//------------------------------// // Longing To Leave // Story: When The World Bets Against You // by Tie RoamingHooves //------------------------------// “TWIIIIILIIIGHT!!!” The human turned pony was panicking. This body wasn’t fast enough to lose her pursuers. Of course it would be her luck that in her haste she had almost led them to the mountain that had been serving as her home for the last two weeks. She learned a bit during her time having to travel into “Saddle Arabia”. She has stolen the body of one “Twilight Sparkle” who is apparently some sort of celebrity among ponies. The reason is unknown to Ashley but it is all the more reason to be extra cautious being that it meant someone important has noticed. And of course that meant that those extra guards at the seaports and everywhere else in “Equestria” were specifically looking for her. Great. This realization just ruined her already crappy day. Ashley veered left around a rock that faded into existence in the blowing sand of the sandstorm. She surprised herself when she stood on her hind legs and laid flat against the wall. She never expected this body to be so flexible. The pony chasing her ran straight past her. For a moment, she thought she saw a rainbow trailing the pony. Ashley took this moment to run with everything that this body had to offer. She barely noticed that she was slightly whimpering as she bounded away but she didn’t really care. Being captured spelled doom for mankind and that was not going to happen. She really didn’t want have to hurt these creatures. It went against everything she stood for but she’d do it in a heartbeat if she needed too. She turned around and saw no one trialing her and almost laughed with joy but didn’t when she tripped over a rock and tumbled down an incline into a cave. Conveniently it was the one she’d been living in during her stay in the desert. She tumbled and rolled, head over heal-... er... hooves, until she landed flat on her chest with her legs splayed out on all sides. She stayed silent and unmoving for the next fifteen minutes to make sure no one heard her. She then picked herself up and laughed uncontrollably for a couple of seconds. Ashley regained her composure and she walked over and found a lantern in the low light pouring in from the caves entrance. She turned it on and illuminated the cavern. The cave wasn’t anything special. There were sharp stalagmites hanging from the ceiling and they were a rusty orange color which matched that of the rocks in the mountain. The whole thing honestly looked like a giant ice cream scoop took a large scoop out of the mountain and then another a little forward and to the right leaving this cavern and a ledge just before the entrance. There were forest green metal crates strung about the cave with various wires laced between a generator and various electronics on top of the aforementioned crates. She glanced over her shoulder at the entrance to the cave for a couple of seconds taking note that sandstorm suddenly stopped. A chill went up her spine and she quickly made her way to the mouth of the cave and peered out of it for a while. The body snatching human saw nothing but rolling sand dunes and some short mountains on the horizon. The sun wasn’t high in the sky. With a quick check of the compass strapped to the mares leg she concluded it was well past mid day. She turned around and walked back down the incline into her cave, blaming paranoia for the chill, finding her way to a wooden crate with a silver box with five buttons lying on top of it. Ashley levitated the box to herself without having to utter any kind of word or phrase. It was weird: the way that she could perform magic in this body was just so much... easier. No incantations or preparations that she knew of for simple things like levitation. Just with a certain thought process she could levitate anything. Even teleportation was childsplay in this body. All she needed to do is have a visible line of sight with where she wanted to go and she would pop into existence to that spot at will. No runes or words required. But with how she learned magic... this was a bit “unnatural” for her tastes and she put her use of magic to a minimum because of it. It just felt weird and almost wrong li- “OW! My eye!” she yelled suddenly while clutching the eye in question Ashley’s audio recorder found its way to her head and poked her in her eye while she was lost in thought. Looking up and opening her un-poked eye to see an audio recorder in front of her made her chuckle at her own stupidity. “See, Ash, you’ve gone and started attacking yourself now...” she paused. “...and now you’re talking to yourself again, too.” she finished with a sigh. She looked around and saw nothing for her to do and then yawned. She realized how much gathering food and running from locals has taken out of her. “Yup. I think I deserve a nap right about now. Maybe I can get some of the crazy out of my head.” She made her way over to the small cot on the far side of the cave. It was standard issue from the U.S. Army meaning it was notoriously uncomfortable. She wiggled out of her desert parka (that was modified for quadrupeds) and layed it over the crate that she had dubbed “The Great Box of Unusable Crap” and took her place on the cot. The scientists back on earth had sent a bunch of crap for her to the desert two days before she even arrived in the first place. In her opinion, they were a bunch of numbskulls. They were lucky the stuff wasn’t taken by the locals with how close the portal dropped the crates to the town. She had to drag each one the whole mile and a half back to the cave when they did that and she was going the give the one who authorized that a good piece of her mind when she got back... that is if she got back. Ashley realized that she was still carrying her audio recorder and then brought it closer to her face. She applied more force towards the record button and it clicked meaning that it was recording. She sighed and stood back up while mentally laughing at herself for what she was about to do. She stood up on the cot and walked in a tight circle before settling down wrapped around herself slightly. She performed the same ritual her dog, Kat (as he was name ironically), did before he decided to lie down anywhere. She found this the easiest and most comfortable position to sleep in while stuck in this body. She raised her head and started speaking. “Day 25...” she began. “You guys back home already know why I’m keeping this log so I’ve decided to spare myself the task of explaining a bunch of technical bull crap. Something significant did happen today. I was chase by some of the locals. They must have recognized the body I’m in at the moment which means I need to be extra careful from here on out because my hunch that somebody noticed was proven correct. I lost them after I almost lead them to this cave but all in all, I’m still fine.” she said with a chuckle. “ Oh... I started talking to myself again...” Ashley’s tone dropped to a somber level. “I don’t know whether it’s me going crazy... or if it’s because I’m lonely, hell I’m no psychiatrist but I know one you guys have a team of them workin’ to see if I’m ‘fit’ to continue this mission... Huh.. I am pretty lonely now that I think about it but I guess I can expect to wait a bit longer, right? You guys are already late...” Ashley yawned again and stretched a bit before settling in again. “Well guys, I need to catch a bit of shut eye but if you all decide to stop stalling and come get me, you know where I am... This is Ashley Sebelius, signing off.” she finished before another light yawn escaped her lips. The unicorn levitated the audio recorder over to a monitor about two crates away from the cot she was resting on connected a wire from it to the audio recorder. After a minute, the screen read, “UPLOAD COMPLETE. AWAITING SIGNAL”. Ashley sighed and put her head on her hooves and closed her eyes before promptly falling asleep. During this transition, she had failed to notice the pair of eyes watching her from just behind a pillar near the entrance.