She couldn’t go any further. She was too exhausted, too hungry, and too tired to continue her journey. Certainly, she had known that almost completely crossing an entire country by hoof was a big deal, but she had never imagined that it was that exhausting: despite walking for no more than half an hour, she already had the feeling that she was on her last legs, having difficulties to keep her eyes open, and sluggishly placing one hoof in front of the other.
With the surprisingly hot evening sun burning down on her fur and a total lack of freshening wind, she trudged up a small hill, panting louder than she had ever panted before, confident that she would drop dead any second.
“Just … one … more … step!” she whispered breathlessly, squinching her eyes shut to protect them from the seemingly endless flow of sweat that ran down her face, “Ponyville … Equestria … they need me!”
With the next, painfully slow step, and after a felt eternity of marching uphill, she finally reached the hilltop; a huge, grassy plain presented itself in a valley right in front of her.
Letting out an exhausted, yet satisfied pant, Twilight slowly lifted her head to catch a glimpse of what still lay ahead of her.
She caught her breath.
Twilight would have expected to see Ponyville in the distance - it was about dusk, thus way too early for her to reach her destination, but since the sky was clear and she could see for miles and miles, she had expected to see the small village appear somewhere near the horizon.
However, what lay ahead definitely wasn’t Ponyville. With a lot of good will and lively imagination, she could consider it a city, though never before had she seen a city like that.
At first sight, the city looked surprisingly similar: with its enormous stone buildings that reached for the sky, its paved roads that connected the houses to a monumental network, it inevitably reminded Twilight to Manehatten - the metropolis she had visited not so long ago, together with her friends.
However, at second glance, Twilight noticed that the city in front of her was everything but comparable to Manehatten: while the buildings of Equestria’s biggest city were different in shape and color, making the whole city look as diverse as a bowl of candy, the houses that presented in the valley looked similar altogether: monotone, grey blocks, adorned by equally monotone, mirrored windows. The entire city seemed to consist of nothing but dull, cold concrete and rejecting, mirrored glass.
But what was much more conspicuous than the buildings’ monotone construction style was their sheer size: Twilight had been to several big cities with monumental buildings –technically she lived in an enormous palace herself at the moment- but the dimensions of the city in front of her burst all limits of what she had seen so far.
An average house in Ponyville was suited to shelter one, at most two families; the palaces in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire were indeed a whole lot bigger, designed to accommodate the royal family and their attendants, but the constructions in front of her … it looked like each of them could accommodate an entire city itself.
Staring at the buildings with her mouth hanging open, Twilight suddenly noticed a nauseating stench in the air: the mixture of sewage, decay, and something that reminded her to the fumes of a burning oil lamp made her contort her face in disgust.
“What in Equestria is that place?” she asked, holding her nose with her hoof, “Where’s Ponyville?”
The deafening noise of another passing train that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere made her give a startled jerk to the side and let out a horrified squeal.
It took Twilight a few moments to recover from the shock and get back to her hooves. Once she was standing upright again, her mind clear enough to comprehend what had just happened, she looked back at the train.
Following the vehicle, her glance passed the short distance from the hill she was standing on, through the valley which –as she noticed but then- appeared to be filled with several railways and asphalted streets, until it finally arrived at a narrow tunnel portal in the outskirts which the train disappeared into.
“What the…?” Twilight mumbled but cut herself off as she noticed some movement on the roads in front of the city. Contrary to her expectations, the streets were neither filled with ponies, nor with carts or carriages.
No, moving on the streets were, well, she couldn’t tell. The things that were moving on the asphalt seemed to be machines … or animals? The fact that they were moving on their own, passing the streets’ curves and straights without any external help, suggested that she was looking at animals, yet their appearance –their body was blocky, more or less square-shaped and seemed to be made of metal, yet had windows at all four sides; tires made of a black material connected them to the street- suggested that they were pony-made machines.
However, before she could give the vehicles a closer look, the ear-shattering noises coming from them made her back up and contort her face in discomfort.
“What the heck are those things?” she covered her ears, “And why does everything I encounter today have to be that terribly loud?”
In spite of the deafening noises around her, caused by the trains, as well as the driving and flying machines that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and all of a sudden seemed to be all around her, she couldn’t help but notice that her curiosity had been awoken - she had never seen a city of those dimensions before, and was starting to wonder who or what would expect her in this massive concrete jungle of a city.
She wasn’t even sure if she could actually call it a city; after all, she hadn’t seen any other ponies leaving or entering the houses yet; the same went for the trains or the other vehicles.
Who said that they were getting moved by ponies after all? Ever since she had woken up by the riverside, she hadn’t spotted a single pony.
Her body suddenly stiffened as an idea popped up in her mind: maybe she had been transported to a different world! That would definitely explain the weird vehicles and oversized cities.
And that meant … she could be the first one to discover a new species! She could become famous as the one who lighted on a before then undiscovered civilization!
Her mood seemed to brighten up within seconds, and she galloped forward, heading towards the enormous city and already seeing her face in one of Equestria’s most famous newspapers.
Her head felt like if it was about to explode. An overload of emotions, sensations and confusion seemed to press against her skullcap and caused the young Princess to suffer an indescribable pain of both, physical and mental nature.
In the first instance, she was disappointed: contrary to her expectations, the concrete desert was in fact a city, and it was in fact populated by ponies – earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi all alike.
However, even though disappointment was one of the major emotions she felt, it easily got overshadowed by her confusion.
Trotting over the increasingly scarce spots of grass and keeping a safety distance from the streets and rails, she had cautiously approached the city. On her way there, she had finally found out what was with the blocky vehicles moving on the streets: since she had seen ponies sitting in them, she had concluded that those were popular means of transportation, despite the disgusting stench and terrible noises they caused.
And as if all that hadn’t been enough, it seemed the ponies sitting in the vehicles had had fun scaring her to death by making their machines produce deafening horn-like sounds, for every time one of those odd things had passed her, she had almost jumped out of her skin from the suddenly occurring racket.
Even though she had been curious to find out where those things came from and what they were powered with, she didn’t dare to make an attempt to stop one of them, since she doubted that the ponies –concluding from the both, confused and disgusted looks they gave her while passing by- would stop their vehicles for her.
And so the way to the city had dragged on. The realization that she hadn’t discovered a new species - that the beings she had encountered were nothing but normal ponies; the omnipresent roaring of the traffic, as well as the tainted air around her that had made it increasingly hard to breathe, had drawn on her nerves, making her clench her teeth and pant with anger.
However, as she had slowly approached the city –still steadily accompanied by the noises, the stench, and the disappointment- she had spotted a huge sign right in front of her – and gasped in disbelief.
It hadn’t been the sign itself that had made her jaw drop –of course she had seen those signs before, mostly used for advertising purposes- it was its content that had made her stop dead in her tracks and look at the billboard with widened eyes: enlightened by multiple bright strip lights, written in inviting, crimson letters, it read: “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, CITY OF DIVERSITY! pop. 680,000”
She read the text again, not believing what she was looking at. “Is that … is that a bad joke? Is somepony trying to play a trick on me?” she asked out aloud, knowing that there was nopony to answer her.
Her look wandered over to the brightly enlightened silhouette of the city whose beaming lights seemed to cut through the moonless night like a knife.
“This can’t be Ponyville! Ponyville is a small, sedate village, not a metropolis!” Twilight clarified with growing discomfort.
It took her a few more moments of nervously trotting up and down in front of the sign until finally, for the first time since her awakening, her brain conceived of an idea. Suddenly, all the changes, all the novel vehicles, the tainted air, and of course the weird transformation of Ponyville from a village into a huge city, seemed to make sense to her, and she asked herself, “How long have I been caught in that crevasse!?”
In the second her words faded away, the noises around her all got drowned out by the ear-shattering howl of a siren and Twilight found herself brightly enlightened by the beam of a big spotlight.
Instinctively, she span around, trying to face the origin of the sudden nuisance. She quickly regretted her decision, seeing as now the bright light blinded her, and all she could spot in the glaring beam were the silhouettes of two ponies and a set of red and blue blinking lights.
“Well well well, what do we have here?” a rough, male-sounding voice came from one of the ponies, “A little nudie enjoying an evening stroll?”
“Wha- what!? Nudie? Who are you? What are you talking about!?” was all Twilight’s startled mind could come up with.
“Ponyville Police Department.” The other pony –a mare, concluding from her throaty, yet female voice- replied dryly, “Consider yourself arrested.”
“What!? Arrested!? Are you kidding!?” Twilight stammered unbelieving, watching horror-stricken as the ponies left their original position and started walking towards her.
Finally seeing them in the bright light, Twilight noticed that they were dressed: cobalt blue uniforms covered the mare’s light blue and the stallion’s dark grey fur; their crow-black manes were mostly hidden by blue caps with golden emblems on them.
Loosening something that reminded Twilight to shackles from a belt around her waist, the mare soberly pattered, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
“Court of law?” Twilight squealed, glued to the spot, “I-I’m sorry, but there seems to be a misunderstanding! You see, I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle and I-”
“Yeah, and I’m Freddy Mare-cury. We should hang out some time, chat about how great it is to be a dead celebrity.” The stallion replied dryly, then approached her and ruggedly grabbed her fore- and hind legs, tying them up with the pair of shackles he had received from his colleague.
“What are you doing!?” Twilight yelled at him and instinctively grabbed his body with her magic, levitating him away from her.
Yet before she could start an attempt to escape, she felt the cold metal of a small ring getting shoved onto her horn. “Don’t make it worse than it already is, kiddo.” the mare snarled at her, “You’ve violated the law and now you’re gonna come with us!”
“Leave me…!” Twilight wanted to use her magic to get rid of the second pony, but quickly noticed that –except for emitting purple sparks- her attempts to make use of her magic had no effect whatsoever. “What the buck have you done to my horn!?” she squealed at the mare.
“Standard measure if the arrested pony tries to defy their detention.” The stallion who had returned in the meantime answered her question and grabbed her shackles, tearing her into the direction of the light source.
“Why the hell are you seizing me? What have I done wrong!?” Twilight shouted and struggled against the cuffs around her hooves.
With a dry smirk, the mare walking next to her said, “Are you serious? You’re walking around like a savage and ask us what you’ve done wrong!? Kid, you sure have humor.”
“Like a savage? What in Equestria are you talking about!?” Twilight snapped at the uniformed ponies.
“You’re nude. That’s what she means.” The male pony replied dryly, “I don’t know where you come from, but as long as I’m on duty, nopony in all of Ponyville walks around like that.”
“What are you-“ Twilight wanted to say, but got cut off as the stallion stopped in front of the light source which turned out to be another one of the vehicles that Twilight had seen on the street around her. Just like the other ones, it was mostly blocky, about five times as long and two times as wide as a pony, and had a black and white color scheme; a set of colorful blinking lights was fixed to its roof.
“Now, into the patrol car.” the mare commanded her harshly and placed a hoof on Twilight’s back; the stallion opened a door at the vehicle’s side.
Twilight’s body stiffened: neither did she know what would await her in that ‘patrol car’, nor where those ponies would bring her. But she knew one thing: there was nothing in the world that would make her set a hoof into that thing.
She tried to use her magic again, but got the same results as earlier: a short fizzle, a silent poof, nothing more.
But she still had an ace in the hole. After pausing a moment to collect her power, she suddenly pushed herself away from the vehicle. With a clearly audible thud, her body collided with that that of the mare who got caught off-guard and knocked down, letting out a loud gasp as she crashed onto the floor.
Feeling the adrenaline rush through her veins, Twilight flapped her wings with all of her power and took off after a split second.
“Ha! Didn’t see that one coming!” she shouted over her shoulder, feeling how a smile was beginning to form on her face as she saw the patrol car vanish into the darkness of the night.
“Stop right there criminal scum!”
Before Twilight knew what was going on, she felt the stallion’s buff body smash into hers and the iron grip of his forelegs fling around her wings.
“He’s a pegasus!? Damnit, why didn’t I notice that!? He was right in front of me!”
Twilight struggled, using all of her remaining power to fight against his grip. But it was futile - after what lay behind her, Twilight was surprised she had actually managed to take off at all; the fact that the stallion had managed to overwhelm her in not even five seconds was less pleasant, but not surprising either.
Carrying the struggling Princess in front of him, the stallion slowly lowered to the ground where his partner was waiting with another, bigger pair of cuffs she quickly applied to Twilight’s wings, preventing them from moving without causing serious pain to their owner.
“I’m gonna use the rest of my good will to ignore that attack.” the mare hissed into Twilight’s ear while tightening the cuffs, “Scandalization will get you a steep fine, attacking a police officer on duty will bring you into jail!” she turned Twilight towards the patrol car and added, “Now get in the car!”
Before Twilight could act, she felt the hooves of the mare giving her flank a powerful kick and throwing her into the vehicle.
A gasp escaped her mouth as she landed on a hard plastic bench in the car’s back. With a loud smash, the door closed behind her; a plastic ‘click’ followed.
Doing her best to hold back a horrified scream, Twilight span around and smashed her shackled hooves against the door, yelling: “Let me go! You can’t do this to me! I have committed no crime!”
The two ponies either didn’t hear her screams or simply ignored them, seeing as they rounded the vehicle without giving her a further look and opened two other doors in its front.
The peculiar machine seemed to prostrate as the ponies simultaneously entered and sat down on two seats in the front row, the mare sitting in the vehicle’s left half and laying her hooves on a black steering wheel in front of her.
Twilight shot forward, but -due to her tied up hooves- ended up staggering and smashing her head against an acrylic glass window that separated her from the two other ponies. It took her a few moments to sit up recover from the unexpected head blow. However, once she could see clearly again, she used all of her power –which wasn’t too much at that point- to smash her hooves against the glass and yell, “Let me go this instant! I … I will tell Princess Celestia about it!”
The ponies closed their doors with a loud smash and the stallion, turning his head towards Twilight, soberly asked her, “About what? That we arrested you for committing a crime? Good luck with that.”
“I have committed no crime whatsoever!” Twilight yelled, struggling against the shackles, but quickly realizing that she couldn’t free herself from their iron embrace.
“There’s no point in discussing that, kid.” The mare said; Twilight thought she had heard a touch of empathy swinging in her voice, “We’re just doing our job after all. And if somepony’s got her head in the clouds and feels like walking around like in the old times,” the mare raised a hoof and placed it on something that looked like a small lever, located directly next to the steering wheel, “It’s our job to do something about it.”
In that second, an ominous growl awoke in the vehicle’s front and Twilight felt how it accelerated not too gently.
The little filly inside her began to show through again, faced with absolute uncertainty: what would happen to her? Where would she go? Who or what were those ponies? And above all: what had happened to this world? What had happened to the small village she had spent the past few years of her lifetime in? Where had it gone?
Facing the uncertainty about her fate, Twilight sank back into the plastic bench seat she was lying on, and felt a tear running down her cheek.
She cried.
It didn’t take long until the silence of tears dripping onto the plastic of the seat got broken by muffled sobs coming from the young Princess.
The firstly silent noises quickly grew louder and louder, driven by Twilight’s despair, until finally a not so silent whimper escaped her mouth.
She couldn’t remember when she had cried the last time. Of course, she had shed tears multiple times –she had learned that it was pointless to hold them back early enough- but since her foalhood, she had never had a real crying fit again – until then.
Twilight knew that crying wouldn’t help her; that it would neither tell her what had happened, nor make those ponies let her go, but she didn’t care. She wanted to cry, she needed to cry, and she had to cry.
Even as the stallion turned around and, doing his best to give her an empathetic look, said, “Hey, no need to weep like that.” Twilight didn’t look up. “Look, you’re gonna be taken to the police station where you will stay for the night. Tomorrow you’ll get interviewed by a parole officer who will find out how we can proceed further.” The stallion explained to her, “If you can pay the fine or have somepony do it for you, you’ll be a free pony before noon.” he tried to comfort her.
But Twilight still didn’t look up. Neither did she understand what she had done wrong or what this pony wanted from her, nor did she want to.
No, all she wanted to do was wake up; find out that all this was just a terrible nightmare; a nightmare that had scared her to death, but was over now.
But she knew that this was no dream. It was far too realistic, felt far too lifelike to be merely a product of her imagination.
No, she knew that this was real life; that she had been captured by two uniformed ponies, had been thrown into a weird vehicle and told that she was under arrest; that Ponyville, the town she had known and liked since her first arrival, had turned from a sleepy little town into a stinking, dirty city; and above all that she had not the slightest idea where her friends were; whether they had changed in the same way her beloved hometown had.
And so, having no idea what laid ahead of her, where exactly she was, or what had happened to the ones she knew and loved, she curled up in a ball, hearing nothing but her own sobs and the monotonous growl of the vehicle, and slowly drifted away into dreamland, still nourishing a small hope that she would be in the Ponyville library again upon waking up.