I rolled over once more, slowly opening my eyes. The dull pain was still humming like someone had wedged a weak cattle prod into my spine. As I slowly struggled to keep my eyes open, I glanced around one more time, hoping that the previous events were all a dream.
So... yesterday was real? Was it even yesterday? In the confines of this box, there is no passage of time. Everything is just one undefined blur. I was still tired, but the concrete was too uncomfortable to sleep upon. I instead lumbered to my hooves and began to slowly pace around the cell.
Is this death? My thoughts fell back to that depressing topic again. In this void, do I really exist? Yes. I must. Here I am thinking, an act that only I can do for myself. How could I not exist and think at the same time... The ideas just rolled off of my head with seemingly little effort. I had clearly thought about this topic many times before.
So, if I do exist, then this place must be somewhere, and that if I got here, there is always a hope of getting out. If I can go from point a to point b, then there is always a way to get back to point a. It's just a matter of finding a way... A glimmer of hope struck my heart and for the first time since I woke up here. I actually felt hopeful. I will escape.
However, the jaws and hooves of a pony are not built for cleaving metal and concrete, so I would have to sit here and wait,until the path was made clear to me. In my quiet contemplation, my thoughts fell towards my body. "No wings... no horn," I muttered, glancing at my sides. I am just a simple earth pony it seems... How I am jealous of the pegasi and the unicorns. Certainly the magic or flight could be used to get me out of here. But alas, I appear to just be a simple pony whose only talent is getting myself stuck in voids of space and thinking. Not particularly useful talents... My heart sank once more; I had no way to escape, unless somehow my thinking and cunning had already paved a way.
My thoughts were still stuck on my body. My body is useless... it would seem. Just a husk for my thoughts with no particular use except to allow me to move my thoughts around the world. How useless it is that I don't have wings or a horn. The things I could do with those... I simply could not get it out of my mind. Every thought was piercing and aimed straight at my plain body.
Imagine... with the wings of a pegasus, I could hide on the ceiling and trick the guard into opening the gate, and in a moment of surprise dart through and fly towards freedom. And once free, I would have the freedom of the entire world. I could fly where ever I wanted and be free of everything. It suddenly hit me. I never loved not because I failed to find love, but because I didn't want love. I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of being alone so much that the experience of loneliness was just something that I accepted and had to tolerate. However, it still left a nagging emptiness in my heart. Maybe it isn't worth it... being alone. Maybe I could find more reward if I found another just like me. We could travel the world and exchange ideas together. My heart fluttered a little and a hint of a smile graced my face. Yes, this is what I need.
I stared at the ground for a bit, examined particles of dirt and dust, hoping to find something inspirational. Maybe a pattern, maybe just an oddity. I stared at it for what felt like a good 15 minutes, and found nothing of interest. I paced back and forth a bit when I heard a stone get kicked beneath my hooves. Where did this? I didn't see this before. I picked up the stone between my hooves and closely examined it. It was much different than the concrete of the cell, and when I held it, I felt a radiating sense of inspiration. As I looked closely into the stone, my jaw dropped. Is that... Equestria?
The face of the stone was a magnificent iridescent crystal and etched into it was a map, with a small, barely discernible script that read "Equestria". The crystal picked up the dull light and managed to radiate a pure beauty to it. If this stone can radiate hope and inspiration in the darkness... imagine how it must look in the light of day. A strong longing came over me as I clutched the stone closely. "Equestria... I will find you once more, I will escape this prison," I proclaimed in the darkness, with only the void as my witness.