I walk through the corridor accompanied by the sounds of hooves, the tiled walls have been replaced by a uniform wooden pattern so smooth that I feel the desire to touch the white beauty.
The change in environment made the very annoying echo that was part of the previous area disappear, if only I didn't feel the ceiling rubbing against my hair with almost every step, even though I'm leaning forward slightly.
Just relax, after our doctor examines you, you will be able to go out. Starlight slowly says to me as she carries my hand on top of her head like a tick for me to keep my balance.
I don't say anything, we've already had this debate, I know she's not taking me to the doctor because she's worried about my health.
It never ceases to amaze me how empty all the corridors are, no decorations, no windows, just doors and not a single creature anywhere.
Even the lighting looks like it's going to disappear at any moment.
When my support notices me looking around every hallway and open door, she speaks quietly, almost in a whisper.
"Everyone was evacuated, only a few of them remained here and I hope we don't run into them, I think ponies so stressed from what's happening outside because of the war, probably wouldn't survive the sight of an almost two-meter creature that looks like it captured me and led me down the corridor in their safe sanctuary"
" Wouldn't it be better to summon me in some isolated place where no one is? I look questioningly at starlight
"That seems stupid to me" Starlight snorts and continues.
"Why would we waste a room with reinforced walls and a platform made of rare materials that is supposed to be almost indestructible because we don't know what will appear on it" She says ironically with one raised eyebrow looking directly at me.
I understood the hint but it didn't work for me.
"So why did you build it right next to a residential area?
Which almost seemed impossible, starlight raised her eyebrows even higher and I feel the slap of her tail on my back.
" Well, because we absolutely knew that the first instinct of a creature that appeared on the platform would be to break through a wall that was not prepared for such a case at all and it was certainly not the strongest wall in the room, prepared to protect civilians" Her wide eyes flash and the mouth trembles with laughter.
"Well sure, who would do such a thing" My sudden ironic smirk is replaced by a deep laugh, similar to starting an ancient diesel atmospheric engine.
My laughter didn't even last two seconds and I was already knocked over by a purple flood of mane with a blue beam in it that covered my mouth with a hoof.
"I said don't raise your voice" She whispers with her mouth a centimeter from my ear.
Starlight?
It came from the end of the corridor, not far from us.
"I admit, this wooden floor is much more pleasant than the cold Stone floor" I say as I take off the small animal and look in the direction of the questioner at the end of the corridor.
Startled by the ease with which I picked her up, Starlight stares for a moment in the direction I placed her, Like a soft toy.
Starlight! It came from the already running pony directly towards us.
My sudden rise to my feet is noticed by starlight, who stares at me for a moment when she notices a pony running directly towards us, white cloak and glowing pink horn ready to attack.
One look was enough for me to recognize an old acquaintance.
"Hello Twilight, I'm Tropy, nice to meet you" I humbly say out loud for her to hear me with a slight smile on my face.
"Everything is fine" Starlight joins me.
Stunned princess transitions from a sprint to a trot, still with a look of disbelief on her face.
"Everything is fine" She repeats when she sees that her teacher hesitates.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am the princess and the head of Equestria, welcome to our land" She says unnecessarily loudly with a fake smile, while showing off her beautiful feathered wings.
"Now follow me" Tight and formal Twilight leaves in the direction she came.
After a long walk through the maze of corridors and staircases, our trio arrive at a white steel door, with two yellow vertical stripes, deeply embedded in the white wall.
"Go in" The white coat turns to me, after opening the massive steel door.
“Right now! She's staring at me with Purple sparkles, her expression stern.
"Twilight, We have to g......" Princess interrupts Starlight.
"You have your work to do, you need to stand in for me while I'm gone" She pointed her hoof at the still dirty and bloody pony with an impatient expression.
Stunned by the angry princess, I watch my surroundings and prepare for the upcoming fight.
Starlight notices this and walks up to me and pulls the remains of my T-shirt with her mouth to kneel down to meet her sweet gaze.
"You don't have to worry, Twilight is a bit harsh but not malicious" She says with an overly cute smile to convince me.
I cross my arms while kneeling and think silently with a disbelieving expression, staring deep into the blue pools, which blink a few times and after a short silence, sincerity appears on her face.
"Everything will be fine, I promise" Starlight says my words a little contritely, but you can see that she means it completely sincerely.
I place a faintly glowing hand on Starlight's head and speak.
"If anyone else said that" I pet her until she presses against my hand like a kitten in pleasure, closes her eyes and smiles.
Stunned by what she just saw, Twilight doesn't even flinch as I stoop and walk through a low door into a mysterious, dimly lit room.
"What are you waiting for, go and do your duty, now!" The princess shouts to her apprentice, who leaves indecisively.
"Take your clothes off and sit on the bench" The cloak commands as it turns on the room's lights.
"Is a T-shirt enough? I ask in the meantime as I tear the shreds of the ruined T-shirt off of me.
"I don't know what it is, take it all off" Twilight says without looking at me as she examines the device built into the wall with the front covered in large and small displays and a bunch of cables sticking out of the stern.
"Is it necessary? I say, unwilling to expose myself like a test animal to an intelligent creature.
"You're wasting my time! Where's the problem?" A pink glow flares up, tearing off the remnants of my clothing and shattering large leather military boots as she approaches me with brightly colored cables.
“I'm not saying it'll kill me, but my race isn't comfortable being naked,” I say sitting up as Twilight attaches cables with sticky ends to me.
"That's interesting, tell me more about your race, what's the name of your race? where do you live? What do you eat? What are your hobbies? How advanced is your Military? She talks while wrapping cables around me without looking me in the eyes.
I frown at that last question and a lot of images of ponies walking through magical portals and occupying our planet start running through my head.
"My race is human, the plural is people, we build stone houses, entertainment is a very broad term, but I would say that most people enjoy watching the suffering of others" I calmly answer, while the pink magic controls the machine I'm connected to and emits values to the monitors with beeps and buzzes.
"Continue" Twilight says studying the screens.
"Humans are omnivores, we eat anything that moves or grows out of the ground, but meat is mostly the basis of our diet, actually I should say what not........" I stop my monologue when I notice a stiff twilight staring at me like a dangerous animal.
"If you're afraid I might eat you, you're right." I laugh at my joke and watch the pony's reaction before me.
I was about to speak again when Twilight turns and goes back to the screens.
Without a word, the machine turns off and the pink glow, like little hands, removed all the different colored cables from me at once.
“Why was I attached to that machine?
"Just a test to see if you don't carry dangerous or unknown diseases, the machine didn't detect anything wrong" She replies and walks away.
"Like I said, I'm not comfortable being naked, can I get something to wear? I'll talk while I put at least a piece of cloth over my crotch.
"That can be arranged later, we have more important things to do now, come on" She sits down, next to a low stone that looks like a halved boiled egg and the edge with a 20cm thick bar all around.. in all matte white a room made of such smooth material that it seems unreal to me.
I get up with a rag between my legs and crouched down, I walk under the low ceiling, past various devices and equipment full of tables, like in a laboratory for the production of living creatures.
I sit down on a small round cushion in white, at a relatively large table in relation to the room, which reaches exactly above my thighs, and I wonder why the board is so thick, what is the table for? And how did they even get here?
"Alright, I'll explain where you are and what's going on" The concentrated pony speaks as she magically transfers a pile of books and scrolls to the table, unable to pay attention to me.
"Starlight already told me" I say watching the stunned princess. "Aaaah..ha..ha..ha...that's nice of her..." Twilight utters heavily as she tries to suppress her anger.
"Is something wrong? I'll ask.
"No! It can't last and she screams, then slams her hooves into the table with all her might, but it doesn't budge as if it's been welded.
"It doesn't matter now," The red-faced Purple Pony calms down.
"So now that you know everything, let's skip all of this and get to the point, are you able and willing to help us with our cause?" Twilight says resignedly, once again cleaning up all the documents except for one small stack of documents.
“Are you able and willing to bring me back from where you took me? I deliberately ask, ignoring her question with a serious expression.
“Able, yes,.......but willing.....? With a shrug and a smile on her face.
Her response disgusted me so much that a deep, long sigh escaped my throat and filled the room, leaving me speechless with my head in my hands, my elbows resting on the cold table.
I swear that if this debate continues like this, I will not hold back and will walk through the building through every wall.
I think in VERY slowly fading anger.
After a moment of silence, I calm down a bit, but the atmosphere is still too tense, I feel like yelling at her about what's wrong with her, but I can't afford to do that to her.
she's not my princess, but she's still the highest ranking authority that demands respect.
Plus, she currently rules the entire empire, so it wouldn't be wise to argue with her over something stupid.
I'm just sorry that Twilight is not at all like Starlight described her to me, you could say that it's almost the opposite and if she's a bitch just for me, to gain my respect, then it's going to end badly.
"Back on topic" The pony sitting across from me interrupts my thoughts and I raise my head from my hands.
"I am willing to make a deal with you, I have seen a clear demonstration of your power, I believe you will be useful to us and for your help I will return you home" With hooves under her chin, Twilight tries to recruit me.
I ignore the urge to ask how she knows my abilities and join the debate with an already minor twinkle in my eye.
"That would be fair if I were here of my own free will! I'm almost shouting and trying to lower the volume of my speech, with crossed arms and a stern, scowling expression, while on my right hand glowing colors are furiously spilling across the hexagon field, from from my fingertips to my collarbone and shoulder blade as I lose control of my emotions again from the absurdity of the deal and the accumulated stress.
"I understand if it seems unfair to you, but you have no other choice, you won't come back without my help" The princess responds calmly and sits straight on her leather pillow, hoping that I will give up.
As I slowly lose my self-control with the urge to break the table in half, jump on the pony in front of me and do the same with her body, Twilight continues her speech.
“Well then, tell me what you want in return for fighting for me?” The pony says calmly, aware of the danger without showing it.
But I can't hear anymore, I'm consumed with rage and I'm fighting furiously for control of my body, my field of vision is slowly turning red, the rainbow on my hand is flying like water constantly crashing against a cliff at tremendous speed, my heart is pounding in a fit of rage, without the only chance to calm down.
I've had enough, to hell with princesses, to hell with war, to hell with all of you, you call me here with such pain that one even thinks about suicide, there is no way back.
Thoughts rush through my head aggressively, with ever-increasing rage I grab onto the table to keep from falling with wide bloodshot eyes.
They kidnap me and then blackmail me to help them, no..NO..NO!!! IT ENDS HERE, I'LL END IT.....................?
I'm jolted out of my thoughts by a deafening blast, so loud that Twilight jumps away with her wings taut like springs from the table and covers her ears.
I watch her for a while, with the anger disappearing and the ringing in my ears, I notice that I'm holding a piece of stone table in my hands, which I'm staring at absently.
As soon as the Pincess hesitantly sits back down at the table, my sanity and self-awareness return, I see that I have indeed broken the stone half-circle off the table that I had until now in my hands.
It seemed massive enough to withstand the impact of a fully loaded truck.
Twilight just stares in shock at the massive shard I placed on top of the rest of the broken table.
"Sorry, I got a little lost in my thoughts" I say meekly towards the literally staring pony.
"It's not possible" Twilight blurts out after a while
"that table was made of stone that even the most experienced craftsman could not work, no one has ever made a scratch on it" says the still stunned princess.
When I look at the table now, it's really just a gray oval stone with protrusions, dimples, and the top is beautifully straight and smooth, like when a geode is cut open.
I didn't notice it before, but it has a beautiful design, like a light gray island washed by dark waves in the middle of a lake bordered by white cliffs, now only 3/4 of the way
now see the brilliant white broken bottom of the gray lake.
"It's a beautiful stone" I say, running my hand over the perfectly smooth surface of the stormy lake as I put the rest of the table aside.
"Indeed" Twilight agreed.
"I'll fight for you when we declare our allegiance to each other and you send word to my friends that I'm fine" Now completely calm and fully sane, I caress with a pleasantly cold stone.
"What do you mean?" asks the princess.
"It's simple, you'll swear on your life that you'll try to do whatever I ask of you and I'll do the same, that'll be a trust and an unbreakable contract between us that binds us as long as the war lasts or one of us dies" I briefly explain my idea
Twilight thinks.
I can't do that, regardless of the fact that he's a complete stranger, so the princess can't promise her life..........although, but the price for Equestria is low and I would lay down my life for it.
What if he can't win the war?
I swear my life to someone who becomes just a private soldier and then what?
I will be the laughing stock of the whole country, and myself.
What if he orders me to do something that will annoy me and humiliate me?
"You probably didn't understand me" I address the panicking pony.
"I'm listening" Twilight replies and sits still with effort.
"I said you would swear your allegiance to me and I to you, neither you nor I have superior power over the other, it's about creating a balance" Seeing Twilight watching me with growing calm I continue.
"It's not a trick to control you, I'll give you an example: best friends who always help each other even if it doesn't always pay off, but they do it because they feel it's their duty,
even with the part that if they're in danger, they're willing to put their own lives on the line for protection.” I watch the understanding grow on her face as I explain the idea of an oath to her.
"I understand, it's not about domination, but about achieving the trust of two individuals who don't know each other and don't trust each other" She looks at me with a knowing expression.
"I'm still against it because of my position, but it's the fastest way to solve our situation, I'll go with your suggestion, show me how it's done" The outspoken leader of her empire and even with hints of resistance, she is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of her subjects.