//------------------------------//
// Freaks 
// Story: Puzzle 
// by memecat101 
//------------------------------//

	"Hey!" A voice called, awaking Puzzle from her long sleep. "Hey, you might want to get up!" Puzzle looked around, to see only a white room. No pony in sight. "Yo, get up! You don't want to be here when this place becomes ground zero!" Puzzle jumped from her bed and glanced up. A figure could be seen inside the vent.

"H-hello?" Puzzle asked, as the vent rustled. "Yea, what is it?" The figure asked, as the vent was pulled back, and a face appeared. Puzzle yelped, and took a step back in fright. This pony, they, they weren't very pony-like. A large beak adorned the creatures face, and stringy light grey hair fell over green eyes. 

The apparent pony-bird hybrid jumped down into Puzzle's room. The creature was a pegasus, and looked to be a mare. Puzzle looked the pony up and down. "What?" The creature asked, her light brown coat twitching under Puzzle's gaze. The creature yawned and a pair of large wings unfurled.

Puzzle had seen many pegasi in the facility, guards and doctors, but none of them had wings this big. "Well, let's just get this over with." The pony-bird said. She held out a hoof. "Hello Miss, I'm Bird!" As Puzzle reached to shake her hoof, she paused momentarily. The clear outline of shackles was imprinted on her coat, yet Puzzle still shook her hoof. 

"I'm Puzzle." She said. "Well, Puzzle," Bird said, her eyes glinting with mischief. "We really should be going." Puzzle tilted her head. "Going? Going where?" Bird smiled, or, at least tried too. "Well, you don't want to be around here in half an hour." Bird grabbed Puzzle in her forelegs, and jumped up, spreading her wings, and flew through the vent opening. Puzzle opened her mouth to scream, but Bird, placed a hoof over her mouth.

Bird slowed down and stopped over another vent. She looked through it, before rasping it with a hoof. "Celestia works for Nightmare Moon." She whispered in the vent. A rock hit the vent. Bird's eyes twinkled, and she removed the vent cover. Bird grabbed Puzzle and dove inside. 

Puzzle gasped as she fell, only to be let down softly. Onto dirt. Dirt. Puzzle opened her eyes slowly, and was met with a sight that made her eyes widen in surprise. A large leafy jungle surrounded them, with a small pond a few hooves away. Puzzle was just about to open her mouth to ask Bird why they were there, when she was knocked down.

Puzzle lost her breath, and her sight was turned white, before it focused on a face in front of her. "Who are you?" A male voice asked. Bird smiled and threw herself on the stallion. "Jax!" 'Jax' lost his threatening demeanor and grinned. "Bird!" Jax ran over to Bird and tackled her to the ground. 

They rolled across the ground and stopped against a tree, laughing all the way. "I missed you, you reptilian goof!" Bird said, grinning at Jax. Puzzle let the two have their moment, while she studied Jax. He wasn't like a regular earth-pony. His green coat was covered in patches of scales, and his eyes were two different shades of grey. As he hugged Bird, his spiky green hair bounced.

"Um..." Puzzle started, unsure if she should interrupt the two's moment. "B-bird?" She asked, shuffling on her hooves. "Yeah?" The beaked pony asked, turning to look at her. "Didn't you say that we had to be going?" Bird stopped smiling, before pushing Jax off of her. "Oh, no!" She cried. "We've been here too long!" Jax looked at her in shock. 

"You didn't..." He started. "I did!" She almost screamed. "Jax, grab Puzzle, we need to go now!" Jax walked over to Puzzle and threw her over his back. Puzzle squeaked as Bird picked Jax up and flew them into the vent. It was cramped, now that there was three ponies, but Bird just started moving down the vent. "Jax, come on!" She whispered. 

Jax nodded, and pushed Puzzle in front of him. She was confused for a moment, before deciding it was best to just go along with them. As Puzzle and the two moved through the vents, she could hear yelling from vent covers as she passed over them. 

"Bird!" Jax whispered over Puzzle. "We need to move faster!" Bird nodded, and let Puzzle and Jax pass her, before opening her wings a little, and flapping them. She pushed the two forwards, faster than when they were just crawling. After what felt like hours, the vent opened up to a large cylinder opening. 

Puzzle stopped the group's movement by pushing her hooves against the walls. "Stop!" She yelled. Bird stopped her flapping, and looked over Jax to Puzzle. "What is it, Puzz?" Bird asked. Puzzle ignored the nickname. "Um, there's a chamber." Jax smiled, and nodded to Bird. "Well, we should investigate!"

Bird chuckled and started to flap her wings again. Puzzle tried to stay put, but the force of Jax's pushing and Bird's wings pushed the trio into the vent. Puzzle screamed as they were tossed and turned int he air, until the trio landed near the bottom, where a large fan spun dangerously fast.

"Are you sure you set it?" Jax asked Bird, yelling over the fan's roaring. Bird nodded, and grinned. "Set what?" Puzzle asked, only to be thrown back into the air as the cylinder shook violently. She screamed as she fell towards the fan, squeezing her eyes shut. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity in the vent, Puzzle felt a cool metal grate pressing softly against her coat.

She opened her eyes, and gasped at what she saw. It was outside! Not outside like the indoor gardens, but actual, legitimate outside! "H-how?" She began, her voice shaking. It smelled so different, and yet, so inviting. Bird and Jax arrived soon after, and Bird used her beak to loosen the screws, and kick out the grate.

As Puzzle stood on grass for the first time, looking out into real trees, she saw Bird and Jax in front of her, and knew, she had finally found her own little band of freaks...