Silence. It was so peaceful, yet so unerving at the same time. For a brief moment I considered if I was dead, but pain slowly started to ease over my body to tell me otherwise.
"You brought this upon yourself you know." I sighed in response to this comment.
I don't need this voice to patronize me right now.
I was getting frustrated and upset. I just want to go home now! Why can't I have that!?
"Remember, just say the word and I'll-"
"Stop talking." I say interrupting him. If I could see his face, I would imagine he would be raising an eyebrow at this.
"It doesn't have to be like this. Why do you constantly refuse us?"
I took a pause to think up the answer to his question. "Because I don't trust you." He also remained silent at my comment.
"I suppose on one hand I could see why." My full attention falls to him upon hearing this. "We do ask a lot. Taking over the pony race for love isn't the easiest task in the world to do, but it's under our Queens orders that we have to fufill such task."
"But why would I be helpful to you?" I find myself saying without thinking.
"You simply make a good distraction. Besides... We also noticed something else about you."
"Something else?" I repeated.
"You seem to be magic resistant. Or more specifically, your fur is magic resistant." I felt a little taken aback by this. Although I did admittedly notice this during this little 'adventure', I didn't realize that it was my fur specifically that was repelling the magic.
I suppose this would explain why Trixie was able to magically fix my broken leg back before I entered Ponyville. My leg was already open so she was able to use her magic on that part of me directly.
... But wait...
"If my fur can repel magic, then how are we talking?" He gave a quick chuckle before responding.
"The inside of your big ears don't have fur in them. And as a bonus, this spell can be shot straight to your brain because of that."
On instinct, I went to grab my ears, but found I was still unable to move my body. I guess these ears provide a disadvantage to being magic repellent.
"But that being said, I think you could see why you would be valuable to us. You're the only creature that we've discovered that has these 'magic repelling' propertys. Your fur could give us a much bigger advantage in the upcoming fight for The Crystal Empire."
"What!?" They're gonna attack The Crystal Empire? That couldn't be right, why would they need to do this?
"You heard right. We'll be going to The Crystal Empire, that same place that you've been wanting to go to." I feel like my eyes would be wide open right now if I wasn't asleep.
"You know the drill. Just say you want in and we'll let you join us."
"I- um." I couldn't find the words to say. Should I agree so I can go home? But are they trust worthy? And more importantly, how much of my fur would they take?
I quickly clear my throat before pausing for another second. "What's your name?"
"Excuse me?" It seems he wasn't expecting this question.
"I have to ask for your name. I refuse to make a decision until I get to know you."
Without hesitation, he answers by saying "Clipped Wing."
"Well, Clipped Wing. I'm afraid I have to tell you something. Not only do I refuse to join you, but you done nothing to me that can prove your loyalty and trustworthiness to me for me to even consider helping you out." A quick mental pat on my back was given after that line.
"Are you sure? We know about the mirror and how you got here."
"Even so, I doubt you would even have the ability to get near that mirror to do anything to it. I'm willing to bet that I'll be able to get back home before your invasion even begins." I could hear a snicker from this.
"Well then. I guess you'll have to get moving... Tell you what, we were originally gonna invade tonight. But just for you, I'll see about doing it tomorrow night. I can promise you that we have enough forces to completely take over that town like how we took over Canterlot. If you don't make it by then, you can kiss that mirror goodbye. But don't worry! When that happens, we'll have a nice cell and pair of clippers for you all ready and warm for your visit."
His voice started to sound more and more distant, was I waking up?
"Your timer starts now."
The transition from listening to Clipped Wing and waking up was almost seamless as I found myself lying down on a bed of some sort. The rhythmic beeps of some machine echo through my ears as I remain on the bed motionless. Opening my eyes, I quickly scan the room to find that I was in a hospital of some kind. Upon further inspection, I seemed to be strapped to the bed that I was currently in.
All in all, this wasn't a surprising situation I was in.
A few minutes of struggling against the straps of the bed proved to be pointless when I realized I wasn't making any progress of getting out period. Instead I raised my ears up to see if I could learn anything on what's happening...
More minutes pass as I start to feel unsafe about the situation I was in, could I be left unguarded? Is that guy who was following me still around?
My heart skipped a beat on that particular thought.
Getting stuck in my thoughts didn't last long as the door opened, causing me to jump a little from surprise. A doctor and nurse entered the room getting ready to do exams it seems.
I clear my throat before speaking up with a quick and simple "hi". Getting the direct attention of both the nurse and doctor, the nurse immediately leaves the room while the doctor approaches me.
The doctor seems to be a bigger earth pony stallion with a gruff looking stubby beard with a blond mane and carmel colored coat. He also seemed to have a permanent frown on his face.
"Awake already? With the amount of head injuries we got on the report, we would have assumed you would be out like a light."
Now that he mentions it, I have been getting hit in the head a bunch. If this wasn't a cartoon I probably would have brain damage by now... assuming I don't have brain damage right now by just being in this fictional world.
"Care to tell us who you are? At first glance we assumed you were that outlaw, but he's been captured by the princesses already so that clearly isn't the case." They still haven't realized he's a clone yet? Sweet! I didn't realize he would be as useful as he was.
After a brief moment of thinking, I respond with "Joseph" as my name.
"Joseph? No last name?" I was half tempted to tell him my real last name but ultimately said "I don't have a last name."
He raised a eyebrow before scribbling down on his clipboard while responding, saying "your species has a interesting culture to not need last names."
I couldn't tell whether or not he was testing me with the way he was speaking but I went with it anyways.
The same nurse earlier however then entered the doorway with another pony following shortly behind her. "I brought the Wonderbolt, sir."
The Wonderbolt was still wearing his uniform so I couldn't really make out too many details of what he looked like besides his mane being yellow with a darkish orange stripe in it.
"Ahh, so you must be the one that rescued this rabbit creature, am I correct?"
He gave a nice and cool "that is correct" with a practiced smile immediately after. He gave a glance at me before dropping his smile into a frown.
"It's a good thing that the outlaw is captured or I would have sent you to a jail immediately. I mean, this is the first time this new sentient rabbit species is being made known, me and the other boys just assumed that the criminal was one of a kind."
Although I was appreciating the fact that I wasn't being interrogated, I had to ask the obvious question of "who exactly are you?"
"Oh right, sorry. I'm used to fans already knowing who I am. My name is Lightning Streak, and I was part of last years Top Ten Wonderbolt Racers."
Wow, that's mildly impressive for a Wonderbolt I haven't even personally heard about. "What number were you?"
"Oh... I wasn't a number, I was just a co-announcer for the event..."
... Never mind, I'm not that impressed anymore.
"So, what brings you to Los Pegasus? Here for the sights, or maybe to see if you were lucky enough in the games that are around?"
"Actually, would you believe that I got on the wrong train to get here?" He gave a quick laugh before continuing.
"I guess, I can't really say where of all places you would want to go besides here. But if that's what you say then alright." After a brief pause, he went on saying. "So where was it you were planing on going?"
Should I tell him about where I'm going? So many things could go wrong if he figured out who I was. If I was to trust him, should I tell him about the changeling invasion that is to happen soon?
"You okay?" he grabs my attention, it seems I was thinking in silence longer then I should have.
"I'm fine, but to answer your question, I was planing to go to the Crystal Empire; I hear it's a beautiful city."
He seems to accept this answer as he smiles some more before going on about how nice it is.
Admittedly I wasn't paying that much attention to what he was saying, but it didn't last long anyway as the doctor gave a quick cough to get his attention.
"Excuse me, Mr. Lightning Streak, isn't your superior supposed to be here by now?" The Wonderbolt gave a frowned brow before realizing what the doctor meant.
"Oh, Spitfire should be here anytime. Knowing her though, she had to either fill something out or gave some rookie a quick chewing out before she left though."
Spitfire is supposed to be here? Her being here probably means this is gonna end badly for me.
Oh! Maybe I could find a way to leave before she gets here... maybe? Hopefully?
Once again I give a quick clearing of the throat to get the attention of the ponies in the room.
"How long am I supposed to be here? If it isn't asking too much, I would like to leave so I can make my plans for heading to the Crystal Empire." That sounded convincing enough.
The doctor didn't have an interested look in his eyes as he seemingly mindlessly said "You have bruises on your head, if we let you leave you could potentially kill yourself if you took another spill."
"Yeah." Lightning Streak spoke up. "That and apparently Commander Spitfire doesn't want you to leave until she sees you."
It was worth a shot.
Alright, it's now that time where I have to make a brilliant* escape plan.
Okay step one, I need to have these straps removed.
"Well at the very least can you take these straps off? I don't exactly plan on leaving on my own accord anyway."
Everyone in the room seemed quiet at first, unsure what to do.
The nurse slowly made her way over to undo the straps, when she got to the bedside, she looked over to the doctor. "Go ahead, he isn't an outlaw so we probably didn't even have to strap him down anyway." After the permission was given, she bit into the belt buckle before fiddling a bit to unhook it.
After the process was finished, I was into step two of the plan...
Still need to figure this part out...
Silently, another pony walked in, a bright yellowish mare with orange hair that resembled fire while wearing saddle bags appeared in my vision, it didn't even take me a second to recognize that this was Spitfire.
Without even looking at me, she looked directly at Lightning Streak before facehooving. "It was YOU that saved him?" She sounded more annoyed then she did angry at him.
"Come on Commander! Now that I did something that is gonna be in papers, will you finally let me be part of one of the primary teams?"
Spitfire put on her serious face as she started scolding him saying. "Listen Lighting Streak, you have to realize that I can't put you on the primary team unless get an eighty percent on the tests! We've been over this before! I can't just let you in unless you are able to keep up with the rest of the fliers!"
Lightning seemed to have a distraught look on his face. "But those tests are rigged! How am I supposed to go from a straight dive into a sharp turn back straight up without breaking my back!?"
Spitfire then turns away from him before continuing. "Please, if that rookie from the Young Fliers Competition is able to go fast enough for a Sonic Rainboom and still make that turn back up, you should be able to as well going half as fast!"
"Listen." The doctor spoke up seeming visibly annoyed at the verbal fight that broke out. "I hate to break up this discussion you're having, but if you don't have anything important to do here, then I suggest we leave and let the patient rest."
Spitfire glared at Lightning one last time before giving a "we'll finish this later" line before walking up to me.
Quickly fiddling with her saddle bags, she pulls out one of my wanted posters and holds the picture up to my face. "Is this you?"
I stare at it for a second before answering "no".
She takes a moment to look at it herself before getting a suspicious look on her face. "I guess you're right... The one in this picture has a lazy eye."
I remain quiet to see where this goes. it just dawned on me that I'm being interrogated by a Wonderbolt and that if I screw up here, I'll be going in a dungeon.
My heart rate increased slightly.
"Do you know Carter?"
"I know of him, why do you ask?"
She takes a step back and starts pacing around me. She obviously knows something, she just needs something to confirm it.
"I ask because it's a bit too convenient for two rabbits that could almost be considered twins to show up in Equestria randomly. Not to mention one of said rabbits have been causing a lot of trouble and has a price over his head." She starts pacing around the room while the doctor starts to sit down in the corner. "I have gotten a letter directly from Princess Celestia confirming that Carter has been captured. And yet, I can't help but get a weird feeling in my gut that I'm looking right at him."
"Why do you think this exactly?" I can't help but get a feeling that this won't be ending well for me.
"I think this because it's almost too convenient that another rabbit that looks suspiciously like the one that broke the law would appear randomly. If there really was a bunch of your kind being made known, why would it be that two rabbits that look almost exactly alike both appear in close time frames and not even know each other?"
She wasn't wrong, what she said was making enough sense to make me look guilty... she was unraveling this lie quickly and I couldn't immediately think of a way to disprove what she was saying.
"I don't really know how to answer that." I nervously say while trying to remain still.
"I apologize if my assumption is wrong, but this is way to convenient for my liking. I'll have to transport you to the city of Canterlot for that reason for a proper interrogation in front of the princesses."
I found myself frozen in fear. I can't really say anything to get myself out of this situation at hand, and even though I could just run, that would just prove her theory...
"Alright, I assume there isn't much I can say to convince you otherwise, but I'll go with you to Canterlot." Giving a nod, Spitfire takes a step back before glancing at Lightning. "Lightning, I want you to go and tell the others to prepare the zeppelin."
He tilted his head at this. "Why do you need the zeppelin ready? Can't we just wait for a train?"
Spitfire put on a serious look before saying "The last train to Canterlot today already left, and on the hunch that this is the criminal, we can't delay the travel."
After a disgruntled sigh Lightning did a "yes ma'm!" before leaving through the door.
The doctor, who was silently listening to what was happening, seemed to be content with all that has happened, with the same being for the nurse.
"I guess I'll be taking my medical skills somewhere else. Have a good day, Ms." He said as he took his leave with the nurse following shorty after.
With just me and Spitfire in the room, I couldn't help but reflect back to the dream with Clipped Wing. He's giving me a legitimate chance, and for some reason I still don't think I'll make it...
Am I gonna be stuck in Equestria forever?
My life back home was average, I'm not that kid with a upsetting past, bad parents, horrible friends or have a horrible sickness.
I'm not some army veteran that got saved from dying because he was teleported to Equestria. I'm not even a kid on the brink of suicide that was lucky enough to be happy in a new world...
Equestria is a neat place... no, not just neat, an amazing place!
...But it isn't my home.
Being stuck here will make me lose everything! I should have thought this through when I first went into my TV, but no, meeting colorful horses from a stupid TV show was too good for me to pass up, and now I'm probably never gonna be able to see my family again!
"What's up with you?"
I look up from my daydreaming, Spitfire seemed to have a confused look on her face...
My face feels wet. Was I crying?
"Listen, you don't have to worry so much, even if you were the criminal, the Princesses are benevolent. They won't kill you or anything."
"That's not it." I say under my breath while trying to keep my voice together. "If I get locked up, I'll lose so much that you won't even begin to imagine." Technically, I would be loosing the right to live in my world if I get locked up now.
"What would be that important to you? Family?"
Spitfires face seemed to show a lot more concern then curiosity.
"Family is part of the reason, but if I get locked up now, I'll never be able to live anywhere near where my home is ever again."
Spitfires face went from curiosity to stern in seconds. "Speaking of which, where is your home? It surely couldn't be by Equestria since no one has even heard about your bunny kind before."
I didn't reply right away, instead I just looked at her for a few seconds, my face still wet from the tears that I shed.
"My kind lives in a place you could probably never reach by normal means, no ponies live there. Just us and no one else."
"That doesn't really answer my question. And besides, if that's the case, then how did you even get here?"
Nerves were starting to kick in, I can't believe I was gonna say this.
"I got here from a portal."
"A portal?" She repeated. "Portals are old unicorn and alicorn magic, almost no modern unicorn from what I understand can make those under normal situations. You expect me to believe a race of rabbits that don't seem to have access to magic were able to make a portal to get here?"
Yeesh, I feel like I've been reading fanfictions again. "I'm not in a position to lie to you, for that reason I can't tell you anything else because telling you some other way I got here would be considered a lie."
She stared at me. Her face stern and unmoving, she was trying to read me; to see if I would do something to say that I was lying.
"Who was after you?"
This was one question I wasn't mentally preparing for, I almost didn't know what to say at first.
"I don't really know."
"Wrong answer." She got on the side of the bed to stare directly into my eyes.
"Who is after you?"
I make an agitated sigh as I continue to explain. "I seriously don't know who attacked me in the ally. I'm sorry but I can't help you there."
"No, from the look on your face, you know there are ponies after you, I'd be willing to bet you even spoke with them."
I was confused, why would she jump to that assumption? No one was actively out to get me...
Your timer starts now.
Unless...
Was she talking about the Changlings?..
My suspicion began to rise as I started to consiter if this Spitfire is fake.
"Listen, I'm sorry but I don't have any idea where you're going with this."
I could tell she was getting a bit frustrated. And from the face expressions she's was giving, she also seemed to have some sort of internal debate going on right now.
The door to the room opened again, Lightning Streak entered the room with a smile. "Alright, the zeppelin is being prepared now, we've also been given permission to take Joesph with us so long as he's resting on a bed for the entire trip."
Spitfire wasn't entirely pleased to be interrupted here, but went ahead and responded anyway. "Well if that's the case then I suppose my line of questioning is over for now. Take him to the zeppelin so we can continue this later."
As she walked by Lightning Streak, he replied with a "Yes sir!" leaving her to sigh in annoyance.
Helping me up, Lightning Streak gets me off the bed so we begin to make our way to our destination.
"So what exactly is a zeppelin?" I ask out of curiosity.
"Think of it like a boat with huge balloons on top to help it fly."
"Really?" I say in an impressed manner. "So why do the Wonderbolts have a Zeppelin?"
He gives a small laugh at this in response. "Just because we fly for a living doesn't mean we fly half way across Equestria for a quick little show. We only pull out the zeppelin for the towns that are relatively far from Cloudsdale." I suppose that makes sense in a way. Olympic athletes may train intensively, but that doesn't mean they walk to the Olympics whenever it starts.
Upon exiting the hospital though, a big crowd begins to gather around. Ponies, Griffons and any other race I probably didn't notice began to whisper to one another, a few camrea flashes even went off as well.
"Just try to ignore them, you get used to ponies taking pictures just from walking by." I couldn't really get a good look at the surroundings as I get dragged off into another big business type building before entering an elevator with Lightning Streak.
Upon the elevator doors opening, the giant blimp like vehicle is revealed to me. The boat being blue with the name S.S. Wonderboat writen on the side while the balloon part had the Wonderbolt logo on it.
"Wow." Was the only thing that escaped my mouth as I looked at it.
The boat part of the Zeppelin had at least two, maybe three floors that could fit on the inside of the boat part itself. I almost find it hard to imagine that it's just strictly for taxiing the Wonderbolts since it almost in a way reminds of a cruise ship!
"It's... so cool!" I would love to drive one of these things some day!
"Most ponies first reactions are pretty similar." Lightning bragged as if he himself owned it.
As I approached, my excitement slowly dwindled back to nervousness.
'I'm gonna have to smooth talk my way past a princess...' Reality stuck as I realized what was inevitably gonna happen.
"You okay?" Lightning asked with concernment.
I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, "never better."
As I step before the ramp, I pause before putting my right foot on the ramp to get ready to board the zeppelin. Upon entry I get greeted by Spitfire and a few other Wonderbolts that I didn't recognize besides her.
"I'll take him from here, Lightning Streak." She then gave me a stern look before continuing. "You! Follow me!" After one more quiet sigh I start following behind her only to be led all the way up to the top of the Zeppelin and into another room with a cage and what seemed to be a furnace.
"Seriously?" I say in while staring at the the cage with annoyance. I've had just about enough of being put in these things.
"Yes, now get in there! After the ship safely takes flight, I'll return to you for more lines of questioning."
She practically shoved me in as I trip upon entry and land face first into the little confinement area. Without saying another word, she left the room and went outside.
'I suppose on the bright side I'm technically getting a bit closer to The Crystal Empire.' I however stared at the ceiling while I waiting for company to return.
I found that I had dozed off to sleep while I was waiting, but how much time has passed!? I started to get worried that the Changling attack on The Crystal Empire was drawing near...
I have to tell somepony. If I don't, the city might get destroyed, or worse, taken over.
When is Spitfire supposed to come anyway? Surely the ship should be up by now.
Just to see if it was possible, I decided to see how resilient the iron bars were that were holding me back in this cage.
'Okay, one, two-' I take a step forward and try to kick the iron barred door as hard as I could... and hurt my foot in the process.
I miss having shoes.
Looking around at anything else that was in the cage, I saw a kinda small wood chair and some hay to sleep on.
"Probably should have slept on that hay instead of the floor" I say to myself as I sort of stretch my back.
The door to the room however opens, turning my head, I saw that Spitfire had returned.
Without even looking at me, she went over to the furnace and put some hay in it before lighting it on fire.
After the fire started, she took the mouthful of hay and waved it around like a torch. Words had remained not being said as she turned toward me, the fire on the straw she was holding was slowly moving toward her mouth. And with a smile, she dropped the burning plant on the wooden floor slowly causing the fire to build as the room started to get hazier from the smoke.
It was extremely obvious that this wasn't Spitefire, but the fact a Changling had infiltrated and was able to be good enough to get away with walking around as the leader of the Wonderbolts meant that this Changling was either really dumb, or really good.
But still, with nothing said, she walked out of the room causally as the fire that had started near the furnace had started to grow. The roar of the flames grew louder as my mind started to think a mile a minute.
A few initial calls for help were yelled by me, but no one came. I rammed my whole body into the cage door, but the bars remained firm. My heart was beating faster and faster as the fire drew close.
My cage was nearly surrounded by the flames as the fire was entering my cell. Tears were escaping my eyes, making my already hazy vision even worse as I began fearing what I would deem the inevitable.
I could hear over the fire a loud groun from the floor as I saw the iron furnace fall down through the floor as the boards gave out from under it. It was like a domino effect as the boards from the furnace that broke began to move towards my cage as the iron prison also fell onto the floor underneath. The landing hurt as the box cage had fallen over on its side, the bits of hay that was in it were flying around while the chair had landed next to me.
My landing wasn't pretty as I had fallen onto my side when the cage landed, effectively hurting my right arm; if not breaking it. My head was killing me as my ears began to ring. I couldn't help but notice that what had been originally the metal roof of the cage has been partially broken off from the fall. The pain in my arm grew as I climbed to my feet, but I couldn't afford to stop as the ceiling was starting to look like it would fall onto me at any moment.
I gave a push with my good arm as I felt a slight amount of give. Putting my whole body into it, I felt small movement as a shard of the roof broke off leaving a big enough hole for me to climb out.
One crucial thing though I had failed to notice was a furnace that had fallen to a close proximity to the cage. Within the moment of me climbing out, an explosion from the furnace happened leaving a hole in both the floor and wall while also effectively knocking me on my back with whitened vision and rigging ears from the sound.
I had wanted to get back up, but I just writhed in pain as I just felt myself unable to get up...
For the briefest of moments I was confused. I was on a bed, I wasn't tied down and I wasn't listening to some sort of heart monitor.
I could hear the sounds of crickets outside, perhaps it was night time? I could also hear the sounds of wheels rolling on a dirt path outside.
Was this a dream? I could have sworn I was left for dead on a burning airship. I tried moving but felt myself constrained, but upon further inspection, I was massively bandaged up. My right arm seemed to be in a cast, but torso was practically bandaged up entirely, but my legs were mostly wrapped up and my right foot seemed to have a single bandaid on it.
On my head I could feel a bandage wrapped around my forehead with my ears only feeling slightly sore.
I attempted to get up, and was able too. There wasn't too much light in the room, but after brief stumbling around, I accidentally knock over some sort of device on a type of counter.
A door opened as light filled the room.
"Carter, you're awake?" I squint my eyes for a second as I recognize the blue unicorn in front of me.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting to see you again Trixie." I could tell she was happy to see me up, but she walked over to me and ushered me back down onto the bed, and with how my body was still feeling, I happily complied.
"Trixie see's you knocked over my Music Box." She said as she levitated the radio device next to the bed.
"Heh heh... oops?" I say somewhat nervously as she just smiles in return. "Tell me Carter, what happened to you on that airship?"
I felt comfortable in the bed as I ask in return. "First can you tell me what happened while I was away? Quite honestly, I wasn't expecting to see you again."
"The Great And Powerful Trixie asked first... but will comply with your demands anyway." She sat down next to the bed as she began.
"Well... I suppose a good place to start would be after we got separated."