Ponid-21

by Cadenzel Washington

The Seventeenth Day, Part 3 (Assemble)

(Part 3)

The halls of the facility hadn’t physically changed at all since Hayden took over. It was still completely the same at a cursory glance. However, it didn’t change the fact that it felt different to me. Maybe it was the new pony hearing I had but the hallways seemed abnormally silent, save for the occasional stomping of a firm set of boots echoing through the halls. There were no friends around to brighten up my day, no smiles to make the thoughts of my uncertain future fade away into nothingness. For the first time in a long time, this facility was unwelcoming. Uncaring. Unloving.

I shuddered.

I really only had one confidant with me in the form of Gunther, who up until recently seemed like someone who might be using me for their own selfish gains, but ultimately he was just as much of a victim of all this just like I am. I wanted to help my fellow man...horse...bug thing out, but I knew that going up against Hayden with an army of only two was going to end badly. That’s why we needed to find my friends.

If we even knew where they were.

“Hey Gunther.” I pestered with a light jab causing him to dip forward a bit. “Do we even know where we’re supposed to be looking to find our friends?”

“If I know Hayden like I think I do, I know what’s happening with them.” He responded with a firm tone. “He most likely wants to maintain control of the situation as much as he can. He’s been swift to employ the full might of all the guards to maintain control and flex on everyone else with the forces he has. It’s him announcing to everyone, ‘Hey, look at all the might I have!’ and being smug while doing it.”

He sighs and briefly stares at the ceiling before shaking his head. “As for where your friends are at, he won’t harm any of them...at least initially. He doesn’t harm anyone or get rid of those he thinks might be useful. I’m a testament to that. He knew I could be useful to him and put me in a position that would force me to work for him. But the situation has changed. I realized that I can’t just keep blindly following him. It ultimately led to this whole situation we’re stuck in right now and that’s my fault.”

“Hey,” I interrupted, placing my hoof on his shoulder. “He played on your fear of being ostracized by people because of the way you looked and was gaslighting you to keep you in his favor. You didn’t have any control over your change and you didn’t deserve to be thrown away and rejected. Plus...now you’re not the only one who's gone through a physical transformation. I’m here for you...and once I explain things...I’m sure my friends will be too.”

Gunther flashes me a small smile. “Ah...thanks.” He stammers out before reverting to a mild frown. “Thanks for the pick-me up. Let’s try and find your friends.”

I nod. “Alright, who do we start with first?”

“Well, we should probably start with your friend with the pink hair and yellow coat. She’s being kept in an area of the facility that’s less guarded so it’ll be easier for us to get in there.”

“Ah yeah, Juan’s probably feeling pretty scared right now.” I uttered out as my ears lay flat against my head. I felt a heavy ball build up in the pit of my stomach as I thought about all of my friends. I had been concentrating so hard on getting out and getting revenge...so I wouldn’t have to think about the pain and worry that my friends are probably enduring right now. I felt physically ill at the thought. I winced. “Damn it.”

“Hm? Something the matter?” Gunther inquired.

“I’m worried about my friends...it’s only been like two days but that feels like an eternity. It’s not just that I’m worried about them, I feel like part of me is gone when I’m not with them. It’s tearing me up inside. I need to be reunited with them.”

Gunther gave a knowing nod. “I see. Let’s get them out.”

I took in a deep breath and regained my composure. “Alright, what do we need to do to rescue Juan?”

Gunther pulled out a map of the facility and pointed to it. “Well, she’s been kept in a normal living quarters room, right here. They’ve only posted one guard there. I’m guessing that he evaluated Juan’s temperament and abilities and figured that they didn’t pose too much of a threat and thus dedicated very few resources to it.”

“Which means it should be easy for us to get in there and rescue her!”

Gunther nods. “That’s the theory anyway. Alright, I’ll go and pull the guard away from there and you can slip in and grab your friend.”

I nod and see Gunther take a couple of steps away so he’s right behind the corner leading to the hallway with the aforementioned guard. He closes his eyes and soon his entire body is engulfed in a ball of green fire. The fire itself wasn’t hot, however it did illuminate the area around us and I briefly worried that the guard might notice the sudden light out of the corner of his eye. My fear was unfounded however and soon the flame disappeared and Gunther’s bug-like form was replaced with that of a human guard who’s face I didn’t recognize. He turned around and gave a quick wink before moving around the corner and confronting the guard.

I lay myself flat against the wall, just barely out of sight. I could hear the two of them conversing a bit. Gunther’s conversation was too far away for me to hear but the conversation seemed to be having an effect. The guard looked over Gunther briefly before nodding and walking off at a brisk pace down the hall. I braced myself against the wall so I could avoid falling into his cone of vision. Thankfully, I seemed to escape his notice and I was able to fully peer around the corner. Gunther waved at me to come on over. I quickly trotted down the hallway, relieved that our deception went so well.

“Alright.” He muttered to me, still keeping his human guise up. “I told the guard I was here to allow him a 15 minute break so we’ll need to act within that time frame. I’ll be ‘guarding’ here while you go inside.”

“Sounds good.” I responded with a nod and tentatively opened the door. The room I found myself in had a similar setup to the last room, though thankfully there was no guard on the inside. As I got closer to the door for the inner cell, I was able to hear something from the other side. It didn’t take me long to figure out what it was; the sound of crying.

I lifted my head up to peer inside the room through the window. Immediately, I spotted a cream colored Pegasus facing away from me, sobbing softly to themselves. My ears drooped down flat upon seeing my friend like this. A lump seemed to form around my heart, making my entire chest feel heavy. For a good five seconds, I just stood there gazing out at my comrade in need.

Eventually, I shook my head, remembering that I didn’t have time to dawdle and that we needed to rescue the others. I tapped my hoof against the glass. A yelp of surprise greeted my actions as I saw Juan whip their head around, a look of despair and fear gripping them. However, upon seeing my face, they thankfully calmed down from “intense and paralyzing fear” to simply “wary uneasiness”

“O-oh! Penn, you’re okay. Thank Celestia, I was so worried about you.” They breathed a sigh of relief. “When I heard you had been taken away I...I didn’t know what to do and things were happening so fast and I...I…” Their breathing became more erratic and clipped. Just by looking at their eyes I could tell their mind was racing and I knew I needed to calm them down.

“Hey Hey! Just relax. Take a deep breath. Just do what I do.” I explained as I moved my body up so they could see me more clearly. I pulled in a hoof as I took a deep breath in, and then as I exhaled out, I pushed my hoof away from me as if to thrust away my worries from my head if only for a brief moment. It was a technique that was both something I had never done before and something I remembered fondly.

Juan stared at me for a moment and took the effort to mimic the motion I had just done; Breathe in and then breathe out. They turned to me and gave me a sad smile. “T-thanks for coming to rescue me. I was so worried about everyone and I didn’t know what to do.”

“I understand the feeling. I was pretty scared too, heck I still am a little bit. But I can push on through the fear because I have a secret power that helps me out.” I grinned confidently.

“What’s that?” Juan asked.

I turned back to them with a knowing grin. “It’s because I have friends that I can trust.” Part of me might have called it out as a cheesy line, but seeing Juan’s face light up with hope made the line completely worth it.

“Uhm...thanks Penn.” They responded with a sheepish grin.

“Hey, don’t thank me yet. I still need to get you out of there. Now where are the keys?” I moved over to check at the nearby desk. There had to be a key somewhere in here. I quickly darted through the drawers skimming through all the junk that was contained within. I was making a bit of a mess which made the organizational part of me squirm a bit, but I needed to get Juan out and fast. However, one drawer after the next came up with nothing. I let out a snarl as I was striking out time and time again.

“Ugh, where could it be? It must be somewhere around here. “ I told myself.

“Penn?” Juan stated plainly

“Yeah?” I whipped my head around, my body covered in a pile of papers, rubber bands and underused markers. My gaze fell upon Juan.

Juan was in front of me. Outside of the cell.

“Uh…” I raised my eyebrow in confusion and peered over at the door to their cell. “Don’t tell me I forgot to check to see if it was unlocked.” I groaned.

“Oh uhm...no. I really do appreciate the offer to help me but I was able to get it unlocked with the help of Francoise here.” Juan stated plainly.

I raised my other eyebrow. “Who is Francoise?” I inquired. Juan motioned down to their hooves. I lowered my gaze and saw an unassuming brown rat curled up near her leg.

“The…rat is named Francoise.” I stated bluntly.

“Yes, she helped me open the door since her hands are very tiny and she could pick away at the locks. Oh, but I appreciate your help, Penn.”

“I...see…” I uttered out. Juan continued to chat with the rat that was apparently named Francoise. I could get part of their conversation since I could still understand what Juan was saying but it was still a bizarre sight to behold. Then the gears started to turn in my mind. Juan said they liked animals. I’ve been able to use magical abilities like levitation and teleportation...could it be that Juan has an ability to talk to animals? That certainly seems like an ability that would be fitting for them.

My thought process was interrupted by a knock on the door. Juan jumped and Francoise scurried off into a dark corner and seemed to disappear. The door opened and Gunther in his human disguise peered inside. “Hey, we don’t have too much longer. We should leave now if we wanna avoid interacting with that guard.”

“Alirght, we’re done here anyway. Let’s go rescue the others. C’mon, Juan!” I motioned for them to follow.

“A-ah! Okay!” Juan stammered out a reply as the three of us left the cell in pursuit of the others.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

We scampered through the lab at a middling pace, making sure not to catch the eyes of any guards or other personnel that would want to see us locked away. I took the lead with Juan close behind me and Gunther took up the rear at a distance. I peered at the map and got a good look at my surroundings.

“Alright,” I muttered to my friends. “We should be close to where Will is being kept. But where is she exactly?” I tapped my hoof to my cheek before turning my head to peer around a corner. In the hallway, there was one door that had a whopping four guards stationed outside of it. My eyes widened as I quickly yanked my head back.

“Well, I think I know which room she’s being held up in. Sadly, it looks like it’ll be impossible to pull the same trick again with there being four guards all around.” I grumbled.

“There must be something we can do.” Juan stated. “I can try and see if Francoise knows any other animals around here that could help us out.”

“Hmm, I dunno, those animals could get hurt and I dunno if we could get anything in the lab big enough to deal with the guards.” I countered.

“I could shape shift into something and try to get the guards to chase after me.” Gunther offered.

“Well, there’s no guarantee that all the guards would follow you and if you get caught, we’d be down another person.” I replied. “No, we’re gonna need to do something different.”

I peered back around the corner. There were four guards outside, but how many of them were inside? I needed more info.

“Hey Gunther. I have an idea. I need you to disguise yourself as a guard and talk to the others to get intel. I need to know if it’s just those four or if there are more people in there.

“Ah, alright. Here goes.” Gunther gets up on his hind legs and is enveloped in his changing fire. When the flames clear, he is replaced by a human guard once more. He soon makes his way down the hallway and greets the other four people.

As Gunther made his way down the hall, I turned back to look at Juan. They were keeping quiet as usual but something was amiss. I could see them fidgeting more than usual. It was a sure fire sign that they wanted to say something but were too nervous to actually speak the words. Juan’s gaze met mine and they quickly turned away. I sighed and spoke in a low murmur.

“Juan, there’s something you want to tell me, but you’re too nervous to say it.” I said, keeping my gaze affixed to the yellow pony.

Juan turned back and sighed, realizing that I could read them like a book. “I’m worried,” Juan began. “I’m worried about us going around and freeing everyone because well…don’t you think it’s been really easy so far? What if we’re about to wander into some kind of trap?”

I paused for a moment to think about Juan’s worries. It was pretty easy getting out and breaking into Juan’s chamber. Heck, they more or less had a small army here, they could capture us easily if they really wanted to. Juan’s comments planted a seed of doubt in my mind. After going over all the facts, there’s no way it couldn’t be a trap. However, at the same time, I realized that given the current situation, I was going to have to take that risk. I looked back at Juan with a pensive look.

“I think you’re right, Juan. There probably is a trap waiting for us at some point. I’ve been preparing for when the alarms go off and we have to start rushing out of here. But so far it’s been eerily quiet.” I cocked my head up and gave a smirk. “But since we know there’s a trap, we can better prepare for it. I’ve already got a plan for it, don’t you worry about it.”

Juan beamed a large grin. “Oh thanks Penn. I feel so much better knowing that.”

I smiled back and returned to look over at the guards.

My smile quickly turned into a frown.

Oh crap, now I actually need to make a plan. I thought to myself. Twilight would have probably come up with a full fledged eight step process to get through this but I was just flying blind. I guess in that respect I’m not at all like Twilight.

I had the “framework” for a plan, but it’s a bit hard to plan for something you had very little information about and were basically flying blind. I just boasted about having a better case to Juan to make them feel better. I didn’t lie, just embellished. Still, if Darnel was here, they’d probably frown at my egregious stretching of the truth.

After mulling over my selective truth telling, I noticed a bit of a ruckus coming from the guards. I wasn’t listening in to the conversation due to talking with Juan but I managed to catch one of them arguing not with Gunther, but with another guard.

“You mean to tell me you’ve been able to get out of clean up duty and you’ve been saddling me with it this whole time!?” One guard growled.

“That’s not true, I’ve just been able to choose my stuff on the chore list because I get to the chart at the beginning of the week and you always end up last because you’re trying to get as much breakfast as you can first. Not everything is about eating, Gerald!” The other guard snidely counters.

“Well either way, I’m going to go and fix this! I ain’t gettin’ saddled with this duty anymore! This duty is bullshit!” Gerald complains.

“Heh, duty.” The third guard childishly comments.

The guard known as Gerald, makes his way down the other hall with two of the guards following them. Gunther has a quick little chat with the fourth and soon the last one chases after the other three. Once they’re out of sight, he motions for the two of us to make our way over. We all gathered around the door ready to open it.

“Alright, let’s get in there.” I told the others, gripping the door handle tightly. The door slid away as the inner room opened up to us. Inside we could see the window peering into the cell where we could see a blue mare, flying around in circles in the small enclosed area. Upon us approaching, she turned to look at us.

“You guys! Geez, am I glad to see you all.” Will exclaimed.

“Oh, we would never leave you behind.” Juan quietly smiled. “Friends are loyal to friends after all.”

“Hmm, loyal…yeah, yeah they are.” She mutters to herself, enjoying the thought of a close knit group of friends. She shakes her head, dispelling the reverie. “Well, anyway, what are we waiting for? We have to get everyone else out!”

I smiled and chuckled a little. “Oh? I thought you’d wanna go right after the guy who locked you up in the first place?”

Will shakes her head. “And leave my friends hanging? Heck no! We gotta get them all out.”

I smile and pry open the inner door to let Will outside. As soon as the opening was wide enough she zipped through and soared in the air, doing laps around the room. Judging from the quick reactions, it seems she’s been eager to expel all the extra energy she’s been accumulating. She stretched in mid-air and did a flying backstroke above our heads.

“Whew, finally out of that stuffy room!” Will exclaimed.

“Gee, you’re pretty good at flying.” Juan commented, their own wings flapping slightly as if trying to emulate what Will was doing.

“Hell yeah, I am pretty awesome. I’ve had an urge to fly around since getting put up in that cramped room.” Will smirked. “It’d be even more awesome if I could actually go outside and fly around the open skies.”

“We’ll get to that.” I assured her. “But first, we gotta get everypony rescued from their rooms. Then we can confront Hayden and stop him from abusing those magic items.”

I mulled over the current status of our predicament. We had half of our mane group…er main group of six ponies gathered. Part of me wondered if I should try and gather up more friends to help, but I realized that too many of us would be hard to coordinate and we’d be easy fodder for capture and then we’d be back at square one. Either way, three right now would not be enough.

“Okay, we need to find another friend. I think Meghan would be our next bet. She’s pretty off the wall and would be a nice wild card to have in our team.” I surmised.

Gunther frowned. “Well, unfortunately, she’s one of the few people who’s location I don’t know. I am aware that she was taken away but after that, no one’s seen much of her at all. Even the guards don’t really seem to mention her.”

“Could she have been…t-taken away?” Juan whimpered.

“Or worse, maybe she was put in some kind of interrogation chamber?!” Will growled in anger.

“Oh! Or maybe it’s some other super duper chamber that no one here knows about and it’s hidden because you need to clip through the floor with frame perfect timing because there’s no actual doors that lead there!” Another individual proudly speculated.

I turned over to see that the owner of the voice was…Meghan, gleefully smiling back at me.

“What.” I groaned.

“How!?” Will yelled.

“W-why?” Juan inquired.

“When?” Gunther asked.

“Who!” Meghan beamed.

“Uh, You!” I snarled.

“Ah, well, that explains everything I guess!” Meghan casually stated.

“No it doesn’t! You can’t just show up and expect us to accept it!” I stammered.

“Hmm, well, I think I used something…what was it called…oh! Yes, I used the “Rule of Funny” and it let me come to you guys at the most comedic moment regardless of any semblance of logic!”

We all stared at her in silence for a good three seconds. I finally tried to break the silence with my attempt at a rebuttal. “But that doesn’t explain how you could simply drop in without anyone noticing.”

“That’s what I call Spy Mission 5: The Actors Really Needed the Money!” Meghan replied.

“But tha- Nope, you know what, I don’t care. We have four now, let’s just find Darnel and Nathan.” I exclaimed, realizing that if I tried to apply logic, it would just end with my brain breaking under the strain. “Gunther, let’s go find the others.”

“Ah…right.” Gunther stammered, still clearly confused by the whole ordeal himself. “I think Darnel is the closest to us, I’ll show you the way.” He motioned for us to follow behind him, leaving the strange event behind us.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

As our team grew in number, it felt like we were closer and closer to approaching danger every time we peered around a corner. It was becoming clear to me now that we couldn’t handle a group this large and maintain stealth for very long. I knew we would need to confront Hayden with a smaller team if we had any chance of getting the drop on him. I wanted to gather everyone else as well, but that was a risk I couldn’t rightfully take. Still, part of me wondered if there might be a way to get them out to help on my behalf.

My train of thought was interrupted by Gunther signaling that we had arrived at our destination and was getting eyes on the target. He stares out into the hallway for a surprisingly long time before pulling back.

“That’s odd.” He muttered. “There’s no one guarding the door.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Wait, what? That can’t be right.” I darted my head out from the corner to confirm this information for myself. Sure enough, not one soul occupied the hallway. I frowned and turned back to the group. “Could this be some mistake?” I wondered.

“Well, no use looking a gift horse in the mouth…pony? Ah whatever, let’s go in!” Will said, with a confident grin. She dashed over to the door and went to open it.

“Ah! Hey hey hey, not so fast!” I stammered, trying to get her to be careful.

Will was about to open it up, but stopped though it seemed to be from whatever was happening inside the room and not my pleas for her to stop.

“Hey.” Will uttered. “I think Darnel is talking with the guard…because the guard is in the inner cell with her.”

“Whuh?” I was baffled at this development and peered inside. Sure enough, there Darnel was, just talking with the guard. The guard was lying on the bed, almost like a stereotypical therapy session, just chatting away with Darnel. This was incredibly weird.

Well, I decided to try and find out what was happening for myself. “I’m going in alone. If anything happens to me, come bail me out, okay?”

Everyone looked worried at first but ultimately they agreed. I turned and took a deep breath and opened the door. I moved into the room and could finally hear what was being discussed.

“-and it’s just not something I actually want to do.” The guard in mid-conversation said to Darnel candidly. “I’m not here out of any sense of justice or pride, this was just a job for me. I did it because I wasn’t good at anything else.”

Darnel nodded. “Well sugarcube, you need to be honest with yourself which I think you’re finally starting to do with me, thankfully.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to open up to others but for some reason I feel like I can be honest with you.” The guard replied.

“Uhm, what’s happening here?” I asked. I knew this could provoke the guard, but he seemed to not be in a defensive mode…and even if he did become hostile, I was confident that our group could take him on. Fortunately, it didn’t seem at all necessary as the two turned to me and Darnel grinned.

“Howdy Penn! You caught me havin’ a heart to heart with my friend here. He’s been telling me about his passions and what he wants to do with his life. He’s not really satisfied with doing the gun toting life and wants something else.”

“I…I see. That’s…that’s good to hear!” I stuttered out a reply. I realized too late that this might be a more personal conversation that I was intruding in on and that I should probably give the two some privacy.

“Well, listen, I’ll just be going now…I hope your “friend” doesn’t mind.” I eyed the guard with suspicion.

“It’s okay.” the ambivalent guard replied. “This was just a job to me, no passion in it at all. I won’t tell anyone you’re here.”

“Thank you. When you’re done Darnel, I’ll be waiting outside for you.” I announced and closed the door behind me. I trotted out of the room and trotted back to my friends.

“Sooooooo, what happened?” Meghan leaned in, eager to hear the details.

“Darnel is playing therapist to their own guard it seems. They’ll be done soon.” I calmly stated.

“...huh.” Will bluntly replied. “Weird.”

After a bit of waiting, I spied Darnel leaving the room and making their way to us. Darnel grinned as they trotted next to me.

“Howdy, y’all. Sorry for takin’ so long in there.” They apologized.

“Hey, no need for that. You were doing some important work. It’s always good to find out what you want to do with your life.” I gave a small grin.

Darnel looked at me and frowned. “Yeah, it’s hard to admit when you’re sometimes scared about the future and you don’t know what you want to do. No one has all the answers but we’re all trying to figure out where we wanna go.”

“Boy don’t I know that.” I muttered.

“...Sugarcube?” Darnel inquired.

“Ah! Sorry, I’m just thinking about…well, what we’re gonna do in the future. Will we be able to change back? Will we be accepted by the world at large?” I mouthed off my worries to everyone.

“Hey.” Will chimed in, a softness in her voice that I had not heard before. “It’s like Darnel said, no one’s got the answers. Even an egghead like you doesn’t know…but I do know that we’re all in this together and if we’re together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.”

I beamed at that. Yeah, we can do this together. “Thanks. I needed that pep talk.”

“Ah, don’t have me gettin’ all mushy! It’ll ruin my image! We need to get Nathan and find that Hayden guy and give him a hoof sandwich!” Will said, slamming her hooves together.

“Alright, alright. Let’s go and find them.” I said, turning to Gunther. He responds with a knowing nod and soon, he starts leading us to the last friend we needed

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

This has all become routine by this point and we all knew what we were doing; scout the place out, figure out whether or not the guards would pose a threat to us, and subdue or otherwise remove the guards from the situation and prevent them from raising an alarm or getting suspicious of us. We just needed to find Nathan and get them out of the situation they were in and then we could finally confront Hayden.

It all sounded so good on paper, but this current situation was proving difficult. Unlike all the other guards, this guard was proving to be particularly difficult to distract or otherwise get to leave like all the others. Gunther’s disguises weren’t cutting it and we couldn’t risk having the guard see these ponies going around and about.

“What are we gonna do? This is so nerve wracking…” Juan muttered.

“I could rush up there and smack that guy!” Will growled, clearly wanting a confrontation.

“Nuh uh, no way.” I countered. “We can’t risk that.”

“I could try a different disguise.” Gunther suggested.

“No no, he might get suspicious if multiple ‘people’ come up trying to distract him.” I retorted.
“I could do another off the wall jaw dropping maneuver buuuuuuuuuuuut I’m having trouble thinking of a good punchline that could work in this situation. I’ll need a minute on that.” Meghan explained.

“Ah…thanks for trying.” I sighed.

“Hey…the guard’s goin’ inside y’all.” Darnel pointed.

We all clambered around the corner to get a view on what was happening. The unimpressed guard was being called inside by what we assumed was Nathan. The guard moves inside and shuts the door. After about 30 seconds, the guard reemerges, his stoicism having melted away and a look of embarrassment being shown square across his face. His eyes dart around to make sure no one is looking and with great haste he makes his way down the hall away from us. It was hard to catch but it seemed that he was covering his pelvic region for some reason.

Despite that weird and bizarre display, the room was now free of obstructions and we could enter in freely. I made my way over to the door and opened it, looking inside for the ivory unicorn. Sure enough, inside the room was our friend and confidant, simply using the window to groom themselves.

“Ah, hey there Nathan. How’s it going?” I casually ask.

“Oh, hello darling. I’m very well thank you. The guard that they had watching me was so impressively stone faced, it was a miracle I was able to get him to leave at all. But embarrassment seems to be a universal constant in this world.” Nathan explained.

“Oh…what uh…what exactly did you do?” I hesitantly asked.

“Ah, it’s simple really: I called him in to ask for some refreshments and while he was distracted, I pulled at the fabric of his uniform until he had an unsightly wardrobe malfunction in regards to his pants.”

I coughed and shook my head, thinking I misheard them. “Woah, what!? I’m sorry?”

“Yes, it was a bit uncouth.” Nathan rescinded with a fleeting interest. “I know I should really be working on making sure clothing stays in tip top shape, but the guard really didn’t leave me with a whole lot of other options and thus I used the method I already outlined earlier.”

“Ah…well, that’s certainly an impressive tactic. Well done!” I replied, still a little weirded out by it.

“Well! Now that this is all sorted out, shall we be going?” They asked me.

“Yeah, let’s do it!” I responded eagerly.
I smiled and opened the door and the two of us trotted back to the group. We now had a full group of six, plus our new friend Gunther. I think it was now time to get to Hayden.

“Alright.” I begin. “I think it’s about time we went down to the lab and retrieved those magic items before Hayden decides to do even more damage with them. I know it might seem like a daunting task and that there’s not a lot we can do, but I want you all to trust me. I have a plan that can make this all work. I won’t ask you all to go along with this if you don’t want to and I know it’s a lot to ask. But if you would find it in your hearts-”

“Hey Egghead.” Will interrupts. “Relax. We’re all in this.”

“Darn tootin’!” Darnel nods.

“I’m ready to PARTAAAAY!” Meghan yells.

“Darling, I’ll go with you, wherever you need me.” Nathan exclaims.

“...yay~” Juan gives a small smile.

“Seems like you’ve got a full party on your hands.” Gunther notes. “We’re ready to fight with you.”

I smile, tears welling up in my eyes. “Thank you all so much. Okay, let’s go.”

My friends all move out and start to make their way towards the elevator leaving only Gunther and myself alone.

“So, do you really have a plan or was that a confident front you were putting up?” He inquired.

I stood in silence for a brief moment before turning and shaking my head. “No, I have something that I think just might work.”

“Oh? What do you have in mind?” Gunther asks.

“Okay, here’s what we’ve gotta do…”

Author's Note:

Hey! So uh...sorry about having to make y'all wait 10 months for this next chapter! I hope you all haven't left already and aren't too mad with me. Things have been rough for me mentally so it was difficult to get words to paper. But I hope you all have a good time reading this chapter.

The next chapter HOPEFULLY *knocks on wood* won't take too long but I know that seems like a bit of a hollow promise. Still, I will try my best to get another chapter out for you all to enjoy and trust me, the end is in sight for this story!

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Comments

[Train3702]

Huzzah! An update!

[Maulet Paya]

I had to scrunch my brain to remember the plotline XD

[Numinos]

Hey, glad to see this story alive and kicking : )

[tsaukpaetra]

Yes, very eerie how easy and quiet it's been. Where is everyone?
Here's to hoping they're not about to face a magic-sucking device or the like. We don't need a modern Pegasus Factory...

[Aremna]

So glad to see this story going again! Thank you for keeping it going. Glad that it seems your mental health has improved a bit, the past few years have been rough on a lot of people

[keroko]

It lives! Glad to hear you are doing better.

Rescue attempt is underway, and a trap is expected. However... I wonder how much of this is an actual trap, and how much it is the guards of the facility genuinely wondering what the hell they are doing. There comes a point where you're staring at the cute pastel pony who just wants to bake cakes and be happy that you keep behind bars and start asking yourself "...are we the baddies?"

[Spidey10]

I've quite enjoyed this story so far. Is it going to continue?

[Spidey10]

I don't know if this story is going to get a proper conclusion or not, but either way I've really enjoyed your story.