Canterlot, Equestria, and Anything

by Dusk Strider

Nice Night to Crash, Ch. 1, Pt. 4

“Mmmpphhh…unghhhh,” the only noise Dusk could get out before adjusting her eyes to the dark room she had been held in. She gave another try at making her thoughts audible, “I think…I think I’ve reached my limit for waking up with a headache and being in dark rooms for today; check please.”

Satisfied that her thoughts didn’t come out as gibberish, she scanned her cell. It had been a very high-tech cell; the type of cell you would see in a science fiction comic book. It even came complete with a laser fence the size of an average sized door and steel-sleek walls. The room had obviously been built for short time holdings; there were no appliances, furnishings, or even a window. The only thing keeping the room from being completely empty was the plum pony that had been lying in the corner.

Dusk stood herself up and walked to the luminescent fence that blocked her escape. She tried to get a look of what had been on the other side. What she had saw were more fences; some lit and some un-lit.

With nothing else left to see, she gave her try at calling out, “is anypony else out there?” Apparently, there had not.

Feeling as if there were nothing else left to do, she decided to turn and walk back to her own little paradise in the corner. Giving her holding area one last look over for any way of escape, or at least something to do, she lay down and closed her eyes.

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After what felt like two hours, maybe three, a sound of walking came from down the hall. Dusk’s ears perked up as soon as she heard it, her first thought’s had been of rescue or somepony that would feed her. She stood and made her way to the fence to see who it had been. When the being had stopped in front of her cell, Dusk’s eyes had still been too blurred to fully see who was in front of her.

Before she could say anything, the being had already begun to speak, “you are a jerk.”

Dumbfounded for words, Dusk just shook her head to at least see who had insulted her. With that failing and only making her vision worse, she tried to speak, “who…who is that?”

The being responded with a small grunt, then used its words, “Dusk Strider?”

Dusk, confused by the response, elaborated more on her question, “That’s my name, I want to know yours.”

The being decided to expand their unwanted answer, trying to be sure it got what it wanted and making sure she hadn’t received what she asked for, “Dusk ‘Lunate’ Strider?”

Shocked from hearing her full name spoken by some rude pony she didn’t even know, she couldn’t help how loud her voice had been, “WHO IN EQUESTRIA IS THAT AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME!?”

Feeling as if its question had been answered, “you are a jerk,” it repeated, “and a complete mule.” After hearing the sound of a scratch upon a clipboard; the sound of hoofsteps, making its way down the hallway opposite of where it had come from, soon followed.

With a complete feeling of defeat flowing upon her, Dusk had sat on her haunches. Not knowing any other way to feel or any way to react to what had just happened; she just sat in front of the illuminating fence, in a daze, for the rest of the time she had been encaged.

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“No,” said Calyx.

“Yes,” argued Vesper.

“No,” said Calyx, with his defense now waning.

“Please?” beg Vesper.

The argument had lasted since they awoke moments ago within their separate cells. They had been placed across from one another, talking while they lay in front of their object of discussion. Vesper had wondered how dangerous the fence had actually been and dared Calyx to be her test dummy.

“What if my whole tongue disappeared or was cut off? What if it disintegrates not just my tongue, but slowly my whole body after touching it?” Calyx slowly took the time to calm himself and wonder where he got the idea for his second question.

“Calyx, it doesn’t have to be your tongue, it could be your horn if you’d like,” said Vesper as she tilt her head and gave Calyx a wide smile.

“My horn is where my magic comes from, I kinda don’t want to lose my magic to test your wild theories!” said Calyx as he gave Vesper a stern look.

“Your magic isn’t really helping either; it got you electrocuted when you tried teleporting didn’t it?” said Vesper, giving a bored look.

“Can’t we just assume that if I touch the fence, that I would still get electrocuted?”

“Why assume when we could experiment? Calyx, if you touch the beam, we can see if it actually acts as an alarm system rather than a disintegrator. If it is an alarm system, we can take on whoever it ‘alarms’ and find a way out of here.”

“Ugh, Fine!” Calyx now looked upon the glowing beam with trepidation. He slowly motioned his hoof toward it; occasionally pulling back from the jolt he felt whenever he thought of his punishment for trying to use his magic before. As soon as his hoof felt the warm radiance of the beam, he quickly stopped in mid-motion. Grating his teeth and sweating profusely from what he was about to do, he took in a deep breath and closed in the distance. When his hoof had touched with the seemingly harmless glow, another electrocution had shot out throughout his whole body.

“YEEEEEOWWWWWCH,” Calyx shouted as he was shot back to the end of his cell; all was quiet soon after.

“Calyx…dear, are you alright?” asked Vesper as she slowly stood up to get a better look.

There was no response.

“Calyyyxxx, come on, don’t play around,” Vesper was now leaning as close as she could without getting the same surge of energy shot throughout her body as her friend had.

For a few moments, there was still silence; then it had died away when a voice yelled out, “DEFINITLEY NOT…AN ALARM SYSTEM. IF YOU DON’T MIND, I THINK I WILL TAKE A LITTLE BREAK.”

“Take all the time you need,” Vesper now lied herself back down in relief that her friend was still alright enough to make jokes.

While her friend rested from his second punishment, Vesper took the rest of her time in her cell thinking of ways to escape, and maybe more ways to humor herself at her friend’s expense.

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While her friends had either been drowning in thought of why somepony they haven’t meant insulted them, or if had been recovering from an experiment gone wrong, Cloud had been taking her situation pretty well…at least as well as any pony can take being trapped in a cell.

Not having anything else to do, Cloud began a little chant she had made with her life-long friend back when they were fillies, “Through starry nights and brightest days, Dusky and Cloie will be together, forever always.” With that finished, she let out a small sigh and continued to lie down in the middle of her cage, looking away from the irritating glow of the gate.

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The, as proclaimed by Luna, Royal Princess Sisters Champions had been watching a warehouse that was located on a far off island, too inconspicuous to chart or to be visited upon. They haven’t had to take their eyes off the structure since their arrival, except when Celestia had taken the time to raise her sun and Luna to lower her moon to start the new day. Now they were plotting on how to make their way inside to save their subjects and personal guards.

“There are two ways we can enter, but I can feel that they are far beneath this structure,” said Celestia as she sat and hid in the bushes with her beloved sister, Luna.

“Shall we force our way in or shall we sneak our way in?” asked Luna as she lifted her shades to get a better look at the main and side entrance of the warehouse.

“I don’t believe we will be able to sneak in, we stand out far too easily for that,” said Celestia, taking a glance at herself and her sister. Her eye had caught a guard come out of the structure which brought a thought to her that never occurred before, “I don’t believe I have ever seen or heard of any ponies like these outside of Equestria. I don’t even think they live amongst our own subjects.”

Now focusing on the guard her sister had been, a different thought had crossed Luna’s mind, “These ponies are dressed so formally for an island scene as this. Are these ponies the same mysterious ponies we had heard about in the reports of our missing subjects?”

“I believe so; if they are, we will tear this area asunder until we have found all that are missing,” Celestia was now readying her horn for battle, “and then send this island to the depths!”

“So it shall be the fun way? Huzz---,” leaping from out of the grassy veil, Luna charged towards the building; Celestia following after.

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Dusk Strider had still been in her stupor of why somepony would insult her and leave her in a cage with no idea where she had been or why.

While staring past the luminous gate, the sound of an explosion had broken her concentration, “What could that have been? Could it be…rescue?” she thought as her heart had started to rush with excitement.

The gates in front and around her had begun to flicker in what seemed like a pattern. Dusk had seen this and hoped that it would burn out completely and not force her to do something rash. Seeing that it had been mocking her now, she took matters into her own hooves. She took a breath and watched closely for an opportune moment. When she felt it had come, she charged forward giving a loud scream. As soon as she passed through the threshold of the gate, the laser completely phased out as if it had been a last taunt to its now free prisoner. Dusk unfortunately left her eyes closed and kept charging straight into the next cell, crashing into the wall on the far side. With a slight dizziness to her step, she stepped out of her second cell of the day and made her way down the hall.

When she had exited out of the hall, she had entered into what had looked like a control room. There were levers and switches all throughout the room, with diagrams and writings over each one. She made her way to the switchboard with the sign ‘Full Cell Control’ above it. She eyed the three switches that lay before her, carefully reading the small tags under each one, as to make sure she didn’t flip one that would release some sort of insane and destructive beast with one-hundred maws and tentacles for arms. Seeing that none of the signs had read as such, she placed her hoof over the switch designated as ‘Release’ and pulled down. The sound of alarms had begun to echo around the room Dusk had been in, causing her to stagger in pain for a moment. After accustoming herself to the obnoxious sound, she made her way towards the door tagged as ‘Surveillance’.

On the other side had been a room filled with glass frames with moving pictures and another door across the way. Dusk had looked upon the frames with curiosity in her eyes; she had seen ponies of different types run through halls and rooms passing by the gaze of whatever had been observing them and posting it on the screen she had been watching. Some of the frames had a view of ponies fighting suited guards, but one frame in particular held Dusk’s attention. It had shown three very familiar ponies talking to each other instead of running or fighting. As they were about to make their way off screen, a peach pony stopped in its tracks and slowly turned her eyes toward whatever was watching her. She quirked her head, feeling as she knew who was behind the other side, but something caught her attention back to her fellow escapees and she ran after them. Dusk looked at the sign above the frame that had read ‘East Cell Block 3, L.3’, with that memorized, she made her way to the door on the opposite wall.

The door had a picture above it of a box with a pony inside and arrows pointing in two directions, up and down. There was a single button on the left of the door, Dusk pushed it with the feeling that it would help in some way. With her feeling being correct, the door had opened and she made her way in. When the door had closed shut behind her, she turned to see that there were even more buttons; each button had a number on the side of it, ranging from one to twenty-nine. One button at the very bottom stood out from the rest though; instead of a number it had a letter, and not just one letter, a group of letters. It read out as ‘Administrator’, all in capital letters, maybe to emphasize the importance of the button, or rather, the importance of the destination the button led to and what had been there. After a minute or two of examining, she had judged that whatever button she pressed, would lead her to that destination. Remembering that she had saw her friends on a frame with moving pictures and what that level had been on, she motioned her hoof to press the button with ‘3’ next to it. As she pressed it, the room jolted, then made its way up. The number at the top of the door started to change with every second that past, starting from fifteen and decreased.

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Thirty minutes earlier.

“Vesper, did you hear that?” Calyx awoke from his rest after being blown back further into his cage.

“I think I did; was it an explosion?” Vesper stood and tried to look past her gate, towards where the loud boom erupted.

“Maybe it’s somepony coming to rescue us,” Calyx said as he came closer to his own gate.

With a sarcastic tone, Vesper gave her thoughts, “Wonderful, we get to wait here until whoever’s up there makes their way down here to rescue our helpless hides…yay.”

Oblivious to Vesper’s tone, Calyx gave a sincere response, “I know right? I totally thought we would have to escape on---,” before he could finish, the gates before him had vanished, “…never mind.”

Vesper leapt out of her cell with a wide grin, “Come on Calyx, were busting out of this joint.”

Calyx didn’t have the same enthusiasm as his partner, so he just walked out, “How exactly are we going to bust out of here…we don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

Looking down each end of the hall, Vesper felt she had concocted a brilliant plan, “We’ll just smash through every door we run into, and keep heading up whenever we reach stairs. If anypony tries to stop us, we’ll just smash past them the same way we will with the doors!”

Staring at the fire in his partner’s eyes, Calyx just nodded his head with a blank expression.

With the plan between them confirmed, Calyx and Vesper made their way towards the furthest door down the hall where the explosion had emanated from.

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When her gate had been deactivated, Cloud made her way through the multileveled complex on her own. She had been following the sound of commotion and hoofsteps from above her, and she had already gone up many floors; if anypony had counted, they would have counted to six.

When she was about to make her way to the next set of stairs, a noise came from behind her. When she turned, she had seen it was one of the mysterious shades wearing ponies that had ponynapped her the night before; Cloud readied herself to prevent that from happening again.

“Cease or I will use force,” said the mysterious pony as he stomped his hoof on the ground.

Cloud stomped and dragged her hoof back, but with less force, “No.”

The stallion charged at her but was stopped midway. Cloud relaxed her stance and looked at him with bewildered eyes. The mysterious pony was enveloped in a green aura and lifted in the air; he tried to run, but his hooves had nothing to make contact with.

Before either pony had realized what was happening, a voice from behind the suspended stallion called out, “Cloud, are you alright?”

Cloud was taken aback when she heard her name out loud, but even further when she had recognized the voice, “Vesper, is that you?”

A dark pegasi moved past the floating pony, “Yeah!” now galloping to Cloud and giving her a hug, “How long have you been here?”

After returning the hug, Cloud gave her best answer, “I’m actually not sure; How about you?”

“We…are not really sure either,” a light green unicorn had now also come from behind the floating earth stallion.

Charging towards the newly revealed pony, Cloud gave him a hug, “Calyx! I knew you two were always together, but I didn’t think I would see you both here.”

Looking about her surroundings, Vesper gave a small frown of disappointment, “Speaking of ‘always together’, where is Dusk Strider? I would have expected her to be with you.”

Cloud gave what Vesper had said some reflection; she came to a conclusion, “Maybe she didn’t get captured! Maybe she’s the one above, saving us!” A wide smile had made its home on Cloud’s face.

Vesper smirked at the thought, “Well, at least it’s a better guess than what Calyx said.”

Cloud looked over to Calyx who had just finished using his magic to lock up their imprisoner in their own cell. “What do you think is happening?” she asked with a tone of interest.

Calyx blushed from the embarrassment of his idea, “I just thought…never mind, it’s nothing.”

Cloud, with a reassuring smile, “Come on, Calyx, it’s just a thought.”

“Ok, I just thought that the ponies saving us were actually Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, that’s all,” Calyx finished by giving both mares a sheepish smile.

“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Vesper said as she gave Calyx a wink.

“You never know, it could be them along with Dusk,” Cloud still held a smile.

“Well, either way, we should make our way up and thank whoever is saving us,” Vesper now motioned her companions to follow her.

“You’re right, I can’t wait to leave this place,” Calyx moved his way towards Vesper.

“I’m right behind you,” Cloud prepared herself to follow.

“Let’s go,” Vesper galloped off to the door across the hall with Calyx following.

Cloud was about to follow her friends, but a red light with a lens under it had caught her eye. She stared long into it, feeling as if she was being watched. She didn’t feel like she was being watched by a stranger, but by somepony she had known. She was about to motion a wave, but a call from her fellow escapee’s had stopped her. She made her way towards her friends, out of the machinelike eye’s line of sight.

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“Dear subjects, please go to Princess Celestia, she will tell you what to do!” shouted Luna, trying to get all the frantic ponies to listen to her, “Just go outside and you will find my sister preparing a teleportation spell for you all,” Luna was pointing towards the main entrance…well, what was left of the main entrance after being exposed to a spell from one of the most powerful alicorns in Equestria.

There hadn’t actually been many ponies inside the facility that the sisters thought there would be. In fact, there had only been around 86 ponies of different types escaping the facility. Now those same 86 ponies were embracing the sun and sky that had been taken away from them for so long.

“All ponies, please come to me, I must tell you something before we may depart,” Princess Celestia stood from outside the warehouse, trying to get all recent escapees to focus on her. After hearing the calming voice of their beloved princess, they organized themselves as an audience in front of her, waiting for her message. Now seeing that all ponies were quiet and paying attention, Celestia addressed her subjects with the same calming tone, “Before we may leave, I must ask you all to take a vow of secrecy of what transpired here. We cannot allow what happened here to be heard by any other pony unless we want mass hysteria. My sister and I will handle everything but please, do not share any information to any other pony back home.” The loyal subjects nodded to each other and then to their graceful monarch. Seeing that her citizens had understood what she asked, she turned to her sister who had been by her side, “Luna, I will return after I have made sure all are safe, please wait for me before you venture off on your own.”

Before her sister could leave, Luna spoke, “Sister, what shall I do with our rude hosts?” she motioned her hoof towards the warehouse, now storing over a hundred of unconscious well-dressed ponies.

Celestia pondered different punishments that entailed with abduction and endangering her citizens, she then came to a conclusion, “We cannot have them near Canterlot, so our undercroft dungeons will not due. There is only one place we can send them,” Celestia looked towards the sky.

Luna was puzzled for a moment, and then followed her sister’s gaze. After realizing what her sister had in mind, a hesitating tone came about her, “Sister, you do not mean---.”

Realizing her sister’s unease, Celestia interjected, “Luna, those ponies are not normal ponies; they are something else, from somewhere else. They tried harming our subjects,” she waved her hoof over all the ponies that had been watching them converse, “if you do not wish to do what I am asking you, I understand; just keep watch over them until I come back and I will take care of it.” Celestia turned to her subjects and focused as she conjured a mass teleportation spell. In a blink of an eye, they were gone.

With Luna alone with over a hundred aggressive ponies lying unconscious inside the warehouse, she made her way towards them in a slow pace.

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After speeding through two more floors; Cloud, Vesper and Calyx were now on top of a metal platform.

“Is this a dead end?” Cloud asked as she looked around for another pathway.

“No; you just have to press this,” Vesper made her way to the button that was on the side of the wall, she then pressed it.

The platform then slowly rose from its spot on the ground. Above them, a door slowly opened to make way for the three ponies. When the platform stopped, they had laid their eyes on the inside of a wrecked warehouse. The building had been completely bare except for a pair of generator like machines that had been on fire in the corner, and a princess that sat in the middle on her haunches not noticing the new arrivals.

“I guess that’s how the gates went down,” Vesper said as she looked upon the generators. A yell next to her though, had caught her attention.

“I KNEW IT!” yelled Calyx, seeing his thoughts as a reality.

“PRINCESS LUNA!” Cloud charged towards the Luna who had been caught off guard. She leapt onto her, completely forgetting her training in proper etiquette, and gave the princess a passionate hug; Vesper and Calyx soon trotted after her.

In shock of being found by the very ponies she and her sister had been looking for, Luna nuzzled Cloud before addressing the others, “Guards! We are glad to see you are alright!” something had caught her eye though, not something extra but something lacking. She looked to each pony before stopping on Cloud’s eyes, “Where is Dusk Strider?”

Cloud let her grip go and looked around her surroundings, unsatisfied with what she saw; she looked towards Luna, “I thought she would be with you…”

Luna looked into Cloud’s eyes with letdown, “I am sorry but she is not. Celestia and I came here after we received reports of you and your friends were all missing the night before.”

Cloud frowned for a moment, and then realized where her friend might be, “that means…she can still be insi---,” a noise from where she had come from had interrupted her.

All ponies were now facing the source of where the grating sound had been made. At first it stopped and the metal platform had been gone but after a few moments, it started again. The head of a plum mare had popped from the hole where the metal platform had been.

The mare walked forward and gave a grand smile, but not to just everypony in the warehouse; just the only pony she saw, “Cloud…,” she galloped towards the peach mare who had been rushing her way to Dusk herself. After meeting each other in the middle, Cloud gave Dusk the same tight hug she gave Luna moments ago; unfortunately, Dusk wasn’t the same physique as their monarch. She didn’t dare try and stop her friend’s embrace though; no matter how much she felt her ribs crush under the pressure, she just returned the hug and nuzzled her friend. After letting her relief out, Cloud slowly let go and let Dusk speak, “are you alright?”

“Yes, I was almost attacked but Calyx and Vesper saved me,” Cloud was smiling and turning her attention to the ponies behind her.

Dusk peaked over her friends shoulder to see three ponies that escaped her view earlier, and had expressed different reactions to what they had seen. Vesper held a hoof over her mouth to cover her smile, Calyx bit down on his lips while blushing, and Luna wore an amorous smile. Unable to think of any words to say, Dusk blushed and just waved to the audience of her affection. When she composed herself again, she moved her way to the rest of the group with Cloud following.

Luna was the first to speak, “I am glad we were all able to find each other; Celestia has already transported the other survivors secretly onboard the rescue ship sent out for Captain Bullhorn and will be coming back shortly. When she does, we will destroy this facility and let the sea claim it under its waters.”

While the others nodded in agreement, Dusk couldn’t help but share what she had found, “Princess Luna, I found a room that had a sign that read as ‘Administrator’. I was wondering if we could go down there before you started your deconstruction work.”

Luna mulled over what Dusk had asked, “I think it would be best to wait for Celestia; whatever is down there may be more dangerous than what we faced out here and Celestia might want to question whoever the ‘Administrator’ is.”

Everypony started to look about the room, taking in what had actually happened. After a few moments, Vesper asked Luna what the others had also been wondering, “What happened to those you did face up here?”

Luna turned away from the group and when she turned her head back to answer, a flash of light appeared from outside. When the group went outside to see what it could have been, they were welcomed to the sight of their sun liege.

Seeing the ponies that had been expecting her arrival, Celestia let out a smile, “Hello friends, I am glad Luna was able to find you,” she turned her attention to Luna, who had been behind the rest of the group in a frown, “Luna, are you---,” Celestia stopped, realizing that her sister had carried out the despairing task she was asked to do. To keep the others from suspecting anything, she continued with a different thought on her mind, “Are you ready to banish this site from Equestria?”

Luna looked up to her sister and shared Dusk’s discovery, “Celestia, Dusk Strider has mentioned an ‘Administrator’ to this facility. She says she knows where the room is and was wondering if we would be able to go down there to investigate before we sent this area into the sea.”

Celestia looked upon Dusk, “Are you sure of this, Dusk? If you wish to investigate, we will all go with you.”

Dusk was ready to take the offer, but remembered a very fine detail about the route to the point of interest, “There’s one problem; the room that can take us there is only big enough to fit either you or Princess Luna if I were to accompany you.”

After hearing Dusk’s words, Luna spoke, “Let me go in your stead, sister, you have done so much already.”

“No, I will go; I would like to see who would have the nerve to take our subjects and imprison them here. Dusk, lead us to where you found this room.” Celestia and the rest of the group followed after Dusk, who had started walking back to the moving platform.

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Comments

[Melancholy]

Curiouser and curiouser.

[Dusk Strider]

581643

Now that....reminded me of another adventure ...that I'll try and remember for another chapter down the road

Thank you for that

[Melancholy]

584425 any time?