• Published 29th Jul 2014
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Synch - sunnypack



Dive into a new world with Synch, a revolutionary device that interfaces with your brainwaves. Synch is taking the world by storm. Take a vacation. Find adventure. Unfortunately for one human though, he is about to have a never-ending adventure...

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34 - The Canterlot Prison Redemption

Twilight ‘not-quite’ cantered but ‘not-quite’ galloped along the path. They had long since left the Gem Hills behind and were headed eastwards from Rambling Rock Ridge (to which the Gem Hills were a part of) and towards Ponyville so they could catch a train to Canterlot. It would be very slow going towards Ponyville on foot and Rainbow took the time to remind everypony of that fact.

Twilight did not pay any heed, being so anxious and her usual caution in travelling relatively unknown areas flew into the wind. She did ask the question that had been present in her mind the second she saw her friends.

“How did you know how to find me?” she had asked, still surprised as to how she could be found so easily by her friends. They weren’t even close to the Everfree forest. When she had posed the question though, the majority of her friends had looked suitably embarrassed.

“Well ah, Rarity here wanted new gems…” Applejack started, taking down her hat and placing it over her barrel chest.

“We were worried, of course!” Rainbow quickly interjected.

“Uhm, no not- I mean yes! I mean we had faith in you…” Fluttershy squeaked, when Twilight rounded on her.

“What Fluttershy meant to say is that we believed you could handle yourself”, Rarity clarified, tossing her mane.

Twilight looked quizzically at Rarity.

“Then what is the reason that you all came?” she posed, confused.

Rarity cleared her throat daintily.

“Well Darling, you must understand the last time I came it was a dreadful experience! I simply could not tolerate going alone again, so I decided to gather most of our friends to help. Imagine our surprise as we walked down the path, to see a group of strangers walking straight towards us. Luckily Rainbow Dash spotted the group in time so hid in the bushes despite Rainbow complaining that you were there too. We had to be sure.”

Twilight nodded, that made sense. She paused, one hoof mid-air.

“Where’s Gruff?” she asked, casting her gaze around. The big diamond dog was nowhere to be found.

-----

Gruff had set off on his own to find me on his own. Without a scent though, he was lost but he didn't want to unduly burden Twilight and the other ponies, he had a sense of honour. He did catch mention that I was headed to Canterlot and he the vague direction that Canterlot lay. So he quickly followed the path that lead to Canterlot thinking foremost about me and trying to remember cultural mannerisms his mother had taught him rudimentarily.

“Food etiquette… was it the right that the fork went? Or the left? Was it ‘how do you do’? Or was it ‘how does you do’?” he growled, trying to mimic the vague notions of high society. He shrugged. Maybe he’ll pick it up on the way. Perhaps he should keep practicing, just in case.

-----

Solid Evidence was miserable. She was a convicted felon to be sure but it was for none of the hard stuff and not for trumped up charges. At least if she were to go to prison wanted it to be for causing a massive explosion or for revealing sensitive Equestrian government information. Maybe she could be the next ‘WikiBeaks’ that the griffon ‘Mule-ian Ass-ange’ had formed in the Griffon State.

All she could do was await judgement. She couldn't even confirm Harpie’s crazy theory on null beings and such. If only she had completed the magic resonance network she could get a better picture of how things worked. Oh well Baltimare wasn't going anywhere and her theory could be proven later. Right now she had to escape incarceration and she wasn't sure she could afford a lawyer.

Luckily for her though, she had the next best thing.

“What?” Iron stared back at her, when she was gazing at him thoughtfully.

“You're my ticket”, she whispered disturbingly. Iron tried to edge away but the chariot only had limited space.

“Be gentle…” he croaked as Solid’s eyes became frightening.

-----

For me, I had been stuck in a cell, not without company. A wall separated us but the other prisoner had been friendly enough.

“Name’s Kibitz, Breakneck Kibitz”, he had called out. “What are you in here for?”

“I’m innocent, you?” I replied getting a bark of laughter from Kibitz.

“Lawyer got me”, he shot back easily, and it made me grin.

“No really”, I called back across the dungeon. “What are you accused of?”

“Not giving the Princess enough cake for dinner, apparently”, he replied.

I laughed at that, though my laugh carried a note of sympathy.

Oh wow, this per- pony must be a tyrant, I thought.

-----

On a train ride back from the Crystal Empire, Celestia gave a little shudder of foreboding.

“Let’s hurry back”, she explained to a questioning look from Luna. “I have a feeling somepony is talking about me.”

Luna scoffed, “Everypony is talking about you. Celestia help us. Oh dear Celestia. Celestia protect us.”

Celestia brightened, considering what her sister said.

“Yes”, she replied. “It must be that.”

-----

An absolute tyrant, I fumed as Kibitz laid out all the times he’d been thrown in the dungeon for some menial reason or another. Completely beyond reason.

“So that’s enough about me, what about you?” he asked, I heard a hint of smug confidence, as if his crimes were the greatest that had ever been recounted. Not that I knew much about this place but I sincerely doubt it.

“Crimes against magic”, I called out and I heard a sharp intake of breath.

Kibitz hesitated before talking again.

“Not necromancy, or soul sorcery, or alchemy or the like?” he exclaimed, a shudder running through his voice when he mentioned necromancy.

“No, nothing like that”, I replied. “It seems I’m immune to magic though. Or at least magic doesn’t work properly when I’m around it. Other than that I don’t see why I was arrested. I did help a bunch of ponies escape from a diamond dog slave cavern not too long ago.”

“Oh?” he queried, sounding very interested. “How did that come about?”

I quickly recounted the tale of how Twilight, Pinkie, Solid, Iron, Lightning, Hardy, Gruff and I escaped from the diamond dog camp. Halfway through recounting the story, I paused and found that not long after I had separated from them I already missed them dearly.

Ah I thought I was already used to loneliness, I thought bitterly.

We were interrupted by a guard grating open the rusty door that apparently was the entrance of Kibitz’s prison cell. I sighed as he bid me farewell.

“Better luck next time”, he called out in sympathy. I heard the door grate close.

Was left in the silence with nothing but my thoughts.

-----

Not long after Kibitz was met by two worried Princesses.

“So”, Celestia began, trotting forward a little. “What did you think of our friend?”

Kibitz considered the situation, trying to be objective as possible in his assessment.

“I like him”, he answered and the Princesses sighed in relief.

“But that does not mean he is not dangerous”, he added and the Princesses tensed.

“But I think we can trust him”, he ended with a coy smile.

Irritated, Celestia swatted Kibitz with a hoof. He danced out of the way easily.

“Now, now Princess we must maintain a sense of decorum, especially in front of our subjects”, he chided, though in a teasing manner.

Luna glowered at Kibitz.

“Thou hast made mine life a misery for a day”, she muttered to the side but Kibitz’s keen ears picked up the small comment from the Princess of the Night.

“And thou hast made thine life difficult with thou slips of speech”, he replied with snark, striding away.

“If he wasn’t the best scheduler I would-“, Luna began but stopped herself. This wasn’t the time for playful banter.

“Sister, we must take action”, Luna said thoughtfully.

Celestia nodded back. They needed a plan.

“We shall converse briefly in my chambers, then meet him before the day court”, Celestia proposed. Luna nodded in assent.

-----

I played with my hands for a while before trying to drift off to sleep.

The sound of water pattering through a no doubt leaky roof set my teeth on edge.

Pit.

Pat.

Pit.

Pat.

If this was what Chinese Water Torture was like, I’d have probably broken by now and told them everything. I told myself it was just the discomfort of being forced outside my comfort zone, this time with no escape plan or even the freedom of bashing rocks together. It was just the prison cell walls and I. Alone. Together. I was close to drawing hearts on a small metal box and calling it my best ‘friend’.

If I had to name my greatest weakness, among many I might add, I would say boredom would come up to the top of the list (followed closely by getting shot in the heart). Before Synch I was bored, before Emilia I had been bored, before anything substantial that my life had achieved, I was bored.

Nothing really challenged my intellect, my responsibilities were small and my freedoms restricted. It drew very conclusive parallels to my current situation, living in a cell. I shuddered. When did my life become a living allegory?

Things like this wracked my mind whilst I tried to come up with a suitable hobby to pass my time. I didn’t know how long I was to be kept here but I suppose if the rulers were benevolent enough I could expect my execution to arrive in the morning. Nice and fast.

Who was I kidding? This was a government and there is a universal law for governments around any universe that states: All governments must maximise the time it takes to process anything. No exceptions. If something took a second to complete they would create forms and fittings that would take a few days to process before going through that second to complete said task. And they will take the whole second to do it.

Where was I? Yes, boredom.

The mind tended to wonder when there wasn’t anything active for me to do. I counted the stones bricks that made up the ceiling. I developed good estimations for the dimensions of the castle seen from the outside and knowing the little things I knew about ponies from when I got here. It wasn’t much, but at least it passed the time.

I was in the middle of carving a small circuit diagram, using my chains, for an auxiliary module to Synch in the middle of the castle floor when the guards opened the door and told me to stop. I would have stopped if I had heard them but so absorbed I was in the creation of the circuit diagram I simply ignored them, determined to solve the parasitic capacitance problem that was generating noise across the array.

I was interrupted from finishing the diagram when one the guards tackled me to the ground, baring steel at my throat.

“We told you to stop what you were doing”, he growled menacingly, putting the blade to my throat.

“Woah, hey!” I croaked, trying to squirm away from the blade-point of the spear. “I was just bored and drew some circuit diagrams, relax.”

He glared at me with pitiless eyes and pressed the spear until it drew a drop of blood from the hollow of my neck.

“I do not take orders from you, creature”, he snarled before roughly pushing me away. I almost cursed as a fresh new scrape and bruise was added to my growing collection of pains.

“Likewise”, I muttered but he otherwise chose not to hear me or ignored me completely.

“Get up”, he ordered and trying to ooze irony I complied, slowly. He bucked me in the shin with a foot. I stumbled and fell.

“You”, I growled softly. “Are the most unpleasant specimen of pony I’ve had the misfortune to meet. I hope the gates of whatever antithesis to your religion open up and swallow your pitiless soul whole.”

I wanted to quote Dante but I couldn’t remember more than vague glimpses of literature. I was not that well read but at least I could logic his actions within the cold court of my mind. I settled on outwardly insulting him instead.

“Waste”, I muttered condescendingly. “Utter garbage.”

The guard roared in anger, tossing aside his spear and pinning me to the wall. The other guard, who had presumably waited outside, poked his head in and was about to rush to intervene. He paused in amazement as he saw me loop the chains binding my wrists around the guard’s neck garrotte style, which I must admit, was beginning to become my favourite method of combat.

The guard who had attacked me choked for air as I calmly told the other guard to stay where he was. Uncertain, the guard took a hoof step forward, only to pause as I tightened the improvised garrotte around the unpleasant guard’s neck.

I could feel the rush of his pulse, the lifeblood in his neck seeping into his brain, giving oxygen and precious earthly resources to his rotted brain. I felt both sickened and elated even considering an end to his wasteful life.

I tightened the chain as he gasped weakly, the other guard looking more and more agitated as the guard weakly fumbled and struggled his hooves splaying out. I suddenly released him throwing him to the floor. I acted more casual than I felt, emitting an aura of calm fury.

“You didn’t see it but he attacked me, without provocation, first. If you deny these events I will simply kill the next guard that dares try to come in here to try and ‘subdue’ me. I’ve been cooperative, almost pleasantly so and I was given word by Sergeant Major Boots that I would be unharmed if I cooperated. He dug his own grave”, I ground out, giving the crawling form of the guard a vengeful look of complete disgust and utter contempt. The other pony guard gazed back at me spellbound with wide fearful eyes, before gathering his comrade in his hooves and dragging the guard out.

The door slammed shut and gave a quiet snick as it locked once again.

I rubbed my neck absently as the adrenaline wore off. Where had that crazy, psychotic energy come from? I had been like a different person. Was he really that bad? I considered that I might be inventing demons where none existed. I gazed absently at my circuit diagrams, willing my conscious to dissolve into the calm of mathematical equations and circuitry symbols.

Calm down. Calm down.

They would be back.

But they had a good taste…

I shook my head, feeling a disturbing fog cloud my thoughts. I needed to do something… What was it?

I hummed a small tune as I considered my intricate circuits. They were truly masterful artwork to the eyes of an engineer. I scratched some more circuit elements as they connected in a methodical and precise fashion.

Simply. Marvellous.

Author's Note:

I bet you're wondering if our hero is suffering from a minor psychotic episode. To make the long story short: maybe. He is certainly stressed but is usually calm and collected. Most of how he is acting right now is directly attributable to the fact that being alone with his thoughts is giving him time to process the recent events. Self-doubt and conflicts on his state of wellbeing are clashing in a very non-ideal situation. I'd probably be hugely nervous being chucked in a dungeon and people do crazy things when they are left alone. He is definitely giving off a Silence of the Lambs vibe.

Also the main character wasn't much of a stable individual in the first place, with Emilia and Angel always there to balance his personality. He was also almost always preoccupied but now...

Anyway that guard was a jerk, got what was coming to him.

Next Chapter: Pinkie finds out she can use telekinesis, hilarity ensues. Rainbow finds out clouds are hard and doesn't know why. Luna dyes her mane blonde accidentally when she mistakenly uses Blueblood's hair dye.

As always everyone, thanks for reading!

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