When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me.
Speaking words of wisdom,
Let it be.
The walls were a pale, washed out grey. They rose up twenty feet until they connected to the ceiling, which was composed of the same, dreary, concrete-like material. There was nothing here. There was nothing else that could be told about the place, other than the lights stung and they seemed to only enhance the dismal nature of our surroundings to a certain degree. The floor was cold. Every labored step sent a shockwave of chills through my spine, fully engulfing me in an attempt to get me to unravel. Giving up seemed to be an easy thing to accomplish here. The room seemed to have given up on itself already. The room must have been where dreams went to die.
Twelve pairs of eyes stared as I entered the room. Twelve colorless, hopeless, emotionless eyes, all watching as two newcomers invaded their windowless abode. We must have looked barbaric. We must have looked imposing. We must have looked... different. All of the foals, ‘cuz they were all foals, watched as Fluttershy and I came in, perhaps shining like a ray of hope off in the distance, far out of reach for any real dreamer to very well get to. We stopped in the middle of the floor, like models, everypony subject to judge us and lust for us. The icy grip of the floor now produced a numbness in my hooves, complete with a lingering, tingling sensation. Everypony watched with lifeless eyes, their coats as dull and grey as the walls. Fluttershy and I must have looked like a fantasy, like a fantastical apparition that appeared as lively and real as daylight itself.
‘Cuz if you don’t blend in... you blend out.
“This is your new home for a while,” one of the abominations to ponykind declared to us as he left us at the center of the room. “It’s a lot safer than being outside on your own, and perhaps you can make some new friends.”
Great... but whoever said that I wanted to be safe?
The door slammed from behind us after that. A couple of the lights in the ceiling above flickered and flashed in intermittent strobes of light. Shadows danced on the barren walls. Ponies gazed at us in wonder and amazement. I finally got the hint: here we are. Welcome to the pit. This place was a terrible spirit crusher of a facility, and it should have housed only the worst of criminals, not fourteen defenseless foals.
Fluttershy crossed to one of the many empty cots that sat in the room. They were the only things that occupied the room, other than the only life forms it contained. A couple of the other ponies followed her with their eyes as she went. She sat down on it and made herself as comfortable as the concrete it was made out of would allow. She winced slightly as she settled on it, it must not have been all too comfy.
But at least somepony could see her...
Myself? I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do, ‘cuz when you get to a new place, you just need some time to adjust. But I wasn’t going to adjust to this place. I already wanted to get out. Some sort of weird, unavoidable feeling formed in my gut, telling me to flee as fast as I possibly could, carrying Fluttershy on my backside if I had to. I wished that the walls would just crumble before us, and we could immediately leave as everypony dumbly stared at the gaping hole in their midst. We did it once before... could we do it again?
I already assumed that everypony in the room was dumb. They all shuffled about uncomfortably on their cots, gazing at us as if we were something to be gawked at. It was a disturbing feeling, really. Twelve scrawny pairs of dilated slits for pupils glaring at me as I stood unobstructed in the middle of the floor. And they were all going to watch as Fluttershy and I escaped. I was going to make sure of it. ‘Cuz it had to be done.
Who were these foals, anyway? Did it matter?
I realized that I had been awkwardly standing in the center of the floor for some time now. My head fell to my hooves. I held the manager’s button under my hoof so that nopony could see it. It would have probably caused them all to cry out in shock, seeing more colors than they perhaps ever had. It might have been too much for their dull little hearts to handle, and they might just spontaneously explode. Though the curiously dodgy situation sounded comical, in a sense, I decided that I didn’t want that.
Instead, I forced myself to move over to the cot Fluttershy had taken up. Apparently the spot was vacant, nopony stopped her from taking it over. And if somepony did try to take it back I wouldn’t hesitate to resort to growling or snarling at them. She was curled up on the lumpy mattress, taking uneven breaths, staring at the stone wall like a portal into an abysmal neverland. I couldn’t say anything. I tried, I opened my mouth to... but nothing came out. We were trapped in a prison for foals, and we had done nothing wrong. It was like forced daycare. What did they want from us other than to keep us “safe”? And what was I supposed to say?
As I stood motionless before my friend, I couldn’t help but feel sorry. I had dragged us into a forsaken land that we should have bypassed from the get-go. But I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t stop myself. I should have known better than to just waltz into a huge city where something sinister could lurk at every corner. But I didn’t listen to my better judgment. We could be out in the sunshine, picking lilies and bluebelles out of each other’s manes. Instead we’re caged in a dungeon with a bunch of mutes.
With one twist of the neck, Fluttershy turned to me. My mouth still moved to speak, but I said nothing. I only stared into her glorious eyes, and they stared back at me. They were telling me one thing, which made me feel utterly hopeless and selfish. I almost collapsed from the pain her eyes brought to me.
They were telling me she was sorry as well.
I plopped right down on the rock-hard mattress, directly next to my best friend in the whole wide world. I put my hoof around her neck as she turned her gaze to the floor, staring at it like her nana’s coffin were buried under it. I sighed. I buried my muzzle into her mane, just so that the other’s couldn’t see the tears that were coming out of my eyes, signifying that I was easy prey. Fluttershy stay still. She let her shoulder be mine to cry on. I let my emotions flow freely.
Amidst sobs, I remembered that I still had that pin. That mysterious pin that was given to me for no apparent reason. Or wasn’t it given to me for some sort of reason? What was I supposed to do with it? What was it? All that I knew, was that it looked pretty cool, so I decided that I should tell the scarecrow. But then he gave it to me when he heard Fluttershy’s name? What happened there?
I could find out right now.
I overturned my hoof, revealing the pin glinting in the artificial light. Fluttershy looked away from the floor, to my hoof, and she gasped. I took my face out of her mane with a final tentative breath as we both looked down at the pin in my grasp. The adorable pink maned pegasus looked about ready to cry. I was already doing that. Misery seems to love company; St. Cloud seems to have misery down pat.
In between a couple of stymied breaths, I spoke up.
“Fluttershy...” I asked. “W-what does this mean?”
o----o
Song: Let it Be
By: The Beatles