//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0 
// Story: The Pony Prisoner 
// by BioniclesaurKing4t2 
//------------------------------//

Thunder cracked and rolled as a lone storm cloud hung in the sky over Canterlot.
On the streets below, Twilight Sparkle was trotting with a purpose down a long empty road towards the center of the city.  Or maybe there were ponies going about their business, she didn’t notice.  She wasn’t looking.  Passing swiftly between the tall buildings, she turned down a side path that led her up to Canterlot’s main palace by a less direct route that few ever used.  She wanted as few formality interferences as possible.
Standing at his post at the palace’s side entrance, a gray unicorn guard looked up to see her approaching.  He recognized her, and was about to unhook the rope bar and move it aside for her when the hook became covered in a purple glow and unhooked and moved itself aside.  Twilight walked in past the guard without looking up.
Inside, she walked across the large entrance hall up to the large staircase and took it to the landing before turning up the smaller staircase that led right.
She walked briskly down a long hallway lined with stained glass windows.  The rays of light shining through each window cast itself upon her face in turn, each revealing her determined expression and unwavering stare.
She burst through the doors to Princess Celestia’s throne room as another thunderclap echoed from the storm cloud above, finding the Princess sitting at a desk placed in front of her throne, sipping tea from a fine china teacup held with her magic, not in the least bit bothered by Twilight’s sudden entrance.
Twilight strode right across the room and up to the Princess.  Celestia gently set her teacup down on a saucer as Twilight began pacing back and forth in front of her desk, ranting about something that seemed to have her quite upset as another clap of thunder came from overhead.  While pacing, Twilight used her magic to take out a rolled-up scroll letter with a red band and golden horseshoe seal holding it shut and threw it down onto Celestia’s desk as another thunderclap echoed, and then slammed her hoof angrily onto the desk next to the letter, causing the teacup to jump, breaking the saucer underneath it when it landed to coincide with another echo of thunder from the overactive storm cloud.  Twilight turned and stormed out.  Celestia only silently stared as her now former student trotted through the door and back down the hall.
As Twilight left through the palace gates, a pony stepped out from the sidelines into her path and stopped, but Twilight paid him no mind and marched around him, turning down the street.  The pony stared after her.
As she headed back through the city again, Twilight found herself trotting behind another pony oddly similar to the first, and went into a gallop to pass him.  The pony stared after her.
In a room somewhere, a dull white hoof pressed a single key on a typewriter over and over again, typing a line of ‘X’s diagonally across a photo of Twilight.
Twilight continued weaving at full speed through the streets of Canterlot, making her way to a destination she knew well.  She was so focused on reaching her destination, even, that she didn’t notice that the pony she’d passed earlier had just made the same last five turns that she had.
The dull white hoof continued typing more ‘X’s, making a second diagonal line across the photo that formed an ‘X’ with the first.
In a white room with endless rows of bookshelves, a pale lavender book floated along sideways through the air, stopping in front of an empty spot in one of the shelves.  The blank cover opened, the ‘X’d photo of Twilight and her name appearing on the first page, and more information writing itself into the rest of the book as the cover slammed back shut, an image of her cutie mark flashing onto the front.  The book floated forward and slid into the space.  Onto the spine of the book appeared the word, written vertically, “BANISHED”.  Just like every other book on the shelf.

Twilight


Sparkle


in

Twilight ran across the small bridge over the river, her destination in sight.  She ran up the two smaller staircases and landings before reaching the curving staircase that led up the side of the tower where she lived.  Not far behind her was the pony she hadn’t noticed following her.  She burst through the doors and ran inside, letting them swing shut as the pony behind her began slowly climbing the lower staircases.
Twilight scanned her multi-floored room and the assortment of unusual pieces of equipment it held, then used magic to pull her saddlebag from beside a large bookcase on the other side of the room and throw it down open in front of her.

the Pony


Prisoner

She began pulling together an assortment of items from around her room with magic, folding a few of them together for ease of packing.
The pony she hadn’t noticed was slowly approaching the top of the curved staircase.
Twilight dropped item after item into her saddlebag, when all of a sudden a smoky fume began shooting through the keyhole on her door.  She flipped shut the cover of the saddlebag and latched it before breathing in something she knew wasn’t normal air.
Her head jumped up and her eyes looked over towards the giant window that occupied the entire far wall as her vision began to blur.  Lightheaded, she swayed from side to side as the tall, elaborate white and gold towers and spires of Canterlot faded in and out, stumbling back before collapsing over onto a conveniently located cushion as everything faded to black…


Twilight slowly pushed her eyelids open, a blurry picture of her room coming back into view.  She struggled to her hooves, still swaying a bit, and shakily made her way over to her giant window-for-a-wall.  Steadying herself in front of it, she looked out through the wide window.  She could only stare.  She didn’t know how to react.
Outside her window lay row after row of beige wooden houses, the framing planks still visible on the outside, each with a yellow thatched straw roof.  Needless to say, it wasn’t Canterlot.