to happen.
“Gabrielle, what are you doing,” Twilight said, looking just above me.
“Absolutely nothing,” I replied sincerely, the mirror wouldn’t even move an inch.
“Darling, I think you should stop what it is you are doing, please,” Rarity said as she took a few steps away, her voice strained with worry. I noticed that both of the pegasi had also taken quite a few steps away from me towards the other end of the room as I looked up.
“Why what’s…” I started to ask, before my eyes followed theirs to where I could see a glowing red light at the very tip of my horn. “Huh, would you look at that.”
And then the room exploded.
Author's Note
So, I have taken this story off of hiatus I guess. I have always had this sinking feeling that I should probably return to this one eventually, and I guess that I have. Either way, I would love to hear any comments that anyone is willing to share with me on what they think of this story and whether or not I should continue it. Thanks for reading.
