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Captivity4,161 words
Generosity2,450 words

Generosity

I expect to feel a rush of relief and freedom as I exit the hospital. I am slowly rewarded with said feeling. It makes me laugh, softly at first, and then successively louder. I feel new strength coming from corners in my mind I didn’t know I had. I can do anything!

Just to test my wicked theory, I aim an energy blast at a tree stump on the edge of the Everfree Forest. I squeal in triumph as the stump crackles and pulls apart. Giddy, I blast another stump. And then another. And then a rock. All of them shatter with a terrific smashing noise. So I get a little more ambitious and blast a rock that’s bigger than me. The pieces that fly in all directions after this get a little out of control. Suddenly, one hits me in the head, where my tender horn is still healing. The impact unbalances me, to say the least. The next thing I know, my vision goes black.

The next thing I remember is waking up to the sound of pots and pans and the smell of something hot cooking. I sit up bolt upright and feel instant pain. Unfortunately my horn is still as vulnerable as it was last night. Now it’s throbbing. Clutching my head, I look around and wait for the room to stop spinning. Within the blurry colors, I pick out an electric blue and turquoise mix.

“Hey, are you okay there?” A voice, surprisingly gentle to me, weaves into my ears through the smudged colors in my eyes, which I rub furiously in frustration. Slowly the colors relax and I see a white body and hot pink eyes that also belong to that wild blue thing, which happens to be the pony’s mane. I moan in response and fall back on…something soft?

The pony uses her magic to pull a blanket back over me, revealing herself to be a unicorn. She seems older than me, as she has her cutie mark; a pair of eighth notes.

“I’ll be right back.” The blue-maned pony says before standing and cantering away, calling some name as she goes.

“Wait! I demand to know why I’m here!” I mumble, reaching out with one weak foreleg that soon falls back down at my side.

I’m pathetic.

After a couple of minutes at least, I see that unicorn coming back, only this time she has a little white filly with a pink and purple mane at her side.

“This is the pony Rarity rescued? She looks pretty beat up to me.” The filly says to the older pony. I want to sit up again, but it’s just too much.

Suddenly I hear an alarm sounding, assaulting my eardrums with its piercing warning. I try to force myself up but end up staggering. For some reason, the other two ponies take almost no notice of it except…

“Ooh! That’s my soup!” The filly squeals excitedly, running in the direction of the noise. The pink-eyed pony comes to me and says something that sounds both incomprehensible and reassuring all at once.

“Who are you and what do you want with me?” I ask in the most threatening voice I can muster in my severely weakened state. The unicorn above me just laughs; I imagine, mockingly.

“My name is Vinyl Scratch and my friend Rarity found you lying on the edge of the Everfree Forest. You’re lucky she found you before something else did.” The pony shudders at that thought. “I was just stopping by when I saw Rarity crouched over this thing in the corner so I asked her what had happened. She didn’t tell me anything; just ran off and told me to watch her little sister. Here she comes now with the soup.”

The little filly returns with a steaming pot of soup in her shaky magical grasp.

“Sweetie Belle!” Blue leaps up and uses her own magic to take the soup from the filly before she spilled it. Coincidentally, both of their magical auras are the same majestic blue.

“Whew! That was close, Belle. You have to be more careful.” Sweetie Belle, evidently the filly’s name, doesn’t seem to hear a word Blue says. She leaps up and down in obvious triumph.

“Did you see me, Vinyl? Did you see me carry that pot in all by myself with magic? Rarity taught me that! Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah, that’s really good. I’m sure Rarity will be really proud of you when she gets back.” Blue says obligingly, ruffling the mane of the younger pony.

“Who is this Rarity and where did she go?” I ask finally, irritated both by the throbbing in my head and the ambiguity of my situation.

The unicorn called Vinyl Scratch looks over at me with an uncomfortable amount of concern. So when she walks over to me, I put up a shield around me that Blue hits her nose on. I chuckle just a bit at that.

“Hey, no need to be so defensive. I’m not going to hurt you.” Blue says. Though there is patience in her voice, I can also hear a minor annoyance building in her subconscious. This could get very interesting very quickly if I play my cards right.

I don’t notice the filly walking up to me, delightfully innocent, and knocking on my shield like it’s a door. The impact sends tremors down my skull.

“I made you some soup!” The filly known as Sweetie Belle says. I want to send an energy pulse through the room to lend effort to my escape right then, but I tell myself to wait. After all, I still haven’t met this Rarity character, and that might be interesting.

Instead, I lower the shield and take the soup that the filly gives me. Though it hurts, I manage to use my magic to eat. I grimace when I realize the soup is burnt. I glare at the others, and they stare right back with glazed eyes. It’s very frustrating.

“How’s the soup?” The filly asks excitedly, leaning closer to me despite my unwelcoming disposition.

I think for a long moment about how best to phrase my displeasure.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted.” Obliviously, the filly beams. I smirk and push the soup away.

I hear a noise, like a door opening, and Blue jumps up to answer it. I hear her whispering to herself; something like ‘Please be Rarity’, which I find hilarious.

“What’s so funny?” The filly jumps up and down, wanting to be in on the joke. I smile at her unkindly.

I pause for a few moments before answering, wondering what the most infuriating answer could be.

“When you’re older.” I reply, enjoying the look of frustration on the filly’s face.

Meanwhile at the door, I hear the voice of a pony I don’t recognize. I assume this can only be the elusive Rarity. She, like Blue, is older than me. Her cutie mark is three diamonds, an instant turn-off.

“Thank you so much for watching Sweetie Belle and our…guest for me.”

“No problem at all.” Blue says. I hear the door shut. However, I seem to be hearing three sets of hoofsteps instead of just my rescuer and Blue. I must be imagining things. This pain in my head…perfectly natural to--

Blue enters my vision and I spill my soup on the floor. Not one, but two unicorns are following her. The first is a white unicorn, like Blue, but with an ornate purple mane and engaging blue eyes. The other is a purple mare with three colors in her mane. This one looks at me curiously, as if I’m some experiment.

Needless to say, I immediately dislike her.

“Hello, darling. Are you feeling any better? At least you’re awake.” The white unicorn says in a strange voice with a warm emotion I’ve only yet to find in the stallion. Instantly, I despise that emotion; for nostalgia reasons, if nothing else. She then turns to Blue and thanks her profusely for watching both me and the filly.

“No problem, Rares.” Says Blue nonchalantly. On noticing the other pony, she adds “Hey, Twilight.”

Sticky Eyes had been watching me ever since she walked into the place. Right now, she’s so fixated on me she doesn’t even hear Blue’s greeting. It’s most unnerving. While the white unicorns are saying goodbye, the purple unicorn introduces herself at last.

“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s yours?” She smiles pleasantly and waits for me to say something back. I let her endure an awfully awkward silence. Sticky’s smile slowly fades and she coughs awkwardly before continuing.

“My friend Rarity tells me she found you unconscious at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Are you okay?” I don’t say anything, but my horn glows threateningly. At least, it tries to. All that happens, though, is a minor spark. I’m malfunctioning again…

“Ooh, that doesn’t look good at all. Rarity was right to call me.” Sticky too has that warm emotion in her voice; this time with a hint of concern, something I’ve learned to manipulate.

“Sorry girls, Vinyl was just telling me the most delightful story--oh I see you two have met.” Diamonds says, smiling an enchanting smile.

“However, I’ve yet to meet you.” I say, leering at my hostess.

“Oh where are my manners? My name is Rarity. You’ve already met Twilight Sparkle, and I suppose you’ve met Sweetie Belle?” At this, Diamonds looks sternly at the filly. “You did introduce yourself, didn’t you?” The filly shuffles her hooves.

“I was busy making soup.” She mutters. At this Diamonds’ eyes go to the mostly full bowl of steaming, slightly burnt soup at my hooves.

“I am so sorry. My sister probably burnt that. I’ve told her not to set hoof into the kitchen, especially when I’m not home--” Diamonds probably would have gone on longer if I hadn’t cut her off.

“No need to fuss over me.” The filly, who is still sitting near me though I’d forgotten until now, seems tired of being ignored and starts to speak.

“I didn’t mean to burn it, Miss. I just wanted to make you something special.” The filly says in another tone I don’t recognize. Somewhere between warm and dangerous and manipulative in her own way.

“What did you say your name was?” The purple unicorn, who’s still staring at me, asks.

“I didn’t.” I smile sweetly. “Please call me Sync.”

“Nice to meet you, Sync.” All the ponies in the room respond in an eerie, connected way.

“It looks like you’ve damaged your horn recently, Sync. What happened, exactly?” Sticky Eyes asks, peering closer at my horn.

At this moment, the filly gasps and runs out of the room. Diamonds looks to see her go but otherwise nopony pays much attention. When the little filly comes back with a small adhesive bandage in her mouth, she looks rather proud of herself.

“Here you go, Sync. I hope you feel better.” The filly says, wrapping the bandage around my horn. At her touch I instantly feel the darkest form of hatred envelop me. It’s like a unicorn’s red aura holding me, fueling my fury as energy surges from my horn and blasts the bandage against the wall.

Panting from the effort of expelling the loathsome device, I lean forward and try to breathe.

Diamonds, not caring about her wall in the least, kneels down near me and puts a foreleg on my back.

“There, there, now. Don’t worry about my wall. The only thing that matters is your recovery.”

Seething, my forehooves shake, rattling on Diamonds’ cold, hard floor.

Sticky ‘hmms’ infuriatingly some more and stares if possible even more closely at my horn.

“I can’t imagine what did this. Sync, were you attacked?”

Attacked? Now that would be an intriguing story. Say I was walking through the Everfree and something jumped on me and bit my horn? I suppose that would hurt very much…

“Sync? Hello?” Sticky looks so utterly confused that I smile unkindly and giggle. All the ponies present look positively puzzled.

I snap out of my brief musing and look at the unicorns in the room. Sticky still looks confused, but Diamonds and the filly look worried. How strange.

“Maybe her condition has messed with her head a bit.” Diamonds suggests.

“I suppose.” Sticky consents, though she still seems unconvinced.

At that moment all attention shifts from me to the door as four ponies enter the room.

“Hiya everypony!” A pink earth pony says in an annoying high-pitched voice. Already, I don’t like her.

The others, two pegasi and another earth pony, notice all of us huddled in a corner.

“What’s goin’ on here?” An orange earth pony asks curiously with a thick accent. On seeing me and my seemingly pathetic posture, she and the others come and gather around me.

“Aww, poor thing.” The yellow pegasus says in a warm voice. “What happened?”

I know this type very well. She loves cute things and as long as I stay adorable, she’ll be very easy to control. In fact, it won’t be hard to make her love me and as soon as she does, I can probably have whatever I want. Of course, what I could possibly want is a mystery as of yet.

“We’re not quite sure, Fluttershy. All we’ve figured out is that she damaged her horn and it’s messed with her head somehow.”

Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus I presume, flutters over to me and makes a strange humming noise over my head. On a subconscious level, I feel it calming me.

“See, nopony’s going to hurt you here. You’re perfectly safe with us.” The pegasus’ sweet voice is like honey, but for some reason I don’t find it too sickly sweet. No, there’s something really familiar about her.

“Mommy?” I ask involuntarily, looking up at the yellow stranger in blind adoration.

Everypony is silent for a moment. Then an incredibly warm noise pervades the room with intensity.

“AWWWW!” All of the ponies in the room are making that strange, but not unpleasant, noise.

I have the distinct feeling that I’ve now got not just one of the ponies, but all of them wrapped around my hoof.

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