The Strangeling

Chapter 4, Dream or harsh reality?

Following the scaly hug to seal the deal they made, changeling and snake began their conversation anew, which felt to Gleaming like it would go on forever. Most of the discussed topics were about day-to-day happenings and recent rumors and did not hold any value to Gleaming or her current situation. Even before she ended up here at this very table, presented like a trophy, Gleaming never liked sharing gossip or doing smalltalk with other mares. It simply bored her to no end. Therefore she busied herself with looking around the small room and counted the tiles within her field of view.

´Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-fo- oh hello there mister dustball number 2! -twenty-five, twenty-´

*prod* *prod*

If Gleaming could look into a mirror right now, she was fairly certain an annoyed vein would be visible on her forehead as of this moment. Nemora had once again started poking around in the area of her cutie-mark, much to Gleaming chagrin. As her annoyance grew to levels previously unknown, Gleaming noticed something different about herself during the unwelcome procedure.

When she tried to wiggle her flank againt the notion of being touched, her body actually moved slightly again. Not by much by any means, probably just a small spasm, but it would have been enough to scare the average fly away from her flanks. Shooting a quick glance at the vets face, Gleaming feared Nemora might haven taken note of her hipshake attempt, yet Gleaming saw no indication of Nemora noticing anything out of the ordinary.

´The sedative is finally about to wear off! Maybe I can…´

Not about to give her captor any clues, as Gleamings control of her own body slowly returned to her, she attempted to appear as indifferent as ponily possible. Which, in her circumstances, simply meant to keep lying still, staying calm and not let anything show on her face, like a true poker player. If Gleaming was good at anything it would be maintaining the best pokerface.

She would never admit it to anypony besides herself, but the amount of bits she won from her fellow guardsmares in the barracks were actually the main reason why Gleaming could allow herself to buy takeouts so often.

Being aware of the fact, that she was still being watched from all sides, Gleaming only risked testing her range of movement, when the changelings and snakes attention turned to each other or any part of the room apart from Gleamings table. But even then she kept it to a bare minimum, lest she be discovered. Just as she did prior with evaluating her magic powers in the lobby.

The only one who noticed her movements at all was probably the dragonling in front of her. Pokey never took his eyes away from Gleaming and gazed intensely back to her, every time their eyes met. If the dragon was aware of her progress, in terms of recovery, Gleaming could not tell, as he gave no visual clue. However even if he did, Pokey seemed indifferent about it and just kept looking back at her, occasionally swishing his purple tail behind him.

By now Gleaming had confirmed to herself, that most of her legs were with her again, but she did not trust them yet, as they felt somewhat tingly and Gleaming feared her sense of gravity was most likely screwed, after laying down on her side for so long.

Her time as teenager, lazing about in her bed while consuming unhealthy snacks, reading comics and novels, mostly liked by colts, instead of burying her nose in *Starswirls magic tome vol.3*, taught her that lesson.

Especially the ungraceful landing she made, snout first, into the floor when she hastily attempted to leave her bed for the bathroom that one fateful day.

Gleaming needed an opportunity to stretch out her legs for real, to confirm her findings and get her bearings again, before she could decide on how to proceed from here. She needed a moment for herself, were she was unsupervised and could check herself through.

A distraction would be the optimal way to go, but how would she achive that?

As of right now, Gleamings options to cause such an event were limited at best. But fortunately for her, fate provided one on its own.

A loud but short -beep- sounded through the cramped space, causing all talk to seize and heads to spin behind Gleamings backside once more. Nemora, the cheerful vet, rushed over to her machinery, out of Gleamings sight, and returned a few seconds later from the left with a small vial filled with a purple liquid in one claw and some officially looking, thinly written and cramped looking papers in the other.

Nemora held the vial against the light in the ceiling, which was not hard for her, as her long arms made it effortlessly easy to accomplish, and shook it once or twice before squining her eyes at the vial when it slowly turned blue. Then she lowered her arm and scanned through the lines and tables on the papers with a scowl on her face before announcing, “Nothing bad in terms of germs, but…she doesn´t seem to have any antibodies for any typical desease or parasite ponies usually carry around with them.”

Gleaming could not believe what she was hearing. Her health bill was always top notch, as was her sisters. Their mother, Twilight Velvet, made very sure of that and took them both as fillies to any appointment necessary to keep their family up to date with the latest viral flu going around. Even their father was not spared from Velvets holy crusade.

And their father, Night Light, hated needles with a passion…

When Gleaming entered the recruitment center of the guard, her health bill was checked again per standard procedure, and while she did get one more needle in her flank that day, as a booster they said, the doctors back then found nothing major missing out of the ordinary. They even complimented her for her mothers efforts to keep up to date.

To say now that Gleaming had no antibodies could mean only one of two things.

Either this Nemora character was not very good at her job, or as Gleaming already feared, she had left Equestria behind entirely with that vortex-portal. Neither option was a good sign.

Gleaming had very little reason to doubt the first, as despite her chatty and joyful nature Nemora appeared to know what she was doing. But if the latter option proved itself to be true, Gleaming might find herself further away from home as she previously thought. At this rate it could be months before she was found by any rescue team!

´No, that can´t be right, I definitely saw another pony outside already! And then there is this changeling. He had to have to come from somewhere at least in close proximity to Equestria!

Right?´

The changeling chuckled dryly and shook his head at Nemora, “And that really surprises you? She was probably kept in a cage most of her life and only saw the outside for fights in an arena.”

“If that’s the case, then she was bound to pick up something during those times. Either from the air itself or at least from her opponents and fighting them.” Nemoras stated as she placed her claws on her hips and leaned in Aidings direction. “In my entire career, I have only ever heard of one single patient being immune to every little virus out there. And that was waaaay before I started my practice, when I was still studying the arts!” Nemora finished.

Twirling his left hoof through the air in front of him, as if he was stirring soup in a bowl floating upside down in front of his face, Aiding continued, “Not if all their combatants are kept under the same conditions. Also, you are forgetting one thing, these fights are highly illegal, which means they have to be fast to skip the authorities and avoid controls.”

Nemora placed the vial in a holder on the wall and filed the papers she was holding neatly into in a folder, which she then held out to a tiny window in the same wall, where a greedy hand grabbed it, before crossing her scaly arms in front her her chest and turning her full attenton back to Aiding once more, “I´m not following.”

The corners of Aidings mouth turned upwards. He seemed to enjoy the opportunity to be able to enlighten Nemora on the topic.

´Strange, he didn´t seem to like explaining anything at all to that monkey-lady about that Urobo thingy outside.´

Unaware to Gleamings contribution to the tale and dropping his hoof back to his side, Aiding went on, “Say, how do you best avoid an illegal operation to be found? Surely not by keeping it stationary on a planet. No matter how secluded it is, at some point someone somewhere will let something slip through...or randomly stumble upon it. Therefore the best option to stay out of reach of anyone who isn´t invited is to stay mobile.”

When no immediate reaction from Nemora came forth, the changeling used his hoof again to point upwards to the ceiling, in a look-up-motion.

Gleaming had no idea what he meant.

And at first Nemora drew a blank as well, as the expression on her face did not shift in the slightest after looking at the changelings face for a couple of seconds. But after pondering on the the pointing movement Aiding made for a bit, realisation seemed to hit Nemora, as her slitted eyes lit up like a heartswarming tree and widened instantly, “You mean they use a ship?!”

Aiding used the formerly moving hoof and turned it to point at Nemora like a teacher would to confirm her findings as correct, as he nodded once, “Precisely. No better way to ditch the sector patrols and wide range scanners, by staying on the move, while business continues to go on inside, safe from prying eyes. Most likely they hide in a nebula as well as an additional safety measure.”

Spinning on her heels and casting her worried gaze down at Gleaming, Nemora seemed to pity her, as she moved her claw through Gleamings mane in a soothing gesture, much to the ponys dismay, “Oh you poor thing! They kept you on a ship all this time, didn´t they? You probably never saw grass before, or the sunlight, or know what its like to run wild with the wind in your fur, or…,or…”

Gleaming felt embarassed about being on the receiving end of so much sympathy from Nemora for things she did not do and fights she was never a part of. Also it aggravated her to no end, that everyone was intend on touching her against her will. Pokey, the changeling and now Nemora.

´I´m not a pet, dammit!´

Also it appeared to Gleaming, the longer this talk went on, the further those two “experts” seemed to drift from the truth. At this point she wondered how she was supposed to get out of this mess.

“This is horrible. Do you think she will recover?”

Aiding seemed to ponder on this, as he moved his head from let to right, thinking things through for himself, “Can´t say for sure, but I also thought Prickles wouldn´t make it, with his background. Same with Pumpkin, if you recall. We will have to just wait and see.”

´And who Prickles now? And Pumpkin? Is he holding more ponies captive!?´

The dragonling in front of Gleaming, who had been silent until now uttered a noise wich came remarkably close to an “Awwww”.

The changelings gaze switched between looking at Pokey and Gleaming as he spoke next, “Maybe some time with the rest of the herd and some socialising it will help her mental scars to heal.”

´Herd? So he does have more prisoners!´

Gleaming felt strangely elated at the news that she was not the only one in this predicament. Maybe there was a chance to rally up against the changelings rule! That is to say, if the others were in the right state of mind and not malnourished from their time under the changelings hoof. If worse comes to worst Gleaming would just have to wait for her rescue team to arrive and then explain to them on how to save the others.

She only had to hold out until then and gather as much information as she could.

Clasping her claws together in front of her chest, forming a triangle of sorts, Nemora announced, “Then lets not keep her waiting to long to meet the others!” as she strolled back the way she came into this room. When she passed Gleaming lying on the table, Nemora shortly stopped in her tracks as she seemed to remember something. Taking a glance at her wristband Nemora added , “Bethy should be done with the papers by now, come with me and we´ll make it quick!”, to her earlier statement.

Aiding glanced out the window from his position, eyes narrowing somewhat as he scanned the by now low amount of light slipping in through the blinds,“Agreed, lets wrap this ordeal up, its about time I get back to the farm and check on the crew anyways.”, then added glumly, “Wonder what they managed to fail at this time.”

Waving her claws dismissevely at him, Nemora walked to the door she used to enter this room and held it open with the other, “You are being to harsh on them, they did fine, judging by the low amount of calls I got.”

Gleaming saw the changeling roll his eyes as he pushed himself away from leaning on the counter. With a steady step he then walked passed her table and moved over towards Nemora, “If they had been doing “fine” as you said, they wouldn´t need to call you at all!”

Gleaming waited with bated breath for the noise of the changelings hooves and the snakes claws on the tiles to recede. Her anticipation making the steps seem louder in her head, than they were in reality, until finally the door fell shut with a soft click.

The moment had come.

Gleaming was finally left alone.

…

Well not entirely as it turned out, when she looked straight ahead.

In his infinite wisdom, the changeling had forgotten to take his pet dragon with him, whose eyes were still fixed on Gleamings, boring into her very soul. It appeared as if he was searching for something in her gaze, but what?

Just what was it with this little guy?

The dragon shifted forward, blinked, poked her muzzle and laughed again, “Meheheheheheheh!”

´You can figure out the baby dragon later, Gleaming. Now is your chance!´

Rolling back and forth on her side, and using her head and neck as counterweight to increase her momentum, Gleaming got herself into an upright position on the table, so that she was now lying on her belly. Slowly and shakely she shuffled her legs underneath her body and struggled to push herself up. To an outside observer she must have looked like a drunken pony rising up from a night of sleeping in the streets of manehattan.

Gleaming gritted her teeth and had to put up a fight just to keep her hooves where she wanted them, but she managed… she had to, as there would nopony come to her help any time soon.

So, bit by bit, Gleaming rose from the table, while swaying slightly from side to side as her legs werent used to her bodys weight after all that time lying down.

´This must be what elder ponies feels like every morning…at least my joints aren´t popping yet!´

As she waited for her sense of gravity to balance itself out and getting used to feeling of ground under her hooves again, Gleaming took the chance to peer around the rest of the room, previously unavailable to her.

The examination rooms second half she had not been able to see until now, proved itself to look vastly the same as the other half, except for the door on the right and the various medical machines spread out evenly on the counters, along with some strewn about papers. Monitors of different colors showed spiked lines, flat lines, numbers counting up and large amounts of texts, which zoomed by almost to fast to read. Squinting her eyes, Gleaming tried in vain to make out the text, but found herself unable to identify any letters known to her. If any of those symbols even were letters, then they were not definitely not Equish, of that she was certain.

´Twily would probably recognise most of these machines in an instant´ Gleaming chuckled to herself, ´or busy herself with figuring out what they do.´

Hopping down from the table, Gleaming barely caught herself from topling over, when her knees gave out, but managed to stabilize herself, before injury could follow. She found, she had had enough of that lately already.

´Riiight, gotta remember to take it slow.

Wonder how much time I have, before they come back?´

Gleaming cantered on silent hooves, as fast as she dared, over to the door, where Aiding and Nemora presumably disappeared behind. When she arrived Gleaming put her ear on the flat, cold surface, closed her eyes and focussed on listening beyond the obstacle.

At first nothing came to her, but the dim noises from outside and the slight rumbling and beeping of the medical machinery within the room. They were not loud by any means but their amount made them quite distracting. Therefore Gleaming tried tochange tactics.

As she was lacking a drinking-glass right now Gleaming instead pressed a hoof against her free ear, to minimize enviromental interference, as she tried harder to zone out the things she did not want to hear. It was not easy to pull off, but soon her efforts proved successful and she was rewarded with the sounds of drawers, shuffling papers and the scribbling of a pen at the end of what seemed to be a long hallway, beyond the door. Even noises which faintly resembled talking reached her ears.

Sadly though, she could not make out individual voices and lines like this.

´Must be soundproof to a degree...`

Which made sense, if a pet went into full panic mode and starting screaming, that the noise would not reach into the lobby next doors unhindered and cause a stampede to happen. Also it probably made for a more private athmosphere for discussing delicate matters with the various owners of said pets, Gleaming reasoned.

Straining her ears further to hear more, Gleaming pressed harder against the door, praying to Celestia it was not going to open because of it, and was able to identify the voices of three individuals. Confused about the third source of ambient talking, she recalled briefly that the enthusiastic receptionist had to be somewhere in the building still. Looks like she was still not done.

´So much for her date.´

Now that she was certain that everypony who could discover her was occupied, and was not about to return for a while, Gleaming removed her ear from the door. It was a little sore from being pressed hard against the flat surface, so Gleaming rubbed a little at it to get the bloddflow going again. While doing that she sat down on the tiled floor and let her gaze wander whilst she pondered on what exactly to do next.

Her initial plan to overthrow and subdue the changeling on her own had spectacularly failed and ended with her being drugged and hauled off into a vet clinic in a place she did not recognise. She was no longer on any familiar territory and likely in an enviroment the changeling was more accustomed to, if his interaction with Nemora and the lack of a response from anypony outside was anything to go by.

So if Gleaming was to try that exact plan again it was probably doomed to fail again. Specifically since she did not have the element of surprise this time.

´Maybe a different approach is needed here.´

The picture of the brown stallion from across the street came back to the forefront of her mind. The way the changeling reacted towards the pony and how he let his guard down easily after just a few friendly reactions.

If Gleaming could not overcome her captor in a fight, then she might have a chance to outsmart him?

Act as a pet? Act as a pet…

´Acting as a pet is my plan B? Really brain? I thought better of you!´, Gleaming grumbled to herself in her internal debate.

With her next step somewhat planned out there was also another matter to consider for Gleaming Shield: The world around her and how to get back to Equestria. If she wanted to go back she needed to figure out how she got here in the first place and simply reverse the process, right?

´At least that what Iron-Mare did in episode 37…Hey who knew comics would safe me someday!

Okay frst step…what got me here was that vortex thingy…so in order to get back I need to make one of my own in the same place I came in here…´

Gleaming doubted her ability to recreate the complex summoning matrix of her sister, but she knew the place she entered this realm from and that was at least a start. She could figure out the rest later or simply wait there for the rescue party. The only thing Gleaming would have to do, is to locate the weird metallic room, where she first woke up in and met Pokey and the changeling.

What she did not know was were that place is or how to get to it, as she was incapacitated earlier due to her own rash reactions.

As she realised her hasty assault might have doomed her one chance of going home, Gleaming mentally kicked herself.

´Wait, didn´t Aiding meantion a ship earlier? I´m sure he did!

…

Great the only one who knows were I need to go is the least trustworty creature around…´

…

Faced with a mental wall, Gleaming decided to take stock and thought about the situation as a whole. Being held as a prisoner by the changeling, after her journey through the vortex, to be replaced anytime in the future by another of his kind.

At least that is what the stories and legends said they would do.

The changeling Gleaming was confronted with however behaved completely different in all aspects. He walked around in plain sight, in the middle of the day and presented his “catch” to anypony who just glanced his way. That is one horrible abductor right there.

So far he did not even bother to use any magic at all! Not even once did Gleaming see his horn glow. That is to say if he did not already cast anything and Gleaming was simply imagining things he projected in her mind, or simply would not let her see.

A thought struck her and as faint as the hope was, she still had to confirm it. Gleaming raised her foreleg and bit into the soft part right above her ho-

´Ouch! No, okay not trapped in a dream realm.´

Begrudgingly Gleaming had to admit to herself, that this entire scenario seemed more unlikely the more she saw the changeling interact with the world around him and the creatures in it. Well at the least the ones she saw thus far, which were not much. She needed more proof to rule this one out.

Also there was still the little voice in the back of her head telling her to be on guard and not drop the possiblity prematurely, just to be safe.

She would not. Especially if she witnessed “Aiding” use magic in the near future or found the magic artefact he may have used instead to bend others to his will.

´I will need to investigate this, if I want to leave.´

Secondly there was another and much to her dismay, increasingly likely scenario to be considered: This could be another realm far from home were ponies were kept as pets and Gleaming had the unfortunate luck to be stranded among them for an undetermined amount. There were quite a few hints to support this idea already, enough even to convince a blind pony.

The waterbowl and blanket offered to her when she woke up, the way Aiding talked more at than to her as if he was not expecting an actual response, the pony on a leash she saw from across the street and the vet clinic to top the list off. Through the entire ordeal in here, Nemora had treated Gleaming more like one would a wounded dog and not a pony in a horsepital.

Not to mention the petting.

Gleaming did not like the petting.

Or being touched in general by anpony outside her family.

´I´m not a pet! My mane and fur are mine!´

However with her plan B set in motion she would have to get used to it…a whole lot of it. And while she did not like it, getting petted, would work in her favor to maintain a plausibler cover while she unrevelled the questions remaining to get her back home.

While Gleaming was occupied in her realm of thoughts, the dragonling had flown down from the table and landed next to her. When she took notice of Pokey and turned her head to look his way, the dragonling tilted his head, eyes sparkling with joy.

´Depending on which theory is correct, how do you fit in?´ she wondered.

“Wah-wah!”, the dragonling greeted her.

“Harg….ghjf….glev”, Gleaming blurted out, out of reflex.

´Oh right, I forgot.´ she glumly thought.

Regardless of her decision, on which theoretical situation was actually the truth, Gleaming needed more information about this place and its differences to Equestria. If she had more solid material to go on, she would have an easier time getting to the places she need to be and maintaining a good cover as she did. Maybe she could even leave without anypony noticing!

Yes! She could do this!

Unfortunately for Gleaming the only sources of knowledge about this place were the snake-vet and the changeling. And those two were currently holed up in an almost soundproof room out of her rea-

A thought struck Gleaming as her unfocussed gaze drifted across windows with their blinds halfway opened. Just a second earlier she had heard the receptionists voice fairly close to the other two beyond the door, which meant she had to be with them right now.

And that meant the lobby was empty.

Probably.

If Gleaming snuck out of here and through said lobby, she was surely to find a door or window closer to the room were Aiding and Nemora had gone into and could eavesdrop on their conversation without anyponys knowledge. Allowing for her to maintain the cover of indifference as a pet…at least for now, or until her brain could come up with a better plan.

´You better do better with plan C brain!´

With her mind made up Gleaming turned to the door, which she knew would lead into the lobby as it was the one she had come through earlier. The tall white rectangle looked vastly the same an any door back home to her, except for one thing: it was tall. Very tall. So tall in fact, that even when Gleaming tiphoofed she barely came to the halfway point of it.

´This is ridiculous! How do ponies here even-

Oh right, probably not at all...´

Faced with the, in her mind, poor design decision to have the doorhandle that far up. Gleaming thought about how to get to it. The way her horn felt and how much effort she had with pretending to summon lightspell in the lobby, made her certain that telekinesis was not an option for her still.

´Sooo, hooves it is…´

She was not looking forward to sacrificing half of her legs and hooves which kept her stable, as she was still a little wobbly on four hooves, but the situation left her with no alternative. Therefore Gleaming reluctantly reared up and grapped the handle with her forehoof, which left her heavily leaning on the door for support. Gently testing her hold, that she would not suddenly fall over, Gleaming pushed with all her strength on the handle, in the hopes it would open it.

It did not.

Frustrated with the lack of success Gleaming tried pulling on the handle next, but once again was met with no result to speak of, other than making herself looking stupid at failing to open a door.

´Come on! Open dammit!´

Regardless of how she pushed and pulled the perpetuous handle would not budge an inch and neither did the rest of the door. So after what felt like minutes but was probably only seconds, Gleaming decided to change tactics and leaned a bit back while her head moved forward to inspected the handle a little closer.

The handle itself was a hollowed out semicircle with the open end closed off. Said end met the doorframe with a vertical, yet slim, slab of metal, which then partially disappeared into the wall next to it. Attached to these parts were small indentations in the form of arrows.

Gleaming her eyes a little to get a better look at one of the arrow indentations, when the doorhandle suddenly moved sideways, which made Gleaming lose her balance and almost caused her to stumble and plant her head firmly into the door itself.

´What the- Ohhh now I get it! What if I try this instead?´

Lifting herself back into position, Gleaming pulled the handle to the side with her hoof and the previously offending piece of metal followed her movement. When she could not go any further a dim -click- was heard from within the door and a new set of arrows was revealed behind the now repositioned handle.

´Right, so if this means left and right than this should- Aha, jackpot!´

Comparing the arrows with the ones from before gave Gleaming the right hint to correctly interpret the new set, which told her to twist the handle now. That however meant she had to rely on her second hoof to complete this motion as the other was holding the handle in place.

Pushing with all her weight Gleaming grunted a bit but the handle finally gave way and a second resounding -click- from within the door told her she made it. Smiling from ear to ear at her success, Gleaming kept pushing as more and more of the lobby came into view when the door started swinging outwards.

´Wait? Outwards? Oh no!´

Sadly the way Gleaming awkwardly put her entire weight on the door to use the handle and stabilize herself, combined with the door swinging direction meant she no longer had the door as support or under control. So as the door followed its intended path of motion, Gleaming followed suit. But since she could not bend around like the door did on its hinges, her hooves inevitably lost their grip and Gleamings body planted itself firmly into the tiled floor. Groaning in pain Gleaming shut her eyes and kept still for the moment.

´Ooooouuuuhh.´

*flap* *flap* *flap*

As Gleaming waited for the sudden pain in her everything to recede, her ears picked up the noise of wings beating rapidly behind her. The sound grew louder and louder and eventually stopped to right side of her head, ending with the soft clicking of tiny claws touching down on the ceramic flooring.

“Meheheheh!”

Carefully popping open one eye to look at the source, revealed none other than Pokey sitting a hooflength away and applauding Gleamings fallen form. The unicorn was not entirely sure if he was congratulating her for finding the exit (and opening it), cheering her on for the free entertainment or took joy in her misfortune.

Probably a mixture of everything.

Nevertheless, Gleaming decided to let the rising anger she felt at seeing Pokey enjoy her suffering, slip away, alongside the pain which had subsided a bit by now. She had bigger haystacks to fry! So, ignoring her protesting legs and taking a deep breath to calm herself, Gleaming got up for the felt x-teenth time today. As Pokeys laughter slowly died down in the background Gleaming took in the now empty lobby of the vet clinic before her.

The first thing Gleaming noticed was that her new perspective allowed her to see things she had not taken into account before. As she was previously carried inside here, Gleaming had only had a top down view of the place and from there the clinics interior may have looked stylish and new to anypony entering, but from down here…it was a different story. Not to meantion she really did not have the mental capacity to realise it at the time.

The benches meant for clients were clearly made of a cheap material, that had taken to loosing parts of its paintjob quite some time ago. And where the color had not completely left, it had, at the very least, faded into barely separatable shades of grey. The only good looking thing about these benches was the frameworks, which were bend and gnawed upon in various places, but still appeared sturdy enough to weather any challenge.

Gleaming was very sure there would be lots to come.

The tiles which made up the entire flooring and went halfway up on each wall, had claw marks and a few cracks here and there, but not enough to break loose yet. Their once pristine white color had suffered a little too, but upon closer inspection tiny scratches on their surface meant they were kept clean on a regular schedule.

´Nemoras does not seem to make a lot of money with this place…or did she just move in? Questions for later I suppose.´

Turning her gaze back to Pokey, Gleaming found him sitting on a nearby bench now, which left him at eye-level with herself. And as always he seemed indifferent about everything around him except for Gleaming. His little blue eyes followed her very move as she traversed through the lobby on her little inspection tour.

´Weird, but at least he isn´t crying or shouting an alarm to his master…yet.

Speaking of his master…´

Straining her ears Gleaming could barely make out ample chatter coming from behind a door next to the examination room she had just left. Trotting over as silently as she could on the cold tiles, she pressed her ears against the frame and tried to listen in on the ongoing conversation. After a short while of doing this though, Gleaming had to admit to herself, that except for a few mumbles she was not getting anywhere fast like this.

´Okay back to the next best option, find a window closer to this room.´

Turning away from the door and scanning the lobby and her own position in it, told Gleaming, that she was in the corner of the building at this moment with the double doors entry right next o her. That in turn told her the room she wanted to get an ear into, must have a window just around the corner…unless it was a windowless room, which she did not hope for.

If she wanted to catch any part of the happenings in that room, she would have to try her luck outside. With a little luck the same windows from examinations were installed alongside the entire wall of the building all the way to next doors. Judging by the lack of finances in general around here, Gleaming had no doubts this was the case, as it would have saved some money during construction.

´´Who would have thought the one day school trip to a construction side in canterlot and overhearing the architect argue with the building crew could ever pay off?´

Wasting no more time Gleaming made a beeline for the entrance and halted just in front of the obstacle. Remembering her last encounter with a door in here she choose to study the thing a little more closely this time, lest she risked kissing the floor a second time. Which seemed a safety hazard in more ways than one around here.

She wasn’t sure when it had started, but by now one of her hindhooves felt kinda sticky…yuck!

A first scan of the frames holding the thin glass in place revealed no handle to operate them in any direction, neither was there any clue left for how to pass through, short of having to smash them. Not exactly eager to try her luck with that option, and the resulting glassshards flying everwhere, Gleaming tried recalling how the changeling did it, and what she noticed back then from her point of view.

´There is not much…I mean didn´t he just step towards it and-´

Lifting a foreleg closer to the middle of the double doors, Gleaming heard a low hissing noise resounding form somewhere on top and the glass frames started moving aside on their own, allowing her free passage without any problems. Gleamings foreleg remained in the air for a while, as she did not expect the solution to be this easy.

´Huh, must be enchanted then.´

Suddenly remembering her relationship with the mare of good fortune, the darker part of her mind popped up another question.

´Where is the catch?´

Just as her mind told her, before Gleaming even had a chance to walk outside, a familiar purple obstactle appeared in her view. Flapping his tiny wings, Pokey landed in the middle of the open entrance to the clinic, narrowed his eyes at Gleaming and emitted a hissing, “Wech!” Adding to his stance he raised and spread his tiny wings and claws to make himself appear bigger than he actually was. If the situation was not they way it currently was, the intimidation attempt of such a puny whelpling might have looked cute in a different place.

Gleaming felt her eye twitch.

´Really?´

As she let her floating foreleg drop, Gleaming saw Pokey relax his posture slightly, but still not budge an inch from his post. Instead he assumed his by now regular head tilting from left to right and seemed to wait for the unicorns next move. As Gleaming showed no sign of taking action the dragon uttered a, “Meek!” at her.

Gleaming still could not make out the meaning of the tiny dragons words, or speech if it even was any, but she had to avoid more noises from him, or she might be in trouble. Jugding from hist behavior and the aggressive pose he just had, Gleaming could take a safe guess at his intend though: “Do not leave.”

Since she grew up with Spike in her family, Gleaming was not the least bit intimidated by Pokeys attempt to scare her. Spike hissed and growled in his younger years too, especially around dinner time, and occasionally when being surprised. Pokeys puny threat therefore had little effect on Gleaming, even if it was not for the fact that there was a consideralbe size difference between the two.

There was a delicate problem with Pokey though, or rather his associate.

´What if he alerts the changeling or Nemora?´

Getting discovered would ruin all of Gleamings plans to remain hidden in an instant, she had to find a way to keep the dragon silent. Luckily he only seemed to voice his discontent whenever she made a move towards the entry, with a growl, snarl and other means. Pokey made no sound whatsoever when she leaned in any other direction, but the entrance.

´There has to be a solution for this.´

Talking was not an option, since she could not speak, for whatever reason, and other than the changeling no one seemed to understand the little guy, except Nemora maybe, which meant a regular talk was off the table in the foreseeable future. And slowly but surely, Gleaming was running out of time, as the talk between Aiding and Nemora could last forever.

An idea shot through head. An option she had not considered yet and might allow for basic communications: Hoof signs.

She had tried that in the metal box she woke up in before with little success, along with the gurgling of words, but maybe now that she undivided attention of the dragon and the changeling was not about to interrupt, it would yield a better result? Maybe she did not use the right motions or had to make more? It was worth a try.

Taking a small step back, Gleaming sat down on her haunches as she motioned with her forehooves towards the little dragon. Intrigued by the unicorns actions, the Lizard left his post and hopped closer to sit in front of Gleaming, like any child would during storytime. Cocking his head to the side he wagged his tail and looked up eagerly at what was to come, “Wah!”

´Okay, so much for step one.´

Gleaming then used her hooves to make walking motions towards the door, at which Pokey growled again, but when she bend her hoof a little, leaned to the left and pointed to the side as if going around an object, the growling suddenly stopped. Pokeys features relaxed, and the little dragon bend his neck around to look behind himself at the entrance for a split moment. Watching the glass doors, Pokey silently he opened and closed his maw a few times, before eventually turning his attention back to the pony.

Once his head was back in its original position, the dragon beamed up at Gleamings face and let out a small, “Meek!”

The dragon shifted his head from left to right, occasionally blinking, as if considering something, and shortly gazed into the direction of the door the changeling was behind. Gleaming feared for the worst, when he turned back to look at the unicorn once more, maw opening. But just as before he only tilted his head and uttered another, “Meek!”

Being faced largely with the same situation as she started in Gleaming let her shoulders sink, thinking her idea had failed, but then Pokey unexpetedly blew a raspberry at the general direction of the ´ling and hopped to the side, no longer blocking the middle of Gleamings path. Instead he chose to sit beside it now, where he continued beaming up at the unicorn.

“Wah!”

´Did he just understand me?´

“Wah-Wah!”, Pokey said while raising his frontclaws and beginning a short waving motion form left to right. As Gleaming shot him confused looks, he he stopped briefly with his antics and blinked up at her face again, seemingly confused himself.

Gleaming gave a shrugg at the notion, ´Uuhhhh, whatever works, works, right?´

Getting back up on all four hooves and feeling a little uneasy, as if trotting on thin ice and not trusting her luck, Gleaming moved cautiously up to the entrance. Every few step she would shoot a glance over her shoulder at Pokey, to reassure herself that the dragons position had not shifted.

Pokey just blinked back at her, joy sparkling in his eyes again.

No growl, no glare, not even a sign of movement came from him now, even though she was in the very same spot which made him take action just a second ago. It seemed he was content with just watching her, as she approached the clinics entrance for the second time.

Gleaming gave a shrugg once more, more to herself than Pokey, and turned her gaze forward once more. The glassdoors emitting the same hissing sound, as they did prior, upon sliding aside and giving way to the fairly noisy outside.

Moving past the double door and former barrier Gleaming was relieved immensely by the much fresher air out here and took a much needed deep breath of it as she allowed herself a small moment of respite to stand just outside the clinics front door.

´Aahhhhhh, the sweet taste of freedom...wait, do I smell something burning?!´

As she rested and tried to identify the source of the aroma hitting her nose,Gleamings view was filled with the sea of carriages from earlier today and the same creatures milling about in it, which got her brain into thinking of possible scenarios about them in relation to everything else. Twilight would have a field day, learning about them and their customs-

´No time for that right now! Focus!´

Shaking her head, to clear her thoughts and set them straight again, Gleaming took a turn to the left and followed the clinics outer wall until it met an alley between the clinic and the next building. From within said alley a sickly sweet smell wafted out and greeted her nostrils. Peeking around the corner and inside the dark passage, Gleaming spotted what must be wastecontainers lining the sides of both houses. Some of which had various amounts of liquids slowly trickling out of them, forming shallow pools that were likely to be very toxic.

´Whats that green slime oozing out of….no! Better not to know!´

Left with no other choice to find the window she needed, Gleaming steeled her nose for what was to come and entered the alley. Carefully manouvering herself between puddles of unknown substances and origin, she tiphoofed along the wall on whichs other side she assumed the changeling and snake to be idly chatting away.

At this point she wondered how much time she actually had left. Getting out of the clinic had taken far longer than she had liked.

As she left the clinics interior and ventured further into the passage Gleaming no longer could hear the unusual pair talk, not even the muffled voices from before. For when she passed through the double doors, her ears were overwhelmed by the sea of sounds this bustling city and its inhabitants created. In this small artificial canyon, of sorts, the sounds were muffled a bit, but still rather loud. As a result, even though she was just on the other side of the very same wall the pair was talking behind, she could not hear a thing.

´Score one for the architect…but there is always a flaw waiting to be discovered!´

While there was no immediate windowframe in sight, Gleaming hoped that deeper into the alley she would find at least an airvent and also leave a little bit of that acustic onslaught from the clinics frontside behind. Enough of it at least to understand what was being said inside the room she intended to eavesdrop on. Yet, as she proceeded to dance around puddles and piles of junk, no window came into view, let alone a venting shaft on that particular wall. Just plain solid brickstones all the way to its endzone.

When she eventually reached the end of the alley and had to admin against all hope that there was still not a single window or even the slightest opening in the wall, Gleaming became frustrated with her lack of success. She had clearly seen a window on the inside of the examination room! Or had she not, and it was an illusion? No it could not be! It even had daylight filtering in through the blinds! She could feel it on her face!

And even the changeling had gazed out of it during her time on the table!

Faced with a literal dead end, Gleaming wracked her brain for an answer to the problem at hoof, yet was unable to come up with a reasonable response to it. The missing window would elude her for the time being it seemed.

Also she was fairly certain her little excursion would be discovered shortly, and if she was not found at least somewhere around her starting point, then her plan to act as an animal (for now!) would surely fail, like her search did just now. Questions would be asked, tests would be made and she would be found out. Gleaming could not afford that to happen, while her magic was still recovering its full strength.

Additionally she still had no solid plan on how to proceed in order to get back to the metal room, other than hoping the changeling would do so on his own for some reason and she could follow him.

So with reluctance in her step, the white unicorns head sagged a little as she turned on her heel and prepared to walk back through the alley...

…only to be met with a familiar obstacle: Pokey.

The little purple dragon was sitting about three hooflengths away from her on the ground, looking up at her, claws firmly placed on his belly. The very moment he was discovered by Gleaming and their eyes met, he let out a squeal of delight and extended his claws in an airhug motion, while spreading his wings far and wide. His little purple tail wagging in excitement.

“Meeeek!”

Gleaming halted with her left foreleg in the air and slowly let it sink back down, as her mind tried to understand why he followed her into a dark, stinky and sticky place like this. She was not as surprised, as she probably should be, to find him just a few steps behind her, but she definitely expected him to stay inside the clinic waiting for his master.

Recalling Pokey blowing a raspberry at the door, made her question the dragons loyalty to him though. Were they actually not that close after all?

*WHONK*

Gleaming nearly jumped, as her heart skipped a beat, at the sudden loud metallic bang ringing out through the alley she was in. It was probably made even louder as the resulting echo travelled from its source through the artificial canyon on its way to her ears.

Immediately she would have suspected Pokey to be the cause of the noise, or worse the dreaded current occupants of the clinic next doors, but the sound came from another alley, branching of from the middle of the one she was in. Judging by how the little lizard had craned his neck around, he too had heard it just as clearly as Gleaming did and he was just as surprised by it.

“Wah?”, the dragon uttered with a wavering voice as he turned his attention back to his only companion.

´No idea what that was either little guy, but I guess we might as well find out.´, Gleaming thought to herself as she returned the dragons questioning look.

Pokey just blinked and tilted his head in response.

Steeling her gaze and narrowing her eyes, Gleaming marched with certain steps towards the interception behind Pokey. As she passed him the dragon appeared to be following her, for her ears told her of the little clicking noises his tiny claws made on the smooth stone ground beneath them. Reaching the opening which marked the beginning of the passage, Gleaming sidled up to the corner of the wall and only moved enough of her head around to peer into the backalley. Pokey mirrowed her movement as he stood under her frame and gazed forward into the passage as well.

At first the somewhat duller backalley looked vastly the same as the one they were in right now and no clue was left as to the origin of the disruptive sound, but then the noise returned much louder, which made dragon and unicorn cringe slightly at the force of it.

In front of their very eyes a large metallic trap door opened up, cleverly hidden in between two of the larger wastecontainers.

Gleaming was certain that anyone who passed through here and did not pay lose attention, or looked at it from the wrong angle, would miss the hidden entry, or even identify it correctly for what it was. But from her viewing spot, it was painfully obvious,… at least as long as it was in its opened state. In its closed position the door would probably appear like any other metal grate covering a vent.

This was highly suspicious.

And whatever went on behind that trapdoor probably was not meant to be seen by the public and likely very illegal, if its owner went so far out of his way to hide it. Gleaming was sure of it.

She had to find out what was going on in there. She had sworn an oath to help and protect after all! Even if she currently was nowhere near Equestria (probably) she still believed that it held true.

Sensing a small shiver coming from under her, Gleaming gazed down and spotted Pokey looking back up, eyes wide and maw slightly open. He clearly sensed something being off as well.

With her mind made up, Gleaming put one of her hooves on Pokey head, patted him reassuringly and gave him a little shove to get him to move behind the corner. Unsurprisingly the dragon complied and Gleaming thought she saw something like worry on his tiny face for a second, as she tried flashing him the most confident smile she could muster, before she turned back around towards the backalley and started creeping slowly closer to the trapdoor.

As she moved closer to her destination, Gleaming once again became aware of that strong sickly sweet smell wafting in her direction, along with the faint aroma of burn. She had smelled this particular scent before, shortly after leaving the clinic, just outside to double doors and was more intrigued than ever now, to figure out what it was. Especially now that she had found its apparent origin.

Steps.

Many rushed steps.

Claws on tiles.

The more the distance between herself and the trapdoor shrunk, the more Gleamings ears could pick up and her nostrils took note of other aromas accompanying the sickly smell. Right under the stomach turning scent were layers of various amounts of…spices? Was there a kitchen down there? With the way this smelled, it should have been shut down the day it opened up!

But before Gleaming could ponder on that any further, one set of claws seperated itself from the rest and became much more defined and very much louder…and neared itself to her current position, halfway into the alley.

Thinking quickly, Gleaming hastily dived behind one of the wastecontainers used to conceal the trapdoors and pressed her back on it. From there she leaned out and glanced around the object, waiting to see who, or what, would emerge. Her heart was pumping and Gleaming held her breath as she watched for any flicker of movement from the ominous entryway.

Hissing but this time not from steam, but more like an angry snake, filled the air before a tall red lizard, wearing black stripes of cloth, popped up from the secret hole. A vicious aggressive snarl on its face it turned back to face the door it had just crawled out of and pulled two large burlap sacks out of it, which had red stains on their bottom ends. Unbothered by the red liquid dropping out from the bottom and grunting in a low baritone, the red scaled newcomer then hoisted the sacks on his back and made to move towards Gleamings hiding spot.

Retracting her head instantly, Gleaming hoped she was not spotted and held her breath, even longer than she ever had, as adrenaline shot through her veins.

Gleaming heard the lizard fumble with something before popping open the lid of the container, she was leaning against, and felt it vibrate heavily as the sacks were unceriomonously dumped inside. Unfortunately for the unicorn, the opening of said container only served to increase the smells attacking Gleaming nose and she was hard pressed not to gasp for a breath of fresh air, her lungs desperately told her to take in. She only dared to let go of her breath as the lizard had closed the containers lid and she heard his step recede back into the hole.

After checking and confirming with a glance around the wastecontainer, that nopony was present anymore, Gleaming let go of her held breath, as silently as possible, before she left her former hiding spot and slowly, methodically approached the still open hatch.

Said hatch had light streaming from it, casting the area around it in a slight glow, which gave it a rather spooky appearance. That in combination with the previous sounds of rushing claws on tiles and the now ever louder getting hissing, as one was expecting a pit of snakes in a Daring Do novel to sound like, gave Gleaming an ominous feeling about what she was to see.

Closer and closer she crept to the edge of the entrance and once she reached it, stared into the worst of nightmares for a pony to witness.

There, beyond the metal hatch, a ladder led into a previously hidden basement, housing a kitchen.

But not just any kind of…

Where a normal pony kitchen had clean counters and rows upon rows of vegetables, fuits and hay hanging from zip lines across the entire room for easy access, this one had splotches of blood sticking to every possible surface and skinned bloody body parts hanging low from the ceiling on hooks.

Amidst all that were about half a dozen lizards, including the red one from before, rushing about, cutting parts of from the carcasses, mostly with their bare claws, seasoning them with spices and roasting them over crackling fires, roaring freely in the middle of the cramped bloodstained space.

Gleaming had seen a butchery in canterlot before. All ponies know griffons ate meat on a dayly basis. And while it was not a pleasurely topic to speak about, it was just the way it was and ponies learned to accept it over time. Hey, some ponies even ate fish every now and then!

But this,… THIS…

A horrified Gleaming Shield slowly became aware of exactly what these carcasses used to be…

Those werent just the average rabbit, who had gotten unlucky, or the unfortunae chicken or two…

These were pony carcasses and body parts, easily recognisable by the hooves still attached to some of them, or the piles of bones on the ground next to the oven and counters. Some of which were halfway stuffed into more of the sacks the red one had carried outside.

Gleaming knew she would find something bad. She had Pokey stay behind, because deep down, she knew…and he sensed it as well, despite his young age, that there was a horrid secret hidden beyond the trapdoor. A secret which, once revealed, Gleaming wished she never had discovered.

Gleaming felt sick to her stomage.

She was about to throw up.

But before she could even consider how to solve that new problem, her ears told her something vital: The hissing and clicking had stopped. As her empty gaze refocussed on the gruesome scenery in front of her, Gleaming became suddenly aware of every lizard staring up at her through the open hatch. She was not sure when, but after a felt eternity one lizard hissed angrily and raised a bloody claw to point at her shaken form and the entire kitchen staff rushed towards the ladder leading to the hatch to get at her.

Gleaming wasted no time and bolted back through the alley that led to this horrible place, as fast as her legs would carry her, no longer bothering to avoid hitting the puddles of dirt and grime.

And as she ran for her life, a dark realisation finally caught up with her:

Ponies weren´t just pets around here, they were on the menue...

…and she was next in line.