The Pony Monitors
A slight crackle of electricity. A small hum, and a flicker. A screen blinked on the side of the grey metal pony. It felt strange… warm…
A sharp intake of breath, a shudder. The Pony blinked its eyes, staring around at the darkness. Its eyes adjusted, dark shapes coming into focus. Where am I? The Pony thought, turning its head from side to side. She could place words to the strange dark shapes. It was in a… room, a room with furniture. There was a… couch, yes that was it. And a window, a table… and a door. The Pony squinted, it seemed as though it was slightly open. The Pony took a step, trying to go towards the door, but something tugged at her side.
The Pony glanced around, checking what was impeding her. She squinted, the darkness not making it easy to make out what it was. There seemed to be wires that were there, were they tied to her? She followed their progress… into her side. Her mouth opened as she attempted to scream in horror. No sound came out as she collapsed in panic. The wires weren’t just keeping her there, they were plugged into her.
The Pony felt gingerly up the wire, feeling where each of the wires plugged into. The Pony swallowed, gingerly attempting to remove the wired. It shook, gritting its teeth as it remove the first wire. A clatter of the wire hitting beneath The Pony. The Pony sighed for a second, but it tensed up again at the reminder of the other wires. The Pony swallowed, removing the next wire, then the next. With each pull came the same reaction. Tension, then relaxation, then tension as it went onto the next wire. As the last one was removed The Pony looked at the collection of wires, then to the series of holes that they had been plugged into. Why were they there? And who did this? The Pony shivered, it didn’t really want to meet whatever mad pony who would willingly stick these wires into a pony.
As The Pony stared at the wires, transfixed something clicked in its brain. It was on a desk. The Pony managed to tear its eyes away from the things that would surely haunt its nightmares for years, looking around to inspect the desk. It was barely large enough to fit The Pony and a small lamp on it. The Pony did note two things it was unfamiliar with sitting also on the desk, both looked as though they had been optimised for use with hooves. One was a sort of harness that could easily be adjusted to fit a hoof, attached to some sort of plastic base. The other looked a lot like a microphone with a small button at the base, a small turn wheel was set into the base. The Pony shuddered, as it noticed that there were wires coming out of both the devices. It’d never see wires the same way again, and a horrid thought came to its mind.
I need to get away. The thought raced through The Pony’s mind, looping over and over again. Its eyes darted around the room, once more focusing on the door that looked slightly ajar. What was once mild curiosity now became The Pony’s only thought of escape. It hurried to the edge of the desk, halting when it realised just how high it was. It looked past the edge, the chair… yes the chair would do nicely. The Pony hurried to the chair, knocking the two strange devices aside. They clattered, the noise causing The Pony’s heart rate spike.
Come on… come on… The Pony thought to its self, mouthing the words though no sound came out. It managed to push the chair just far enough out that it would be ale to hop down onto the seat, then down onto the floor. With silent ‘oomph’s, The Pony reached the floor. As it stared across the room to the door it could tell that the light was getting brighter within the room. It breathed heavily, its eyes darting across the floor. Everything seemed so much… bigger down here. As it got brighter The Pony felt a greater sense of urgency. It needed to hurry… Swallowing hard, The Pony made a dash across the floor for the nearest cover.
Its breathing was quick, and it could have sworn beads of sweat covered its body but no time to check. The coffee table, that’s as far as it needed to go for right now, was the coffee table. Almost… almost… and it was over. The Pony stopped its breathing ragged. Perhaps a quick rest, The Pony lay down, it would only be a few more feet.
A click, a door opening. The Pony stayed as still as she could as a pair of white hooves came from what seemed to be the wall. They shuffled slightly, skidding along the floor. The hooves took a turn, walking through the door. The Pony was shaking, holding its breath. Its eyes were petrified, mouth gaping. There was another pony out there, one that was much larger than it was. It had to be the mad pony who did this, and she had gone into the door that The Pony was hoping to have escaped through.
It swallowed, gathering its nerves and crawling forward. It could hear sounds of rhythmic breathing. The mad pony must have fallen asleep, this would be the perfect time for escape. The Pony gathered up all its might, standing once more, and dashing from its hiding place under the coffee table. It ran looking to its left as it passed the couch. The door that it had suspected to be there was firmly shut, the ajar one was its only hope. Through the frame and it was out of the room.
The Pony glanced around, trying to find anything that could possibly be used as a hide-out. Somewhere it could hide. It saw a bed, covers covering the base. Perfect. It headed straight for it, not noticing the grey hooves descending in front of the possible hiding place. It skidded to a halt, not quite understanding what was going on before the scream. It had been spotted, but it couldn’t go back, it wouldn’t go back. It needed an escape route. There was a window, open with a slight breeze rustling the curtains and a table nearby with a chair.
The Pony skidded slightly as it headed towards its new destination. It ignored the voice crying ‘Vinyl! Vinyl!’, managing to climb onto the chair. It looked around for a moment, she saw the mad pony’s head raise from the bed. She turned around blinking blearily with blood red eyes. The Pony shook, her eyes going wide as she quickly turned climbing onto the desk.
‘Hey!’ The voice called out, The Pony hearing shifting sheets. It closed its eyes, running as hard as it could preparing for the worst. The mad pony’s horn could probably grab it from here even. Sure enough The Pony felt the ground leave its feet. It shuddered, before finally opening its eyes. Beneath it wasn’t the room, it was… grey, and black, with some green on the side. The Pony blinked, these strange new colours coming up to greet it quickly.
The Pony crashed into the sidewalk, a crunch of metal and a shattering of glass clearly audible in the early morning quiet. There was a moment where it wondered when it would feel the pain of impact, then quiet entered its mind. Parts of the pony scattered, a nice little heap of metal and glass shaped vaguely like a pony. However, for the first time since it had awoken, The Pony felt peace.