Legion-An Unforgettable Taleby c1chargeChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 1It was cold. So very cold. I laid there in the cold, not really thinking at all. I couldn’t really. As I laid there, a chill went through my body. It was a different chill though; I felt it start in my back hooves, and go all the way through my body. As the chill progressed, those parts its passed began to turn on. I felt my muscle’s twitching, anxious to get moving. The chill rapidly made its way to the back of my neck. My whole body suddenly twitched, as if I was having some sort of short seizure. Before I knew it, I found my head up in the air, body leaning forward and front hooves out to balance myself. I was panting heavily, and my eyes were open. I hardly recognized it, being all I saw was a bright white. I sat there, staring at this white, feeling my breathing slowing down to a more relaxed state. Once I believed I had my breathing under control, I began to focus on the white. It was a very brilliant white, whiter than any sheep wool I’ve ever seen. But it had little groves in it, going up, then over, then going up again, and it continued. I followed these groves with my eyes, and eventually found where they stopped. These groves were replaced with an even brighter white, and I almost had to close my eyes the first time I saw it. It was so bright it seemed to give off its own light. I brought my eyes back to the little groves on the wall, and then it clicked in my head. This is a wall. Above me is a ceiling. I spun my head around to see if I could find other walls, but only ended up making myself dizzy. I closed my eyes, and waited for the feeling to pass. Once passed, I opened my eyes again. I saw one wall, and slowly looked around to make sure I counted four total. Sure enough I did, along with a floor, which was also white, but also had a sort of reflection to it. It wasn’t a clear reflection, but it did show some colors. Most of which was white. As I looked at the floor, I began to think about the distance between my eyes and where the floor was. Everything seemed too far away. So naturally, my headed shifted towards my chest and body. At first, all I saw was more white. But this white was darker though, and had small stitching lines running horizontal. I was wearing some sort of white gown that covered almost my whole body. Only thing that was showing was the end of my hooves. Getting tired of sitting in one spot, I moved my left leg to the left, only to have it fall, bend at my joints, and slowly swing in the air. It was a quite unusual feeling to have something on my body moving, and I wanted to put it back, so it wouldn’t move anymore. But I didn’t, and even proceeded to swing my right leg over next to it. As I moved my body to match the direction of my legs, I saw something. There was something on the wall. It was a big, grey, shinny rectangle. It looked so out of place, why did I not see this earlier when I was counting the walls? I felt the need to investigate this object that seemed so alien like in this white world. So I pushed myself off of whatever I was perched on, and was pleased I had enough strength to push myself off, but soon found I was missing strength in my legs. As my back hooves hit the ground, my legs made no attempt to hold the weight of my body so suddenly put on them. They crumpled, and I found myself speeding to the ground much faster than I wanted to. I closed my eyes and turned my head, and felt a strong pain in the side of my skull. I laid there for a moment, feeling dizzy once again. I lost track of time lying there, and never really had a sense of time to begin with. I had no clue how long I laid there, and it really didn’t matter anyway. My dizziness was replaced by a throbbing headache. I tried to look past the headache, and put all my focus into my hooves. Placing them around my body, I pushed against the ground. I felt myself rise, and stop when my legs reached as far as they were going to stretch. Now that I was up, I put my focus back on the door. I could see it, and sure enough it looked the same as before. I put one hoof in front of another, and slowly repeated this process until I was a touch away from the strange object. Chapter 2I investigated the silver rectangle farther. I found a thin line running down the middle of it, and a small grey button about the size of my hoof to the right of the door. I stepped slowly to the right, and centered myself to the button. I didn’t trust myself enough to balance on three legs, so I slowly moved my nose closer to the button. My face finally found the button, and it felt cold against my nose. It took almost no force to push it in, and as soon as I couldn’t push it in any farther, I withdrew my head. I stood there, expecting something to happen. At first, nothing did. Suddenly, there was a loud, monotone, buzzing sound, followed by a computerized female voice. “Door 105 locked, security code 2B.” said the voice. After a short pause, it continued with, “Security override required.” Following the message was the same monotone buzz, and then silence. I pressed the button again, only for it to repeat everything. I at least knew it was a door, it just won’t open. Perfect. Figuring I have some time to waste, I turned around. There, in the middle of the room was a shinny, metallic table. I walked over to it to get a better look. It looked almost like a surgery table. It was spotless, had skinny table legs that were bolted to the floor, and a rack in between the floor and the bottom of the table. What was I doing on this? Why am I even here? Just then, there was that buzzing sound again, followed by the female voice. “Security override accepted, unlocking door 105.” As expected, there was the buzz again. I waited for the silence, and turned towards the door. It was still closed, and still looked the same. I moved my eyes to the button, and made my way towards it. As soon as I got in reach of it, and without thinking, I moved my hoof up to press the button. Without any delay, the door opened as I pressed the button. It made no sound opening, and split at the small line in the middle, and the two sides pulled apart into the wall. Cautiously, I peeked my head out of the door. First, I looked to the right, only to find a hallway that was pitch black. Then I switched to the left. I found this direction had a white hallway with light running down most it. Farther down the hallway, the light stopped, and was replaced with darkness like the other direction. I decided to go left, and follow what little light I had. I was a fairly long hallway, with a few doors similar to mine here and there. There were no buttons on the outside to open them, which seemed quite odd. As I neared the darkness, I stopped. Should I go through it? Figured I didn’t have much of a choice, and I stepped closer. But then, I saw this dark hallway to my left, and another lit one to my right, which eventually was replaced by more darkness. I made my way down that hallway, which looked eerily similar to the other one, and found another lit hallway going off to the left this time. It almost seemed purposeful. This hallway was different though, it had some kind of lump next to the wall halfway down it. As I came closer to this lump, and stopped dead in my tracts. I felt the blood run from my face, and my heart speeding up. It was a dead earth pony. He was wearing white clothing similar to mine. The only fur I saw on him was what on his head. He had soft brown fur, and not much of a mane. It was short, neatly combed dark brown mane, that didn’t even reach the back of his neck. I shifted my eyes towards his cloths, and found a small red stain on his gown around his neck. I moved my head closer to his to get a better look, and then slowly lifted his head. Now that his head was no longer leaning down, I saw what killed him. He had what seemed to be a perfect, straight cut across his neck. I quickly dropped his head, took a couple fast steps back, and quickly spun around. There was nothing there, so I spun back the other way again. Still, nothing was there. But I was worried now. All I could think was what killed him, and was it still here? I began to panic, knowing if whoever, or whatever killed him found me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I was still weak and disoriented, and would be an easy target. So, I found myself walking as fast as I could down these hallways, each one looking the same as the last, some having more dead earth ponies in it than others. All of these ponies were killed the same way, wore similar clothing, and had the same mane styles. The only differences were the color of their fur. Some were white, brown, gray, and even a few dark blues. This made me wonder about my fur color, I couldn’t remember what It was, and haven’t had a chance to really see myself. I looked behind me, and then quickly stopped. I stretched my right leg out far enough for the white sleeve to roll up some. I gave my leg a quick glance, looked behind me, and kept walking. I didn’t want to think about what I saw until I was moving. I didn’t have any hair. I saw peach colored skin, with little dark specs from newly grown hair. Why was my body shaved? None of this made any sense. I got so off tract thinking about this, I didn’t even realize I had walked a few feet into an unlit hallway. I stopped, and listened. Slowly and quietly, I let out small breaths. I turned my head around, and judged how many steps to get back to the light. Turning my head back in front of me, I took one step backwards, turned my head behind me, looked back in front of me, and took another step back. I repeated this process for almost 10 steps. Once out, I turned back to the direction of the lit hallway, and started walking fast, very fast. I went down a few more hallways faster than before, and came into a big circular room. It had about 4 other hallways jutting off from it, none of which were lit up. Along the walls were a few benches with fuzzy red cushions. To my right was what appeared to be a window into an unlit room, but no door I could see to get in. Across from the window were some silver railings, which each started at a point where the curved wall ended, and moved toward the other railing, leaving a gap only big enough for two ponies to get between them. I stepped towards them, looking down each hallway every other step. I finally reached the gap. There was another room here. It was round, had no hallways leading away from it, and had no ceiling. The walls just kept going up, with large tracts going up them. I looked back down, and saw a platform rising from the floor with a button on it. I walked over to it, and looked back to the room with the window. I pressed the button, and heard a buzz. “Departing” said the computerized female voice, “Goodbye.” The floor began to rise, which took me by surprise, and almost caused me to lose my balance. Once I regained myself, I looked back at the room with the window as the gap from the rising floor and ceiling of that room got smaller. I looked to the middle of the room, and saw something that wasn’t there before. There seemed to be a body right in the middle of the room. But it wasn’t lying on the ground it was standing there, facing me. The gap closed, leaving me nothing more to look at than the wall sinking under me. Chapter 3The further up I went, the harder it became to identify the edge of the platform. The light was disappearing more and more as I traveled up. It was almost completely dark when I felt myself slowing to a stop. Once I was sure that it was no longer moving, I took a slow step into the darkness around me. The sound of my hoof coming down made a small clank. I then heard another small sound, from somewhere above. One single light turned on, hanging from a low wooden ceiling above me. I looked around, very confused by my new surroundings. I was in a normal, small, wooden home. There was a small stove in the corner, a couch in another, even a few family pictures of ponies I have never seen before. The air was heavy and cold, with the smell of mildew lingering in my nose. Everything had a heavy layer of dust on it, even stepping forward sent dust flying around my hooves. Strangely enough, there were no windows on the walls, only one wooden door on a wall in front of me. I stepped even closer to the door, and got myself totally off the platform, and onto the dark wooden floors. The moment my last hoof was off, the platform began to sink back down into ground. Replacing it were more dark wooden planks that slid from two sides of the hole. They moved effortlessly and quietly, meeting in the middle, making a small latching noise. The hole was covered up so well that anypony who didn’t know that it was ever there would never suspect a thing. It just seemed so normal and peaceful. It was like this house had no secrets to hide. Feeling nauseous, I turned back towards the door. I quickly made my way over to it, and gave it a push. It gave away easy, and I was blinded by a flood of bright light. I brought one hoof up to my eye and squinted. Before my eyes adjusted, I heard voices. I heard the sound of fillies giggling off in the distance and the soft voices of a few ponies talking to one another. I finally opened my eyes enough to make sense of where I was at. In front of me was a small wooden house. A tight sand stone road divided it and me. This road stretched down both sides of me, with small identical houses on each side. There were small groups of ponies standing along the edges of the roads, talking softly to themselves. Sand was blowing into my face and I had to blink constantly to keep the sand out of my eyes. Turning my head the opposite direction of the blowing sand, the smell of fresh bread suddenly assaulted my nostrils. I couldn’t remember the last time I had smelled something so good, or even the last time I ate. My mouth began to water while my stomach gave out a long low growl, warning me I haven’t eaten in a while. I walked up the road, following the smell. I found a short alley between the street I was on and one running next to mine. I crossed into it, and almost got to the next street before a voice stopped me. “You can’t just walk out there in that you know.” The voice sounded fairly young, but coarse and strained. Surprised by somepony actually talking to me, all I could think to respond with was, “What?” as I turned around to meet this voice, which came from a pony leaning against the wall, wearing a long tan robe with a matching hood. “It is traditional around here to were a headdress, and that light lab coat your wearing there won’t help protect you from the sand.” the pony said. He kept dragging his “s” sounds on words, reminding me of a snake hissing his tongue. “You will stick out like a sore thumb.” He was no longer leaning against the wall, walking a little closer to me. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” I replied, tense and agitated. “All in good time, first, put this on. I already went out and bought it for you, in case you made it out.” He lifted a light tan robe off the ground between his feet, and threw it my way. Watching him do this, I caught a small glimpse of his leg. There was something off about it, seemed too dark and thin. His coarse voice pierced my thoughts, “let’s walk.” I picked up the robe, and threw it over my apparent lab coat. As I was doing this, I made sure to keep a close eye on him as he walked closer to me. He slowly trotted to me, and I followed, being sure to leave space between him and me. We walked farther down the street without saying a word, the smell of the bread growing stronger as we walked. Eventually, I found the source. It was a small bakery in what was apparently the town square. The road had widened to a plaza, with shops lining the outside edges, and small stalls selling various items on the inside. I followed the strange pony through the plaza, occasionally walking around small lines of ponies waiting at some of these stalls. We made our way to the bakery, which had no line at all. The hooded pony walked up to the counter as I stayed behind. He took a few coins out of a pouch and placed them on the counter. The pony running the stand turned around, and took a loaf of bread off the rack behind him. He placed it on the counter, scooped up the coins, and said something to the hooded pony. I slowly walked closer, willing to get slightly closer to him in order to just get a better look at the loaf. The strange pony picked up the piece and tore it in half. He took one half and placed it in his pouch, and walked off, leaving the other piece behind. I hurried to the counter, lowering my body and glancing at the half loaf and the pony that left it behind. Once close enough, I gave the bakery owner a nod, and quickly picked up the piece in my mouth. I ran after the hooded pony, savoring the taste. Once I caught up, I finished the piece off in 3 eager bites. I began to wonder why he did that for me. “Why did you do that?” I quickly asked, keeping my eyes on him. He took a minute to reply. “You may think that we are complete strangers, but in a sense, we are not.” His words were slow, and he lowered his voice. “I was down in that facility as well.” I stopped in dead in my tracts. A thousand questions raced through my mind. Wanting to ask them all, I quickly caught up to him. I allowed myself to get closer to him, and gave a quick glance around. I looked back to him, and spoke softly. “What was that place? Why are we here? Who were all the dead ponies?” He looked at me, and for the first time I got a good look at his face. His coat was pitch black, and he had small fangs protruding from his mouth. One look at his eyes told me everything else I needed to know. They were light blue, but it was not his iris that was blue, but the outside of the eye. There was no iris at all, the blue just faded to white where a black pupil should be. I mouthed the words, “changeling,” and he just nodded. I wave of emotions suddenly hit me; I began to sweat and feel my head become light once again. I stopped walking, and leaned against the side of a house next to the road. The changeling stopped as well, and looked back at me. I kept my head down, and my breathing got heavier. I could no longer focus on what was happening outside my head, for inside, wave of memories were pushing their way back up. Chapter 4“Agent, I have a mission for you” Said a female voice. I was bowing down, staring at red velvet carpet. I lifted my head, and looked at the white alicorn sitting in her throne. She was in turn looking down upon me. “What do you need me to do my highness?” I asked She responded, her voice very serious. “A pair of changeling criminals have escaped the high security prison in Sadler Arabia, and have hidden in a small nearby town. You will fly there, and rest in a house we have set up for you that night. Come morning, you will meet the local authority, and use your scouting abilities to help them weed out who the criminals are disguising themselves as.” “I mean no disrespect” I said in a puzzled tone. “Don’t they have ponies over there that are trained for situations like this?” Her face tightened. “They need extra help. And you are the only one who is able to make the flight without stopping. You are also our top scout, and we expect 100% success by sending you.” I was still confused. There was more pressing matter at hand I should be attending to, not trying to round up a few criminals. I only bowed my head once more. “Thank you Princess Celestia, I will not fail you.” “I know you won’t Legion. Good luck.” I glanced back up to her, and saw a hint of sorrow in her eyes. I turned around, and walked out past two guards, who closed the doors behind me. I came back to the present in the same state as I was when I left, breathing heavily. The changeling had his face in mine, hissing under his breath. “Your attracting too much attention, we have to leave now!” I looked around, panting. Many groups of ponies had stopped around us, watching and talking. I didn’t trust this pony, but the emergency in his voice told me he was telling the truth. I only gave him a nod, and he began to walk forward. I followed close behind, ponies who had been watching stepping out of our way. Our paced quickened. I had no idea where he was taking me. I continued to look down as we walked. I only knew where to go by watching the changeling’s feet. After walking down many alleyways and roads, he finally stopped. He looked to his left and right, and glanced back at me. Without saying a word, he stepped up to a house. I watched him as he opened the door, and stepped inside. He left the door slightly open, signaling me to enter as well. I walked in, closing the door behind me. As soon as the door closed, I turned around in time to see a hoof flying towards my face. I closed my eyes, and fell to the floor. My right eye felt like it was on fire, and I looked up to see the changeling glaring over me. He spat out loud and quickly. “What the hell is wrong with you?” “What’s wrong with me?” I quickly responded, getting up on my feet. “What wrong with you?” “I told you not to bring any attention to us, and what do you go do? Have some kind of breakdown right in the middle of the road!” The coarseness in his voice started to grow as he was yelling. “Like I wanted to!” The anger was building up inside me. I began walking toward him. I opened my mouth to yell something else, but then I realized he was no longer looking directly at me. He was looking past my head. The anger in his eyes was replaced with fear. He took quick steps backward, hiding his tail between his legs like a scared dog. His voice barely escaped his mouth when he spoke. “Your…your...wings…” I stopped moving. My wings? I had forgotten about them. I was no longer mad at him, but excited. I wanted to see them. They were something that I had before all this happened, something familiar. I looked around for a mirror, and found one by a couch. I quickly trotted over to it. The mirror had a layer of dust on it, and I blew it off in one breath. What the mirror revealed was not my wings but pieces of metal extruding from my back, only shaped like wings. They had torn through my robe, and were fully extended, as if I was ready for flight. The tips of the wings came to sharp points, and small gears and pulleys could be seen mixed in with the metal. I stared in horror, and they swayed back and forth, moving as if they were natural. I looked back at the changeling standing across the room, and asked him one question. It was one question I did not expect an answer to. “What did they do to me?” Chapter 5Time seemed to stand still. We stood there, neither of us saying a thing. I keep looking back into the mirror, moving my body around to different angles seeing these things attached to my back. No emotions or thoughts came to me. I forgot about everything; the pain in my eye, the house I was in, where I was just a couple hours ago. It was all lost to me. Suddenly a voice pierced my soundless thoughts. “This is what they did to you.” He spoke softly, but I still flinched at his voice, as if he was yelling at me. “They… who are…they?” “The ponies in the facility we escaped from. They have altered you as they altered me.” I looked at him. He had moved slightly closer, his head still hanging low. “What did they do to you?” He let out a sigh. “They took everything from me.” He flung off his robe, exposing his body. Where his horn should have been was just a stump of what was left of one. His ears had been clipped to a very small size, and he had no mane. His wings were missing from his back, and he had many patches of hairless skin. I watched as he looked up to me, his eyes looking paler then earlier. “At least you still have wings.” He walked away, curling up into a ball on the ground sending dust flying up around him. My eyes drifted off of him, and I started to focus on my surroundings. There was one single light hanging from the ceiling. There were family pictures of ponies with thick layers of dust on them. I had seen those pictures before. I quickly glanced around the walls, and found no windows, just one door leading outside. I smiled. I don’t know why I did; maybe it was because I was in somewhere familiar. I relaxed a little, and felt the metal on my back go into a resting state against my body. They felt cold against my sides. I did not like it. In fact, I hated it. I choose not to think about them, it had already been a crazy emotional day and I was too tired to want to add more to it. The idea of just sitting down and not thinking appealed to me. It was almost another hour before the changeling left his emotional coma. The sound of him moving around awoke me from nap. I slowly opened one eye to look at him. He had moved close to me, and he was sitting up, looking down at me, he began to speak. “I had awoken only a little bit before you.” He sounded better than before. I stretched and sat up. With a yawn, I looked at him. “I was very dizzy when I awoke. I could only leave my room because there was a body keeping the door from closing.” His eyes stared off into the difference as he recalled his story. “I walked out, and everything was very dark. Luckily, even though they took my ability to change forms, I could-“ “Wait, you can’t change?” I asked, interrupting him. “I wish I was lying. But sadly, I am not. I don’t know if removing my horn and wings prevents me from doing so, but something tells me it was their goal.” He showed no emotions talking about it now; he acted like he didn’t care at all. He continued his story, and I found myself dozing in and out. “Anyway, I could still see in the dark fairly good… bodies occasionally…big circular room… dead pony wearing… something in his hoof… placed it in the… security office… security cameras … empty rooms… about to give up … got to yours.” My ears perked up. “Mine?” I asked. “Yup, you got lucky.” He said, a hint of humor in his voice. “I could barely make out your body. I turned on the lights for that room, and watched you closely to see if you were breathing. You were, so I began to turn on lights in the hallways that would lead you to the elevator. As I was doing that, I caught a glimpse of something else moving in the darkness. Something seemed off about it, and I wanted no part of it. So-” “You saw it too?” I butted in, leaning forward as I asked. “I guess so. I think it looked like a pony, but it just seemed…wrong. When did you see it?” I told him about what I saw as the elevator was rising. Talking about it sent shivers through my spine. “Seems like we both saw the same thing.” He said. “This brings me to the next part. I saw it, and quickly finished lighting the hallways. I switched back to your camera, and a pop up appeared asking for some kind of override.” “Security override” I thought to myself, almost in the same voice as the female computer. “I pushed yes, and watched as the door opened. I figured I had done enough, and left.” “So you just left me?” I asked, feeling slightly irritated by the thought. “Look, I was just as weak as you probably were. I gave you a fighting chance, and look, here you are.” I wasn’t sure what to respond with. I understood his logic, it made sense. I was also mad at him, he was only assuming I would go the right way, or that figure wouldn’t find me. “Let us not worry about it. It wouldn’t benefit either of us.” The changeling said with a yawn. I readily laid my head down and closed my eyes. I was exhausted, and ready to sleep. He lay down as well, and asked one last question before he allowed himself to sleep. “What is your name?” Barely opening my mouth, I responded sluggishly. “Legion.” “I’m Lux, nice to meet you…” he replied, just as tired as me. Slowly, and peacefully I drifted off, my mind revisiting my past once again. Chapter 6I started my flight in the morning, and it was already turning dark. I was just passing the Great Mountains, which meant I still had many hours to go. I spent most of the time in the air thinking. I would think about everything and anything to pass the time; trying to figure out why this mission was really so important. After a while, I quit worrying about it. This was really was almost like a break, and a needed one. There has been a lot of protest towards the princesses over the past few weeks, and it was nice to get away from it all. Maybe by the time I get back everyone would be over it, and I could go back to my regular duties. The moon had now reached its highest point in the dark cloudless sky. I had always liked the moon; it always looked so peaceful. I would think about the night my father came home when I was a small foal, explaining what had happened. Celestia’s sister, Nightmare Moon, came down to evoke eternal night onto the ponies of Equestria. A group of six ponies had wielded the Elements of Armory to defeat the evil Nightmare Moon. Father would talk on and on about actually seeing these heroes. “Son,” he would say in his scruffy voice. “One day, I only hope you can see such young ponies that bring so much hope. It makes your whole military career worth it.” Thinking of father reminded me of how much I missed him. I needed to keep my head clear, so I focused on where I was at. Not much to look at, just rolling hills of sand. After another 10 minutes of flying, I finally spotted lights on the horizon. As I neared it, I realized how small of a town this really was. There couldn’t have been more than a couple of hundred ponies living here. I looked around for the one house with a white chimney. Seeing how every other house looked the same as the last; all a light tan color with brown roofs and chimneys, it was not hard to find the right house. I swooped down, landing in front of the door. I looked up and down the street to make sure there was no around. I turned back, and gave three solid knocks on the wooden door, paused, and gave two more. This was what I was told to do to signal to the ones inside it’s me. I heard the sound of a lock being turned, and then silence. I turned the handle on the door. It felt unusually cold. The door almost opened without me even pushing it, and I walked in. It was dark, no lights were on. I used my rear hoof to close the door behind me. Still, no one turned on a light. I listened very carefully. I could hear ponies breathing, I wasn’t sure how many, but I could make out at least 3 different ones. I took a step forward, and opened my mouth to speak. A light came on the moment I placed my foot down. I winced, and closed my eyes. The light was blinding! Before I could reopen them, I was flung to the floor. I grabbed the back of my head, an extreme pain emerging. I felt more blows to my sides while something cold was plunged into my neck. I could feel a liquid entering my blood stream. I knew what was happening, an ambush! They were drugging me, and I struggled to stay awake. I could no longer feel the pain in the back of my head, or the blows being dealt to my sides. My limbs felt heavier and heavier as I tried to move them to get up. Right before I blacked out, I heard a voice. It was a heartless voice, one that belonged to pony who knew no good. “Take him below” I awoke, sweaty and still tired. I felt extremely hot, and slipped out of my robe while I stretched. I looked down at my hooves and found light brown hairs on my legs. I examined them, unable to understand how they could have grown back so much. They weren’t full, but they were a good length. I looked over at my flank and back legs, to find the same thing. They had grown almost a week’s length just overnight. It didn’t make any sense. I trotted over to the mirror, and looked over my whole body. Other then the metal wings on my back and my black eye, I looked fairly normal. I looked at my cutie mark; ashamed that I had actually forgot what it looked like before. I felt a little better by seeing those binoculars on my side. I was happier that it also wasn’t turned to metal. I must have awoken Lux with my movements; he was slowly lifting himself off the ground. I walked over to him with a smile. He looked at me, and I lost that smile. He looked worse than he did yesterday. His eyes were paler, and his movements were slower. He said nothing to me, and I said nothing to him. I could hear him breathing, and he sounded wrong, almost old. I finally decided to break the silence. “How much bread do we have?” He glanced at his pouch, which was lying on the couch next to him. “There is still that half piece, and that’s it.” “Do we have money for more?” “The only money I had was what I stole, which was only enough for one loaf.” I flinched at the word, stole. I know he did what he had to, but it was still a habit to look down at it. “Do you still think you will be able to…steal… some more?” “I doubt it” He replied. “I only got lucky the first time.” He turned around, and walked towards the door. I was able to get a glimpse of his side that I could not see earlier, and gasped. He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “Lux, I need you to be still for a second.” I said, speaking gingerly. “What?” He asked, confused. I walked over to his side, and stared in disgust. There, on his hip, was a huge sickly looking bubble. It didn’t stick out much, it more of just replaced the skin. The area was almost the size of my cutie mark, and seemed to be filled with some kind of brown yellowish liquid. Lux looked over and saw what I was staring at, and began to panic. His breathing became very heavy, and he was having a hard time keeping his balance. “Lux, I need you to relax. We don’t want you falling on it!” I quickly warned. “Relax? How am I supposed to relax?” He yelled in between breaths. “Look” I hastily responded. “I need you to sit down and then work on your breathing.” He did as I said. While he was sitting, I inspected the cyst. It must have just grown overnight. I couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it apparently didn’t hurt him any. The liquid inside seemed to swirl around on its own. He was finally able to relax himself some. “Legion, what is it?” He sounded like he was just a foal, afraid and unsure. “I…I really don’t know. It almost looks like some kind of infection.” I looked over the rest of his body, and found a very bad sign. Every spot where patches of hair had been shaved off, small similar looking cyst were forming in the middle. They were on every spot, some bigger than others, but not as big as the one on his hip. I choose not to tell him about these. “Maybe there is an antidote?” Lux asked, looking for any hope. I looked at him, unable to tell him there probably wasn’t. “If there is… it would be down in the facility.” I told him, almost afraid to bring up that possibility. He looked away from me. I knew he was waiting for me to make a decision. I sighed. “I’ll go down.” I said with a sigh. It was the least I owed him. He continued to frown while he looked at me. “I’m going with you.” His voice was quite. “No you’re not!” I said, with a stern voice. “You need to move as little as possible.” “I refuse to leave you down there alone, and plus, you will need the key to the security office. I still have it, and you can be sure I’m not giving it to you.” He responded, just as stern. I thought about it for a second, and grew angry that he wouldn’t listen to me. “Fine!” I spat out. “But if something happens to you, it’s not my fault!” He sat up, and walked over to a book case that was half full of books. Without saying a word, he started to pull out the books, one by one. “Now what are you doing?” I loudly asked. “There has to be some kind of switch to open the elevator, and something tells me it will be hidden.” He replied, speaking softer. He made a good point. I said nothing back, and joined him in his search. I walked around the whole house, moving all the items that could be moved; Paintings, pots, and even chairs. After searching for almost half an hour, I finally found it. It was the family picture of the ponies on the end table by the door. All I had to do was tilt it back, and a small click could be heard. The picture returned to its original spot, and the floor separated. While waiting for the elevator, I started to think about that picture. Was that a real family? Had they actually lived in this house, and then taken away, possibly even down below? We stood on the edge of the elevator, not yet ready to step on the shinny white floor. We looked at each other. Lux had his pouch back on, and was positioned on his side without the cyst. He pulled out the half loaf, and split it, giving me one half. I nodded to show my thanks, and ate the bread while staring at the floor. The bread felt like it disappeared too fast, leaving me no other choice then to step onto the elevator. Lux stepped with me, our hooves making clanks with each step. Once we were both on, I turned to the platform that rose from the ground. I made no hesitation to hit the button, for I feared I wouldn’t if I waited. The light above us turned off, and we were submerged in darkness. I felt myself slowly moving. Down we went under the innocent house. Down we went under the ground. Down we went to Hell.
Chapter 1It was cold. So very cold. I laid there in the cold, not really thinking at all. I couldn’t really. As I laid there, a chill went through my body. It was a different chill though; I felt it start in my back hooves, and go all the way through my body. As the chill progressed, those parts its passed began to turn on. I felt my muscle’s twitching, anxious to get moving. The chill rapidly made its way to the back of my neck. My whole body suddenly twitched, as if I was having some sort of short seizure. Before I knew it, I found my head up in the air, body leaning forward and front hooves out to balance myself. I was panting heavily, and my eyes were open. I hardly recognized it, being all I saw was a bright white. I sat there, staring at this white, feeling my breathing slowing down to a more relaxed state. Once I believed I had my breathing under control, I began to focus on the white. It was a very brilliant white, whiter than any sheep wool I’ve ever seen. But it had little groves in it, going up, then over, then going up again, and it continued. I followed these groves with my eyes, and eventually found where they stopped. These groves were replaced with an even brighter white, and I almost had to close my eyes the first time I saw it. It was so bright it seemed to give off its own light. I brought my eyes back to the little groves on the wall, and then it clicked in my head. This is a wall. Above me is a ceiling. I spun my head around to see if I could find other walls, but only ended up making myself dizzy. I closed my eyes, and waited for the feeling to pass. Once passed, I opened my eyes again. I saw one wall, and slowly looked around to make sure I counted four total. Sure enough I did, along with a floor, which was also white, but also had a sort of reflection to it. It wasn’t a clear reflection, but it did show some colors. Most of which was white. As I looked at the floor, I began to think about the distance between my eyes and where the floor was. Everything seemed too far away. So naturally, my headed shifted towards my chest and body. At first, all I saw was more white. But this white was darker though, and had small stitching lines running horizontal. I was wearing some sort of white gown that covered almost my whole body. Only thing that was showing was the end of my hooves. Getting tired of sitting in one spot, I moved my left leg to the left, only to have it fall, bend at my joints, and slowly swing in the air. It was a quite unusual feeling to have something on my body moving, and I wanted to put it back, so it wouldn’t move anymore. But I didn’t, and even proceeded to swing my right leg over next to it. As I moved my body to match the direction of my legs, I saw something. There was something on the wall. It was a big, grey, shinny rectangle. It looked so out of place, why did I not see this earlier when I was counting the walls? I felt the need to investigate this object that seemed so alien like in this white world. So I pushed myself off of whatever I was perched on, and was pleased I had enough strength to push myself off, but soon found I was missing strength in my legs. As my back hooves hit the ground, my legs made no attempt to hold the weight of my body so suddenly put on them. They crumpled, and I found myself speeding to the ground much faster than I wanted to. I closed my eyes and turned my head, and felt a strong pain in the side of my skull. I laid there for a moment, feeling dizzy once again. I lost track of time lying there, and never really had a sense of time to begin with. I had no clue how long I laid there, and it really didn’t matter anyway. My dizziness was replaced by a throbbing headache. I tried to look past the headache, and put all my focus into my hooves. Placing them around my body, I pushed against the ground. I felt myself rise, and stop when my legs reached as far as they were going to stretch. Now that I was up, I put my focus back on the door. I could see it, and sure enough it looked the same as before. I put one hoof in front of another, and slowly repeated this process until I was a touch away from the strange object.
Chapter 2I investigated the silver rectangle farther. I found a thin line running down the middle of it, and a small grey button about the size of my hoof to the right of the door. I stepped slowly to the right, and centered myself to the button. I didn’t trust myself enough to balance on three legs, so I slowly moved my nose closer to the button. My face finally found the button, and it felt cold against my nose. It took almost no force to push it in, and as soon as I couldn’t push it in any farther, I withdrew my head. I stood there, expecting something to happen. At first, nothing did. Suddenly, there was a loud, monotone, buzzing sound, followed by a computerized female voice. “Door 105 locked, security code 2B.” said the voice. After a short pause, it continued with, “Security override required.” Following the message was the same monotone buzz, and then silence. I pressed the button again, only for it to repeat everything. I at least knew it was a door, it just won’t open. Perfect. Figuring I have some time to waste, I turned around. There, in the middle of the room was a shinny, metallic table. I walked over to it to get a better look. It looked almost like a surgery table. It was spotless, had skinny table legs that were bolted to the floor, and a rack in between the floor and the bottom of the table. What was I doing on this? Why am I even here? Just then, there was that buzzing sound again, followed by the female voice. “Security override accepted, unlocking door 105.” As expected, there was the buzz again. I waited for the silence, and turned towards the door. It was still closed, and still looked the same. I moved my eyes to the button, and made my way towards it. As soon as I got in reach of it, and without thinking, I moved my hoof up to press the button. Without any delay, the door opened as I pressed the button. It made no sound opening, and split at the small line in the middle, and the two sides pulled apart into the wall. Cautiously, I peeked my head out of the door. First, I looked to the right, only to find a hallway that was pitch black. Then I switched to the left. I found this direction had a white hallway with light running down most it. Farther down the hallway, the light stopped, and was replaced with darkness like the other direction. I decided to go left, and follow what little light I had. I was a fairly long hallway, with a few doors similar to mine here and there. There were no buttons on the outside to open them, which seemed quite odd. As I neared the darkness, I stopped. Should I go through it? Figured I didn’t have much of a choice, and I stepped closer. But then, I saw this dark hallway to my left, and another lit one to my right, which eventually was replaced by more darkness. I made my way down that hallway, which looked eerily similar to the other one, and found another lit hallway going off to the left this time. It almost seemed purposeful. This hallway was different though, it had some kind of lump next to the wall halfway down it. As I came closer to this lump, and stopped dead in my tracts. I felt the blood run from my face, and my heart speeding up. It was a dead earth pony. He was wearing white clothing similar to mine. The only fur I saw on him was what on his head. He had soft brown fur, and not much of a mane. It was short, neatly combed dark brown mane, that didn’t even reach the back of his neck. I shifted my eyes towards his cloths, and found a small red stain on his gown around his neck. I moved my head closer to his to get a better look, and then slowly lifted his head. Now that his head was no longer leaning down, I saw what killed him. He had what seemed to be a perfect, straight cut across his neck. I quickly dropped his head, took a couple fast steps back, and quickly spun around. There was nothing there, so I spun back the other way again. Still, nothing was there. But I was worried now. All I could think was what killed him, and was it still here? I began to panic, knowing if whoever, or whatever killed him found me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I was still weak and disoriented, and would be an easy target. So, I found myself walking as fast as I could down these hallways, each one looking the same as the last, some having more dead earth ponies in it than others. All of these ponies were killed the same way, wore similar clothing, and had the same mane styles. The only differences were the color of their fur. Some were white, brown, gray, and even a few dark blues. This made me wonder about my fur color, I couldn’t remember what It was, and haven’t had a chance to really see myself. I looked behind me, and then quickly stopped. I stretched my right leg out far enough for the white sleeve to roll up some. I gave my leg a quick glance, looked behind me, and kept walking. I didn’t want to think about what I saw until I was moving. I didn’t have any hair. I saw peach colored skin, with little dark specs from newly grown hair. Why was my body shaved? None of this made any sense. I got so off tract thinking about this, I didn’t even realize I had walked a few feet into an unlit hallway. I stopped, and listened. Slowly and quietly, I let out small breaths. I turned my head around, and judged how many steps to get back to the light. Turning my head back in front of me, I took one step backwards, turned my head behind me, looked back in front of me, and took another step back. I repeated this process for almost 10 steps. Once out, I turned back to the direction of the lit hallway, and started walking fast, very fast. I went down a few more hallways faster than before, and came into a big circular room. It had about 4 other hallways jutting off from it, none of which were lit up. Along the walls were a few benches with fuzzy red cushions. To my right was what appeared to be a window into an unlit room, but no door I could see to get in. Across from the window were some silver railings, which each started at a point where the curved wall ended, and moved toward the other railing, leaving a gap only big enough for two ponies to get between them. I stepped towards them, looking down each hallway every other step. I finally reached the gap. There was another room here. It was round, had no hallways leading away from it, and had no ceiling. The walls just kept going up, with large tracts going up them. I looked back down, and saw a platform rising from the floor with a button on it. I walked over to it, and looked back to the room with the window. I pressed the button, and heard a buzz. “Departing” said the computerized female voice, “Goodbye.” The floor began to rise, which took me by surprise, and almost caused me to lose my balance. Once I regained myself, I looked back at the room with the window as the gap from the rising floor and ceiling of that room got smaller. I looked to the middle of the room, and saw something that wasn’t there before. There seemed to be a body right in the middle of the room. But it wasn’t lying on the ground it was standing there, facing me. The gap closed, leaving me nothing more to look at than the wall sinking under me.
Chapter 3The further up I went, the harder it became to identify the edge of the platform. The light was disappearing more and more as I traveled up. It was almost completely dark when I felt myself slowing to a stop. Once I was sure that it was no longer moving, I took a slow step into the darkness around me. The sound of my hoof coming down made a small clank. I then heard another small sound, from somewhere above. One single light turned on, hanging from a low wooden ceiling above me. I looked around, very confused by my new surroundings. I was in a normal, small, wooden home. There was a small stove in the corner, a couch in another, even a few family pictures of ponies I have never seen before. The air was heavy and cold, with the smell of mildew lingering in my nose. Everything had a heavy layer of dust on it, even stepping forward sent dust flying around my hooves. Strangely enough, there were no windows on the walls, only one wooden door on a wall in front of me. I stepped even closer to the door, and got myself totally off the platform, and onto the dark wooden floors. The moment my last hoof was off, the platform began to sink back down into ground. Replacing it were more dark wooden planks that slid from two sides of the hole. They moved effortlessly and quietly, meeting in the middle, making a small latching noise. The hole was covered up so well that anypony who didn’t know that it was ever there would never suspect a thing. It just seemed so normal and peaceful. It was like this house had no secrets to hide. Feeling nauseous, I turned back towards the door. I quickly made my way over to it, and gave it a push. It gave away easy, and I was blinded by a flood of bright light. I brought one hoof up to my eye and squinted. Before my eyes adjusted, I heard voices. I heard the sound of fillies giggling off in the distance and the soft voices of a few ponies talking to one another. I finally opened my eyes enough to make sense of where I was at. In front of me was a small wooden house. A tight sand stone road divided it and me. This road stretched down both sides of me, with small identical houses on each side. There were small groups of ponies standing along the edges of the roads, talking softly to themselves. Sand was blowing into my face and I had to blink constantly to keep the sand out of my eyes. Turning my head the opposite direction of the blowing sand, the smell of fresh bread suddenly assaulted my nostrils. I couldn’t remember the last time I had smelled something so good, or even the last time I ate. My mouth began to water while my stomach gave out a long low growl, warning me I haven’t eaten in a while. I walked up the road, following the smell. I found a short alley between the street I was on and one running next to mine. I crossed into it, and almost got to the next street before a voice stopped me. “You can’t just walk out there in that you know.” The voice sounded fairly young, but coarse and strained. Surprised by somepony actually talking to me, all I could think to respond with was, “What?” as I turned around to meet this voice, which came from a pony leaning against the wall, wearing a long tan robe with a matching hood. “It is traditional around here to were a headdress, and that light lab coat your wearing there won’t help protect you from the sand.” the pony said. He kept dragging his “s” sounds on words, reminding me of a snake hissing his tongue. “You will stick out like a sore thumb.” He was no longer leaning against the wall, walking a little closer to me. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” I replied, tense and agitated. “All in good time, first, put this on. I already went out and bought it for you, in case you made it out.” He lifted a light tan robe off the ground between his feet, and threw it my way. Watching him do this, I caught a small glimpse of his leg. There was something off about it, seemed too dark and thin. His coarse voice pierced my thoughts, “let’s walk.” I picked up the robe, and threw it over my apparent lab coat. As I was doing this, I made sure to keep a close eye on him as he walked closer to me. He slowly trotted to me, and I followed, being sure to leave space between him and me. We walked farther down the street without saying a word, the smell of the bread growing stronger as we walked. Eventually, I found the source. It was a small bakery in what was apparently the town square. The road had widened to a plaza, with shops lining the outside edges, and small stalls selling various items on the inside. I followed the strange pony through the plaza, occasionally walking around small lines of ponies waiting at some of these stalls. We made our way to the bakery, which had no line at all. The hooded pony walked up to the counter as I stayed behind. He took a few coins out of a pouch and placed them on the counter. The pony running the stand turned around, and took a loaf of bread off the rack behind him. He placed it on the counter, scooped up the coins, and said something to the hooded pony. I slowly walked closer, willing to get slightly closer to him in order to just get a better look at the loaf. The strange pony picked up the piece and tore it in half. He took one half and placed it in his pouch, and walked off, leaving the other piece behind. I hurried to the counter, lowering my body and glancing at the half loaf and the pony that left it behind. Once close enough, I gave the bakery owner a nod, and quickly picked up the piece in my mouth. I ran after the hooded pony, savoring the taste. Once I caught up, I finished the piece off in 3 eager bites. I began to wonder why he did that for me. “Why did you do that?” I quickly asked, keeping my eyes on him. He took a minute to reply. “You may think that we are complete strangers, but in a sense, we are not.” His words were slow, and he lowered his voice. “I was down in that facility as well.” I stopped in dead in my tracts. A thousand questions raced through my mind. Wanting to ask them all, I quickly caught up to him. I allowed myself to get closer to him, and gave a quick glance around. I looked back to him, and spoke softly. “What was that place? Why are we here? Who were all the dead ponies?” He looked at me, and for the first time I got a good look at his face. His coat was pitch black, and he had small fangs protruding from his mouth. One look at his eyes told me everything else I needed to know. They were light blue, but it was not his iris that was blue, but the outside of the eye. There was no iris at all, the blue just faded to white where a black pupil should be. I mouthed the words, “changeling,” and he just nodded. I wave of emotions suddenly hit me; I began to sweat and feel my head become light once again. I stopped walking, and leaned against the side of a house next to the road. The changeling stopped as well, and looked back at me. I kept my head down, and my breathing got heavier. I could no longer focus on what was happening outside my head, for inside, wave of memories were pushing their way back up.
Chapter 4“Agent, I have a mission for you” Said a female voice. I was bowing down, staring at red velvet carpet. I lifted my head, and looked at the white alicorn sitting in her throne. She was in turn looking down upon me. “What do you need me to do my highness?” I asked She responded, her voice very serious. “A pair of changeling criminals have escaped the high security prison in Sadler Arabia, and have hidden in a small nearby town. You will fly there, and rest in a house we have set up for you that night. Come morning, you will meet the local authority, and use your scouting abilities to help them weed out who the criminals are disguising themselves as.” “I mean no disrespect” I said in a puzzled tone. “Don’t they have ponies over there that are trained for situations like this?” Her face tightened. “They need extra help. And you are the only one who is able to make the flight without stopping. You are also our top scout, and we expect 100% success by sending you.” I was still confused. There was more pressing matter at hand I should be attending to, not trying to round up a few criminals. I only bowed my head once more. “Thank you Princess Celestia, I will not fail you.” “I know you won’t Legion. Good luck.” I glanced back up to her, and saw a hint of sorrow in her eyes. I turned around, and walked out past two guards, who closed the doors behind me. I came back to the present in the same state as I was when I left, breathing heavily. The changeling had his face in mine, hissing under his breath. “Your attracting too much attention, we have to leave now!” I looked around, panting. Many groups of ponies had stopped around us, watching and talking. I didn’t trust this pony, but the emergency in his voice told me he was telling the truth. I only gave him a nod, and he began to walk forward. I followed close behind, ponies who had been watching stepping out of our way. Our paced quickened. I had no idea where he was taking me. I continued to look down as we walked. I only knew where to go by watching the changeling’s feet. After walking down many alleyways and roads, he finally stopped. He looked to his left and right, and glanced back at me. Without saying a word, he stepped up to a house. I watched him as he opened the door, and stepped inside. He left the door slightly open, signaling me to enter as well. I walked in, closing the door behind me. As soon as the door closed, I turned around in time to see a hoof flying towards my face. I closed my eyes, and fell to the floor. My right eye felt like it was on fire, and I looked up to see the changeling glaring over me. He spat out loud and quickly. “What the hell is wrong with you?” “What’s wrong with me?” I quickly responded, getting up on my feet. “What wrong with you?” “I told you not to bring any attention to us, and what do you go do? Have some kind of breakdown right in the middle of the road!” The coarseness in his voice started to grow as he was yelling. “Like I wanted to!” The anger was building up inside me. I began walking toward him. I opened my mouth to yell something else, but then I realized he was no longer looking directly at me. He was looking past my head. The anger in his eyes was replaced with fear. He took quick steps backward, hiding his tail between his legs like a scared dog. His voice barely escaped his mouth when he spoke. “Your…your...wings…” I stopped moving. My wings? I had forgotten about them. I was no longer mad at him, but excited. I wanted to see them. They were something that I had before all this happened, something familiar. I looked around for a mirror, and found one by a couch. I quickly trotted over to it. The mirror had a layer of dust on it, and I blew it off in one breath. What the mirror revealed was not my wings but pieces of metal extruding from my back, only shaped like wings. They had torn through my robe, and were fully extended, as if I was ready for flight. The tips of the wings came to sharp points, and small gears and pulleys could be seen mixed in with the metal. I stared in horror, and they swayed back and forth, moving as if they were natural. I looked back at the changeling standing across the room, and asked him one question. It was one question I did not expect an answer to. “What did they do to me?”
Chapter 5Time seemed to stand still. We stood there, neither of us saying a thing. I keep looking back into the mirror, moving my body around to different angles seeing these things attached to my back. No emotions or thoughts came to me. I forgot about everything; the pain in my eye, the house I was in, where I was just a couple hours ago. It was all lost to me. Suddenly a voice pierced my soundless thoughts. “This is what they did to you.” He spoke softly, but I still flinched at his voice, as if he was yelling at me. “They… who are…they?” “The ponies in the facility we escaped from. They have altered you as they altered me.” I looked at him. He had moved slightly closer, his head still hanging low. “What did they do to you?” He let out a sigh. “They took everything from me.” He flung off his robe, exposing his body. Where his horn should have been was just a stump of what was left of one. His ears had been clipped to a very small size, and he had no mane. His wings were missing from his back, and he had many patches of hairless skin. I watched as he looked up to me, his eyes looking paler then earlier. “At least you still have wings.” He walked away, curling up into a ball on the ground sending dust flying up around him. My eyes drifted off of him, and I started to focus on my surroundings. There was one single light hanging from the ceiling. There were family pictures of ponies with thick layers of dust on them. I had seen those pictures before. I quickly glanced around the walls, and found no windows, just one door leading outside. I smiled. I don’t know why I did; maybe it was because I was in somewhere familiar. I relaxed a little, and felt the metal on my back go into a resting state against my body. They felt cold against my sides. I did not like it. In fact, I hated it. I choose not to think about them, it had already been a crazy emotional day and I was too tired to want to add more to it. The idea of just sitting down and not thinking appealed to me. It was almost another hour before the changeling left his emotional coma. The sound of him moving around awoke me from nap. I slowly opened one eye to look at him. He had moved close to me, and he was sitting up, looking down at me, he began to speak. “I had awoken only a little bit before you.” He sounded better than before. I stretched and sat up. With a yawn, I looked at him. “I was very dizzy when I awoke. I could only leave my room because there was a body keeping the door from closing.” His eyes stared off into the difference as he recalled his story. “I walked out, and everything was very dark. Luckily, even though they took my ability to change forms, I could-“ “Wait, you can’t change?” I asked, interrupting him. “I wish I was lying. But sadly, I am not. I don’t know if removing my horn and wings prevents me from doing so, but something tells me it was their goal.” He showed no emotions talking about it now; he acted like he didn’t care at all. He continued his story, and I found myself dozing in and out. “Anyway, I could still see in the dark fairly good… bodies occasionally…big circular room… dead pony wearing… something in his hoof… placed it in the… security office… security cameras … empty rooms… about to give up … got to yours.” My ears perked up. “Mine?” I asked. “Yup, you got lucky.” He said, a hint of humor in his voice. “I could barely make out your body. I turned on the lights for that room, and watched you closely to see if you were breathing. You were, so I began to turn on lights in the hallways that would lead you to the elevator. As I was doing that, I caught a glimpse of something else moving in the darkness. Something seemed off about it, and I wanted no part of it. So-” “You saw it too?” I butted in, leaning forward as I asked. “I guess so. I think it looked like a pony, but it just seemed…wrong. When did you see it?” I told him about what I saw as the elevator was rising. Talking about it sent shivers through my spine. “Seems like we both saw the same thing.” He said. “This brings me to the next part. I saw it, and quickly finished lighting the hallways. I switched back to your camera, and a pop up appeared asking for some kind of override.” “Security override” I thought to myself, almost in the same voice as the female computer. “I pushed yes, and watched as the door opened. I figured I had done enough, and left.” “So you just left me?” I asked, feeling slightly irritated by the thought. “Look, I was just as weak as you probably were. I gave you a fighting chance, and look, here you are.” I wasn’t sure what to respond with. I understood his logic, it made sense. I was also mad at him, he was only assuming I would go the right way, or that figure wouldn’t find me. “Let us not worry about it. It wouldn’t benefit either of us.” The changeling said with a yawn. I readily laid my head down and closed my eyes. I was exhausted, and ready to sleep. He lay down as well, and asked one last question before he allowed himself to sleep. “What is your name?” Barely opening my mouth, I responded sluggishly. “Legion.” “I’m Lux, nice to meet you…” he replied, just as tired as me. Slowly, and peacefully I drifted off, my mind revisiting my past once again.
Chapter 6I started my flight in the morning, and it was already turning dark. I was just passing the Great Mountains, which meant I still had many hours to go. I spent most of the time in the air thinking. I would think about everything and anything to pass the time; trying to figure out why this mission was really so important. After a while, I quit worrying about it. This was really was almost like a break, and a needed one. There has been a lot of protest towards the princesses over the past few weeks, and it was nice to get away from it all. Maybe by the time I get back everyone would be over it, and I could go back to my regular duties. The moon had now reached its highest point in the dark cloudless sky. I had always liked the moon; it always looked so peaceful. I would think about the night my father came home when I was a small foal, explaining what had happened. Celestia’s sister, Nightmare Moon, came down to evoke eternal night onto the ponies of Equestria. A group of six ponies had wielded the Elements of Armory to defeat the evil Nightmare Moon. Father would talk on and on about actually seeing these heroes. “Son,” he would say in his scruffy voice. “One day, I only hope you can see such young ponies that bring so much hope. It makes your whole military career worth it.” Thinking of father reminded me of how much I missed him. I needed to keep my head clear, so I focused on where I was at. Not much to look at, just rolling hills of sand. After another 10 minutes of flying, I finally spotted lights on the horizon. As I neared it, I realized how small of a town this really was. There couldn’t have been more than a couple of hundred ponies living here. I looked around for the one house with a white chimney. Seeing how every other house looked the same as the last; all a light tan color with brown roofs and chimneys, it was not hard to find the right house. I swooped down, landing in front of the door. I looked up and down the street to make sure there was no around. I turned back, and gave three solid knocks on the wooden door, paused, and gave two more. This was what I was told to do to signal to the ones inside it’s me. I heard the sound of a lock being turned, and then silence. I turned the handle on the door. It felt unusually cold. The door almost opened without me even pushing it, and I walked in. It was dark, no lights were on. I used my rear hoof to close the door behind me. Still, no one turned on a light. I listened very carefully. I could hear ponies breathing, I wasn’t sure how many, but I could make out at least 3 different ones. I took a step forward, and opened my mouth to speak. A light came on the moment I placed my foot down. I winced, and closed my eyes. The light was blinding! Before I could reopen them, I was flung to the floor. I grabbed the back of my head, an extreme pain emerging. I felt more blows to my sides while something cold was plunged into my neck. I could feel a liquid entering my blood stream. I knew what was happening, an ambush! They were drugging me, and I struggled to stay awake. I could no longer feel the pain in the back of my head, or the blows being dealt to my sides. My limbs felt heavier and heavier as I tried to move them to get up. Right before I blacked out, I heard a voice. It was a heartless voice, one that belonged to pony who knew no good. “Take him below” I awoke, sweaty and still tired. I felt extremely hot, and slipped out of my robe while I stretched. I looked down at my hooves and found light brown hairs on my legs. I examined them, unable to understand how they could have grown back so much. They weren’t full, but they were a good length. I looked over at my flank and back legs, to find the same thing. They had grown almost a week’s length just overnight. It didn’t make any sense. I trotted over to the mirror, and looked over my whole body. Other then the metal wings on my back and my black eye, I looked fairly normal. I looked at my cutie mark; ashamed that I had actually forgot what it looked like before. I felt a little better by seeing those binoculars on my side. I was happier that it also wasn’t turned to metal. I must have awoken Lux with my movements; he was slowly lifting himself off the ground. I walked over to him with a smile. He looked at me, and I lost that smile. He looked worse than he did yesterday. His eyes were paler, and his movements were slower. He said nothing to me, and I said nothing to him. I could hear him breathing, and he sounded wrong, almost old. I finally decided to break the silence. “How much bread do we have?” He glanced at his pouch, which was lying on the couch next to him. “There is still that half piece, and that’s it.” “Do we have money for more?” “The only money I had was what I stole, which was only enough for one loaf.” I flinched at the word, stole. I know he did what he had to, but it was still a habit to look down at it. “Do you still think you will be able to…steal… some more?” “I doubt it” He replied. “I only got lucky the first time.” He turned around, and walked towards the door. I was able to get a glimpse of his side that I could not see earlier, and gasped. He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “Lux, I need you to be still for a second.” I said, speaking gingerly. “What?” He asked, confused. I walked over to his side, and stared in disgust. There, on his hip, was a huge sickly looking bubble. It didn’t stick out much, it more of just replaced the skin. The area was almost the size of my cutie mark, and seemed to be filled with some kind of brown yellowish liquid. Lux looked over and saw what I was staring at, and began to panic. His breathing became very heavy, and he was having a hard time keeping his balance. “Lux, I need you to relax. We don’t want you falling on it!” I quickly warned. “Relax? How am I supposed to relax?” He yelled in between breaths. “Look” I hastily responded. “I need you to sit down and then work on your breathing.” He did as I said. While he was sitting, I inspected the cyst. It must have just grown overnight. I couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it apparently didn’t hurt him any. The liquid inside seemed to swirl around on its own. He was finally able to relax himself some. “Legion, what is it?” He sounded like he was just a foal, afraid and unsure. “I…I really don’t know. It almost looks like some kind of infection.” I looked over the rest of his body, and found a very bad sign. Every spot where patches of hair had been shaved off, small similar looking cyst were forming in the middle. They were on every spot, some bigger than others, but not as big as the one on his hip. I choose not to tell him about these. “Maybe there is an antidote?” Lux asked, looking for any hope. I looked at him, unable to tell him there probably wasn’t. “If there is… it would be down in the facility.” I told him, almost afraid to bring up that possibility. He looked away from me. I knew he was waiting for me to make a decision. I sighed. “I’ll go down.” I said with a sigh. It was the least I owed him. He continued to frown while he looked at me. “I’m going with you.” His voice was quite. “No you’re not!” I said, with a stern voice. “You need to move as little as possible.” “I refuse to leave you down there alone, and plus, you will need the key to the security office. I still have it, and you can be sure I’m not giving it to you.” He responded, just as stern. I thought about it for a second, and grew angry that he wouldn’t listen to me. “Fine!” I spat out. “But if something happens to you, it’s not my fault!” He sat up, and walked over to a book case that was half full of books. Without saying a word, he started to pull out the books, one by one. “Now what are you doing?” I loudly asked. “There has to be some kind of switch to open the elevator, and something tells me it will be hidden.” He replied, speaking softer. He made a good point. I said nothing back, and joined him in his search. I walked around the whole house, moving all the items that could be moved; Paintings, pots, and even chairs. After searching for almost half an hour, I finally found it. It was the family picture of the ponies on the end table by the door. All I had to do was tilt it back, and a small click could be heard. The picture returned to its original spot, and the floor separated. While waiting for the elevator, I started to think about that picture. Was that a real family? Had they actually lived in this house, and then taken away, possibly even down below? We stood on the edge of the elevator, not yet ready to step on the shinny white floor. We looked at each other. Lux had his pouch back on, and was positioned on his side without the cyst. He pulled out the half loaf, and split it, giving me one half. I nodded to show my thanks, and ate the bread while staring at the floor. The bread felt like it disappeared too fast, leaving me no other choice then to step onto the elevator. Lux stepped with me, our hooves making clanks with each step. Once we were both on, I turned to the platform that rose from the ground. I made no hesitation to hit the button, for I feared I wouldn’t if I waited. The light above us turned off, and we were submerged in darkness. I felt myself slowly moving. Down we went under the innocent house. Down we went under the ground. Down we went to Hell.
