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// 33 - Prison Break: Take Two? 
// Story: Synch 
// by sunnypack 
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I guess when you get to be a jailbird you start to philosophise about life and such.

I wanted to become ‘hard-core’. Was it that obvious I’d never been in jail?

So I philosophised. Because sometimes I like to do that, especially when I was bored, or locked up, or bored and locked up. I thought back to how I ended up in this dingy dungeon. The stone made walls hadn’t replied when I had asked that question out loud. Shrugging, I decided I might as well recount my journey to here.

The journey had been exciting. Solid had waved to me across the abyss when we were riding in flying chariots. At least she did until she was smacked upside the head by Iron who didn't appreciate having to escort his friend into custody. He kept a sharp eye on her as if she would somehow take apart a cart with some innocuous action or another.

I hadn't known the circumstances surrounding how Solid and Iron had crashed into us. The guards refused to talk about it and they had silenced Solid whenever it seemed she would impart any information, no matter how small, about ‘the incident’ as it had been collectively referred to ‘post-event’.

This had sparked my curiosity but I had no means from which to extract said information. I’m sure with enough cake, Solid would willingly recount the story but alas, I lacked either the goods or the means to create cake. I had thought about Pinkie. She probably could mix together a cake in an instant, she seemed like the type to be really good with sugary treats. Come to think about it… I saw her licking a cupcake. Where did she get that?

Riding in a flying chariot was a once in a lifetime experience. The horizon was clearly visible and the grassy knolls, hills and forests stretched out before us in crazy patterns. The guards had to pull me back from the edge for fear I’d tip myself off the edge of the moving vehicle, which I had to admit, would be instantly fatal. It didn’t stop me from trying to see everything by whipping my head from side to side. I probably looked like a demented hamster. 

I was fascinated with the flight of the pegasi. The two teams of pegasi pulling the chariots and the pegasi forming the fleet around us had different styles of flying. For example the ones pulling the chariot seemed to also sympathetically run (possibly habit from pulling things on a ground?) and the ones to the side, as part of the formation, were just flying superman style.

The chariot also had wheels that spun as we flew, probably due to wing drag or some hidden mechanic. I felt like I was a child again looking at a spinning top. Just it never ended and stopped. To me, as a scientist, the world was full wonders. I used to see the complexity in everything and just wonder in awe. Here in Equestria, so many things were new so many things to discover and explore.

I had to admit, Equestria was beautiful, in an alien sense. There were no towering spires of humanity’s architecture, or the steady streams of cars, no lights from blast wave laser optical lines, no intricate power lines crisscrossing the landscape, no neon, no LEDs, no mass of people or crowds. It was just greenery and nature all around. It both fascinated and freaked me out.

It was like I had been cast back to the feudal age. We had parks, we had forest but they were all contained and I hadn't seen much of them. In fact the whole environment had been unsettling the moment I had arrived. Back in the beginning I had been too busy to fully appreciate nature. You tend to ignore more than appreciate your surroundings when they were trying to kill you. Still the water had been great, the vegetables though plain, amazing and everything seemed to be so much more here.

I hadn't had much time to think about it. Now, I had thought I had much more time so I had decided to reflect on recent events. My thoughts though, had kept bouncing on random tangents so I had difficulty trying to keep my mind on one topic. I had stopped looking after seeing a beautiful sunset usher in nightfall.

The novelty of flying had worn off quickly as the chill seeped through my dirty and tattered clothes. I hadn't had a bath for ages. I probably looked like a monster. I had grinned grimly. It probably didn't help my case that I looked so horrific.

There wasn't much else that had happened during the flight so I'll keep it brief. After seeing Canterlot, which was an amazing piece of architecture that I wasn’t able to see much of due to the nightfall. The lights though, had unexpectedly reminded me of the city lights and it brought a lump to my throat. Unceremoniously, I had been quickly ushered into a gigantic white castle through a side entrance and into a cell where I had been deposited rudely.

Back to my philosophical exposition, I just pondered the differences in culture.

What did people do without technology? It was simply hard to imagine. I had always thought they would live very difficult and trying lives. They'd be dying of diseases, with a lack of medical advancements and diagnostic tools. They would be fighting mere pitiful crop yields without selective breeding or genetic modification or pesticides or the like. They would be lonely without the fast and quick communication that connected the world.

They didn't seem unhappy… They seemed satisfied. It irked me to no end.

How can someone be so satisfied without the age of technology? How could they be so lacklustre in their push to greater and greater heights? How could-

How could they be so happy? Was it just that ignorance was truly bliss? Or was I missing something?

Too many questions. Too many questions. So much self-doubt.

For me, Synch had always been a goal that consumed my life. Before that I had nothing. Before Synch, I drifted. Was I really doing it for Synch? Was I really doing it for the people? Was I just doing it for myself?

Troubled by these questions I drifted into a fitful sleep, determined to find out the answers in due time.

In my sleep I had another dream.

A dream that had frightened me to the core.