The Island

Prologue: Chapter One

The night is cold and the gusts rattle at my windows like a caged animal trying to free itself. Luckily for me, I am sitting in my nice warm chair, protected by the walls of my home from the dangerous winter outside. It's been quite a while since I have experienced the feeling of being cold. Cold. It has been so long the word is now nearing extinction, but the feeling in it has now renewed itself fully, even taking out loans in the process. The heater seems about to explode from how hard it runs, and has been for the past two weeks, or at least however long this storm has been going on for.

The only noises in my old, empty house is from my ancient record player. I run it almost as much as my heater, and I hope that it too doesn't go out soon. Old pieces of my previous recorded works, along with many others I had composed with companions are the only ones I have, but I don't mind. But it does saddens me at the thought of how beautifully I could play back then, before the incident. It had been so long since I had a bow and strings in my hooves that the skill had been released from my mind. I try to keep making mental notes about learning again, but first I have to find an instrument to play on. It's not the money that is the problem, it's about the mental barriers that are stopping me. I do admit, I have no motivation to do much anymore, and the thought of picking up a cello and try to start learning again brings me almost to tears whenever I think about it. I don't even know why.

The house is once again quiet now, as the record player has run it's last round, and is awaiting me to wind it up again. I debate myself whether I should abandon my warm spot in my living room just to go wind up the memories again, or just let the wind on the windows put me to sleep.

I decide to stay where I am, until there is a slight flash of light on the wall, coming from the driveway. I have no choice now but to get up. The thought of actually having a visitor motivates me out of my drowsy state to come and eagerly greet them as long as they weren't another news crew or the paperazi. I quickly change out of my sweatpants and into something a little nicer, then trot to the entrance where I await the knock on the door, but it never comes. Instead there is a loud crash in the back of the house, then another right in front of me. My doors have been kicked down.

I don't even know what is going on, but I take a step back and stare back at the stallion pointing a rifle at my head, then followed by another from the back. I have no choice but to throw my hooves up in the air, which makes the stallion jump back, and the one in back of me tackles me to the ground. I am quickly put into a set of hoofcuffs, and stood back up by force.

“Are you Octavia Philharmonica?” the stallion shouts into my face as he shines his flashlight into my eyes. I flinch from the direct beam, which only makes the stallion grip me tighter. I'm in so much pain from the hit it took which probably dislocated my shoulder that I forget to even answer.

“I SAID IS YOUR NAME OCTAVIA PHILHARMONICA?!” he yells again. This time taking a step closer towards me, amplifying the beam of light shining in my eyes.

I now come out of my fog of reality and realize what is actually happening, and I am put in total shock. All I can now do is stand there with my eyes wide open, not saying a word. I can't. My jaw won't move.

My interrogator turns off his flashlight and steps even closer.

“Answer me. Is your name Octavia Philharmonica?” he asks in a slightly gentler manner.

“Yes,” is all I can say.

“You are coming with me. Shield, put her in the back of the van. Keep close watch on her. If she moves, restrain her and don't be afraid to put a bullet in her head.

“Bullet in my head?! What are you ponies talking about?!” I ask urgently. Pulling away from the stallion behind me, only to be pulled tighter and have my face pushed into my hallway wall, and then jerked outside into the freezing cold again.

“Don't you think we don't know all about your plans to destroy Equestria,” he says into my ear as he pulls me on two hooves down my walkway and into my driveway where three S.W.A.T transport vans are idling.

“Search the entire house for any evidence! Anything related to nuclear weapons will be documented and used to find the case!” I can her my interrogator yell behind me inside my house to the rest of the stallions that entered my home while I was held against my will.

“What?! Nuclear weapons? Are you insane? You think that I would be in possession of nuclear weapons? I don’t know what is wr-” I attempt to say to the stallion pinning my hooves behind my back, but he cuts me off before I can get the rest out.

“Shut the hell up before I put a bullet in your brain,” he hisses back to me before he throws me up against the side of a van where he conducts a full body search on me. He reaches down towards my flank and I whip around, immediately regretting my reflex of protecting my dignity when he jabs me with a taser. He sends a few thousand volts of electricity right into my left hind leg and I fall to the ground limp, and almost as soon as I go down, he yanks me back up and gets right up in my face.

“You try anything like that again, and I will follow orders. Don't think just because you're a pretty missy that I wont hurt you,” he says.

I hold back the urge to bend down and slap the colt, but even though I don't know what is going on, they are still settled on the fact that I am some kind of terrorist.

After the brief search, I am then shuffled into the back of the second van of the convoy and chained by all four hooves to the bench I am sitting on. Three armed guards get in and sit on my left, right, and directly in front of me with their blast masks down. Wouldn't want to get hurt by a confused and unarmed mare now would they? One of the stallions then shuts the two heavy doors to the back of the van, locking me in. The van then pulls out of the driveway and speeds down the country road through the ice and snow towards whatever destination they wish to take me.

And all I can wonder is why in the world I am being convicted of nuclear WMD possession.