Imprisonment

They all froze, scared out of their minds for what would happen next. It was quite clear that Paty's pact wasn't going to last, especially since it was created out of pure fear. They sat there in the silence trying to keep their heads screwed on straight. They could hear the movement of hoofs going around the carriage. "Open it," a booming voice yelled. A click was heard and the door that kept the failures from leaving slid wide open to a strange place. The walls and floors were made out of rock and stone. The smell of smoke lingering through the place overwhelmed the four ponies as they stepped out of the carriage. Pipes, though nice and clean, were running all over the walls and ceiling. Loud sounds of machines could be heard off in the distance. The ponies that surrounded the carriage were dressed in heavy black armor and wield a long black staff. They looked like Royal Guards of Princess Luna, but they were normal ponies and the armor looked like it was a weaker downgraded version of Royal Guard armor.

"This can't be Cloudsdale," Paty Cake thought as his mind wandered. Cloudsdale was made completely out of clouds. There is no way Paty could have thought about the situation differently. Nothing could be on a cloud unless it is a cloud. Paty listened into the strange environment. The pipes were singing, smoke clogged the air as machines vibrated Paty's ears. Where were they?

"Is this all of them," one of the armored ponies asked.

"No, one tried to make a break for it and got shot," one of the ponies with sunglasses said.

"Okay, so that means that there were five of them."

"Yes, I'll leave you to it to do the next thing."

That conversation shook Paty's mind. "Weren't there two ponies missing?" The pony that got shot was obviously a good point for that pony to be missing, but what just happened to the one that was sleeping just now in the carriage. Paty turned to Storm and whispered as quietly as he could, "What happened to the other pony?"

Storm looked at Paty funny with a confused expression. "They got shot down by something, remember?"

Paty then felt something strange and lost his train of thought. "Yeah, I remember now. Sorry, I think I might have been thinking about something else."

"Be quiet and come with us," an armored pony said to the four. The ponies obliged with no questions asked. So, they followed the strange pony through millions of hallways and corridors; passing through what were called checkpoints guarded by yet more ponies. Where ever they were looked, it seemed to be a really big place and it was obvious that they wanted nothing escaping. Paty Cake got a sense that they weren't leaving anytime soon. The idea of that shook Paty to the core. It seemed like too big of a place for four ponies that failed a Flight Exam to graduate. Paty now wished that his Instructor was there to give him advice on how to respond to this situation and survive it.

The ponies eventually made it to a massive steel door with a sign over it saying Cell Block C. The armored ponies pulled out a bunch of keys that looked exactly alike, selected one, and unlocked the door. It was opened to a massive room full of big bulky metal doors with numbers on them. The ponies got led to one of the doors and it had to be unlocked too. When the door opened, Thunder Game and Skull Crusher were forced into the room then the door shut behind them. The armored pony locked the door and led Paty Cake and Storm Cloud to another door. The pony unlocked it and said "Get in there, now." They walked in while the door shut and locked behind them.

"Well, there goes the group," Storm said and grunted.

"I guess Game's theory about us being in Cloudsdale was off," Paty said.

"Of course it was off, his theory was ridicules. It made no sense at all." Storm was right for once. They were in that carriage way too long for them to still be in Cloudsdale and the other fact is that the structure that they were locked in was made out of things that would fall right through Cloudsdale's cloud floor. It was crazy to think that they were trapped in a carriage for hours going around in circles. Now they had to figure out where they were and why they were there. Paty had no idea how they would ever figure it out though until something happened. He sat down on a bunk bed and took a look around. The room that they were trapped in had little things. A toilet, bunk bed, one source of light which was a lantern, a small vent not fit for a pony to crawl through, and a massive metal door that locked them in.

"This is a very dull room," Paty thought aloud.

"You're telling me," Storm responded back. The room didn't even have any windows so there was no way that they could tell the time of night and day. It was grey and rock with a horribly cold chill. At least they had a bunk with a few blankets and pillows. Despite that simple little amount of comfort, the one horrible thing that truly crossed Paty's mind was that he was locked in a room with Storm Cloud. One of the two major ponies that had picked on him for years and just to make matters worse, Paty had a fight with him recently. He wanted everything but this.

Storm Cloud yawned with his mouth wide open and said, "We should go to bed, I'm feeling pretty tired and I'm sure you are too." Paty couldn't have agreed more.

"Yeah, I sure am," he exclaimed.

"Okay then, I call the top bunk," Stormed screamed cheerfully as he jumped toward it. He landed nicely on the top and started slipping in his blanket and Paty hit the bottom hoping that the light would go out by itself but instead he had to blow it out and stumble back in complete darkness. He hit his bunk and slipped into the blanket. When he got settled, Storm said, "You know when we get out of here I'm going to beat you up."

Paty Cake smiled happily. "That's the least of my worries," he explained.

"Mine too," Storm said. They shut their eyes and fell asleep almost instantly from all the stressed they had just experienced. The silence slipped in as they dreamed the night away.

"Princess, you have to stop this," the Royal Guard yelled. Princess Celestia looked back at him with great uneasiness.

"I am going to do my job to the best of my ability," she said grimly. She tried to push herself to raise the sun even further, but she could barely move it at all.

"Princess, for good sake, you need to stop before you kill yourself!"

"I have to try!" She kept pushing and pushing, but it was no use and the Princess collapsed to the floor. The guard got to the floor to see if the Princess was okay. She was still breathing and conscious, but her breathing was heavy and fast while the bags under her eyes had grown bigger and and darker.

"Princess, there has to be a better solution to this than tackling every task on at once."She looked back at him weary and sick. Tears ran down her cheeks as she begun to cry.

"I miss my sister," she said with a shaking voice.

"Princess, it has been five months since the incident. You need to push through and figure out a solution to handle all these various tasks."

"Will you help me figure it out," she asked him.

"I will, but for right now, you need to get some rest. You have been pushing yourself too hard and you haven't had a good nights rest ever since you had to banish your sister. Here, I'll lead you to your bedroom and you can go to bed. When you wake up, we'll figure it out, Okay?" She nodded and the guard pulled her off the floor. The two headed for her room.

"Thank you," the Princess said.

"It's my job to protect you and make sure that you can do your job," the guard responded. She smiled in slight joy.

"You sure do your job well."

"I wish I did my job this well a few month ago before this had to happen," the guard got to her bedroom and the guard stopped in front of the door. "Do you think you can manage from here," he asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine," she said. She opened the door and shut it behind her. She stumbled to her bed and fell onto it. "Why Luna," she whispered as her she went to sleep. Many hours later, the Princess awoke feeling a little better. She still had overwhelming stress and depression, but she was more awake than usual. She went to her conference room where she held military meetings and invited the guard from last night, Silver Streak, along with a few other ponies from the Royal Guard. When they all got there, the Princess pulled out a list of all the things she had to do after Princess Luna was banished to the moon. She cleared her throat and red these tasks aloud:

Raising the sun, raising the moon, selecting Pegasi for the Royal Guard, protecting forests, selecting days for it to rain, barricading the Everfree forest, clearing the skies, changing the seasons, dragon watching, night watches, creating rainbows, watching out for the Crystal Empire, teaching students in magic, and leadership training. Celestia looked at the Pegasi that sat before her and said, "We need to figure out which things we have to keep and which ones have to go so I can perform my duties properly. Any suggestions?" The ponies looked at each other and and started a discussion.

One guard suggested, "What if we were to remove the barrier surrounding the Everfree forest."

"That actually sounds like a good idea," Silver Streak said.

"What if the forest creatures try to leave the forest when we do that," the Princess asked.

"Our statistics say that hardly any creature ever goes anywhere near the barrier so the chances of that happening are very slim," another pony said.

"Very well, I'll drop the barrier." The Princess used her ability of magic to rid of the barrier that had enveloped the Everfree forest before. It was very relieving to drop the barrier and the Princess felt less stressed to not have a spell constantly cast.

"That may not be enough for you to perform your royal duties Princess, we have to take a few more steps to ensure that you can perform your royal duties for Equestria," another pony said.

"What if we get rid of the major spell casting but leave the rise of the sun and moon," Silver Streak said. "What if we give those tasks to others." The Princess thought about it. She felt that the Pegasi could have control over the weather and that the wildlife care system could go to somepony else.

"Okay, here's how I feel. How about we give weather control to the Pegasi and make a wildlife care agency somewhere. Also, we could ditch this constant watch for the Crystal Empire because that's pretty stupid at this point, it's not coming back," one of the ponies said.

"No, I'll post some troops at the Empires last location if I have to, but we are not giving up on an entire civilization," the Princess said.

"Fine, we'll post troops there, but what about everything else," the pony said.

"Pegasi already have a little control over the weather so we'll give it all to them," Silver Streak said.

"I agree Silver Streak, that's our best option," the Princess said. "I think that about wraps this meeting up!"

"Wait, what about the creation of rainbows," one of the ponies asked. Everypony had no idea what to say about that. The Princess had been creating rainbows for years and it never has been decided what to do about that. "Without rainbows, Cloudsdale's structure would fall apart. That city doesn't have a good situation right now and without rainbows it'll only get harder for them."Silver Streak had a suggestion.

"How about we give them the spell you have been using all this time. I know that only Royalty should ever know about that spell, but we are in an extreme situation. Plus, it would be one less thing to worry about."

"I had never thought of that. The problem is that since it requires magic, the Unicorns have to help make the spectra to create it and it wouldn't be as strong as the spectrum that I can make," the Princess said. She knew very well that the rainbow process would be much slower and time consuming. It wouldn't be a lot either. The effectiveness of the rainbows would be poor.

"Princess, we have to try it," Silver Streak said. The other ponies nodded their heads in agreement.

"Very well then," the Princess said. "We have to try."

Paty became slightly conscience. "Okay Paty, once you open your eyes you'll be back on your little cloud in the city and realize that all of that hoofing stuff was just a dream," he told himself, but he opened them to a dark and cold cell that he was locked in. For some reason, the lantern was on even though Paty blew it out. When he arose, he saw Storm Cloud by the cell door sitting there waiting for something to happen. " What are you doing," Paty asked.

Storm turned to him. "Oh, you're awake."

"Of course I'm awake, what's happening?"

"One of those armored guys stopped by and said that they were going to take us somewhere to eat," Storm said gladly. "I haven't had anything to eat since last night."

Paty got off the bed and went over to the door to wait. When he got there, Storm looked at him funny. "You look really sick. Did you sleep well?"

"No, I had had this weird dream last night about Princess Celestia."

"Well, I realize how dumb my question was considering all that happened last night. Who could have a good rest after that?" Paty Cake had a diff erent point of view, though. That dream wasn't a night terror, though it was pretty strange to have. After waiting a little while, the guard that Storm referred to stopped by and opened the door.

"Okay, follow me to the lunch room," they said.

"We'll be right behind you," Paty said. They followed closely behind knowing that the guard would have no problem killing them right there. The armored stallion led them through many areas eventually leading to a massive cafeteria full of hundreds of ponies eating what truly looked like good food. Both Paty Cake and Storm Cloud were stunned at the sight of all the ponies that filled the room. Only five ponies failed the Flight Exam so they couldn't comprehend where all these other ponies came from. The most stunning thing about it was the fact that not only were Pegasus ponies eating, but Earth ponies and Unicorns were too. "Where in Equestria are we," Paty thought to himself surprised.

"Find a seat and they will bring you a meal," the guard said. Paty and Storm went searching for a seat when they heard, "Hey guys, over here!" It was Thunder Game and Skullcrusher who were eating a large bowl of salad.

"Hello there," Storm said happily to see a familiar face. They took a seat with the ponies and waited for their meal.

"So, what's going on," Paty asked.

"We're not to sure, but we found out that everypony sitting at these tables are prisoners like us," Crusher explained.

"Prisoners," Storm asked.

Game replied, "Yeah, we're pretty much just trapped here at this point with absolutely no escape."

"What do they want from us," Paty asked.

"To just keep us contained I guess," Game said.

"Though, some of the other prisoners said that they take blood tests on us and that sometimes a cell will get selected randomly and the ponies in the cell get taken somewhere else," Crusher said.

"Where," Sorm asked.

"Nopony has any idea," Crusher said.

Paty Cake shook his head in obvious disbelief. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Well, I did tell you that you were going fail, Paty Blank," Storm said. Paty wanted to call him out on the fact that he failed too, but he didn't want to have anymore trouble with the pony he was locked in a room with. Nor did Paty want to look like a fool in front of him, so he didn't respond back.

In the heat of the moment, a pony dropped by with two bowls of nice and colorful salad and gave it to Paty Cake and Storm.

"Thank you," Paty said. The pony nodded and continued on. Then Paty dove his head in the bowl like a pig and started eating away. It felt like he hadn't had a meal in one thousand years. The leaves were vibrant green and juicy, but somehow crunchy too. It was the perfect meal.

"So, did you guys get separated from each other, too," Game asked.

"No, we got locked in the same cell together," Storm replied.

"You guys got lucky," Crusher exclaimed. "We got split up a few minutes after we got to the first cell!"

"Not really," Storm said. Paty knew Storm would want to be stuck with somepony other than him. Though, the good one thing about the situation was the salad. Still, Paty Cake had more questions than what to with. He wanted to figure out what was going on. After they had eaten, everypony in the room got escorted back to their cell two at a time. Paty and Storm eventually got taken back to their cell and was locked in.

"Just when I had a good meal, I'm back here," Paty said as Storm jumped on the bunk bed.

"This place sucks," Storm said out of complete boredom.

"I had to get sick right in the middle of my Exam and fail."

"That sounds like an excuse, Paty Cake."

"No, I swear, it was really strange. I was flying through the hoops when suddenly I just felt sick and dizzy. I blacked out and crashed." Paty even realized how ridiculous that sounded.

"Look, we're in a pretty bad way, I don't think it matters how we failed or not." Paty felt that Storm was right. There was no point in complaining about how they failed the Exam. All that did matter was trying to survive.

"Paty, I'm going to take another nap, that guard woke me up early, so see you in a bit." Paty felt the same way, so he blew the light out and went to bed.

Paty was in a much different environment. He was in a room with a bunch of other ponies that he couldn't make out at first. "Uh, hello," he asked. He trotted over to them and shockingly realized who they were. The Princesses were there. Princess Celestia, Luna, Twilight Sparkle, Cadence, and a few others that Paty was still trying to make out. His vision was very blurry and his hearing was muffled. He could hear them, but could not understand them. "Hello," he asked again. He tried to focus really hard on them to see and hear them, then succeeded. They were surrounding a table with papers and a map of Cloudsdale on it. Paty looked at the other ponies. There was white pony, orange one with a hat, pink one, and the last pony he was looking at was unbelievable. "Fluttershy," Paty exclaimed, but nopony could hear him.

"I still think this is a little extreme," Fluttershy said.

"Yes, but it's even more extreme there and we have to rid of it," Princess Luna explained.

"Sure, but why put him out there, not somepony else." Luna looked at Fluttershy with pure straight eyes.

"It had to be one of the selected few, and I chose him."

"But he seemed so worried about fa…"

"I don't need to tell you how important this is, do I?" Fluttershy looked down in shame.

"Sorry," she said.

"Look, we need to focus on our tasks and pray that everything goes smoothly," Celestia said. "Hey, you might even be able to get her out of there." Twilight nodded in agreement.

"Right, but we have to worry about her later. We have to stay focused on what's going on now." The ponies all looked at each other and nodded proudly.

"Okay, now here's what I…" Celestia said before her sister cut her off.

"Be quiet, somepony's watching us."

"Paty, wake up," Storm said. "You have to get up."

"Why? I'm too tired to move." Storm nudged Paty hard on the side.

"You have to get up!" Paty opened his eye's to Storm, who looked really worried. Paty turned his head to three ponies in medical suits waiting for him to get off the bed.

"Who the hey are these dudes," Paty thought to himself. One of them was holding a tray of two needles that were completely empty. Paty arose and hopped off the bed to meet with them.

"Sorry that we woke you ponies up, but this is really important," one of them told Paty and Storm.

"What is it that you want," Storm asked.

"We need to take blood samples from you two," the one with the tray said.

"Blood samples? Why in the world would you need blood samples," Paty aked.

"Look, it very important that we do this and it is none of your business why we need them, just do what you are told." Paty and Storm looked at each other and nodded. What choice did they have?

"Will it hurt," Storm asked.

"No, it shouldn't," they said. Storm went to them first and held his hoof out. They searched for a good spot then slid the needle in without the use of some medicine to help with the pain, however, it didn't seem to affect Storm all that much. They begun to draw a small sample of blood and then wrapped a small bandage around the area where they drew it. Storm backed off and now it was Paty's turn. He stepped up and did just the same. It only hurt for a couple seconds then it was done. The ponies said thank you and left the cell.

"Well, that was a little strange," Storm said.

"Yeah, your telling me." Storm looked over at Paty.

"How's your head. Your bandage looks a little gross."

"It feels okay, but I'm scared to take it off."

"Keep it on, just in case," Storm said. The two ponies almost was completely calm when suddenly large screaming sounds started wailing and the cell door opened right before their eyes, but were too scared to move out of it. Finally, the sounds stopped.

"Okay, everypony step out of your cell," a guard yelled. Paty and Storm along with everypony else in the Cell Block stepped out to a guard on a balcony above. Others were stationed throughout the block.

"Okay, listen up! Four ponies have just breached containment so we are going one a massive search of every cell to determine if anypony else is trying to escape. Just stay clear and don't try anything stupid!" The thought of escape shot through Paty's mind.

"How could anything escape from this." Storm tapped Paty.

"I'm a little worried."

"Okay, here are the ponies that escaped. Number 204, Number 59, Number 506, and Number 52," the guard said. Paty just got a cold chill running up his spine. That last number was Thunder Game, who he saw at breakfast that very same day.

"Did he just say that Thunder Game escaped from his cell," Storm asked.

"That is exactly what he said," Paty said as confused as ever. How did Thunder Game escape? Paty felt that one of the other numbers mentioned was Skullcrusher while the other two were just the extras in the cell. After the long and painful search, Paty and Storm ended up right back in their cell with now a million more questions.

"How did they escape," Storm asked.

"I have literally no idea!"

"C'mon, we have to find a way out of here." Storm and Paty searched the entire cell, but it was no use. There was only one exit which was a giant metal door that was locked from the other side. "Well, that was pointless," Paty said.

"Yeah, it was," Storm replied.

"So, what now."

"Now? Well, I guess we wait."