Pinkie Pie awoke slowly, teetering on the edge of consciousness, mind clawing up at the abyss of sleep. She realized, groggily, that something was off.

The mare willed herself to get up, thoughts still slick with the residue of a dream. Why did it feel like she had eaten way too many spicy cupcakes? Why was her bed so cold?

Pinkie shook her herself, stretched her fetlocks, and managed to pull herself up in a slouching position. She couldn't hear the Cakes downstairs, cooing at the rambunctious twins, couldn't feel the breeze wafting through her open window. Something in her head snapped back to life. Where am I?

Pinkie's eyes flew open with a new energy, heart pounding. That one question brought such a horrible feeling upon her, a feeling of unknown. If there was ever one thing she despised more than seeing others' despair, it was the aching emptiness of questioning everything. Who am I? Why am I here? Those thoughts had so often rang in her head as a filly, until she had discovered her true passion: making others happy.

But the fear was back full on, as Pinkie opened her eyes to most definantly not her warm, familiar bedroom, but a shiny steel room. It was about 6 by 6 feet, cold to the touch, and deathly silent. The air had a thick scent of medicine and reminded Pinkie of a sterile hospital.

She screamed.

The sound ripped itself from her throat, high and loud and raw. Pinkie screamed until her throat felt strangled and her lungs empty, eyes threatening tears.

That wasn't her was it? Pinkie gasped, raspy, frightened that a noise like that would ever pass her lips.

The pony took a shaking breath, praying to Celestia this was a dream. No, a nightmare. But when the breath was let out, and Pinkie's eyes wide, she was still there.

Fear begining to drown her, Pinkie Pie whipped her head, side to side, and pinched herself. Nothing.

"What?" Pinkie voice was hardly more than a whisper, cracking. Why was she still here, in this room? Pinkie lurched to her hooves, ready to run, but she stumbled and fell-hard. The impact was jarring, and she cried out, bewildred.

There was something holding her down on each hoof, loose enough to be not noticed by the oblivious pony, but taunt enough to be confining. Chains. They snaked up to thick disks around her legs, and hung down into plates on the floor, all the same shiny metal.

They struck the terror further into Pinkie's heart, and she skittered up, gasping for air. She pulled in vain, almost tripping, but the chains never moved from its' place. She wasn't so sort of criminal! She didn't need to be chained! Pinkie struggled at her bindings again, arms shaking. She wanted so desperatly to shriek, if it wern't for the dull pain that emitted from her chest. Pinkie glanced down, forgetting her problem momentarily over her curiousity.

Hmm, a slightly bloodied steel chip lodged in that pink chest, with a bunch of weird numbers on it. Strange. Oh, that's my chest.

Pinkie fumbled blindly with the tag, yanking on it until the sharp pain made her stop, blood dripping from her hooves. It was an identification tag, no doubt in her mind, that read; Xprw5601, and in the corner, a little design. She squinted, fighting the way her body wilted.

Advanced Equine Studies for the Greater Good

For a second her mind went blank. And then it clicked, and sent a chill down Pinkie's spine. Advanced Studies. That sounded like an organization, a science thing, a great thing. Not an awful group that would do this to her, right? Surely they knew what was happening. After all, it was for the greater good. But nothing seemed 'good' about Pinkie's situation.

Yet along with the sinking realization, a small hope kindled inside of her. Maybe, someone was watching, would help her out of the tiny room.

Pinkie stood straight, shivering, and lifted her head up, ignoring the pain her tag sent. " Please, can you get me out of here? Someone?" Pinkie coughed thickly, craning her head up as if to look for a camera. Her volume rose. "HELP! I need to get out! PLEASE?! Won't someone help me?" Her words broke. Nopony answered, nothing stirred. "Please...."

Pinkie sank to her haunches, deflated. She felt some one was watching, seeing a poor filly strapped to the floor, crying, pleading, but just....watching.

---------------------

A whirring sound startled Pinkie from her deep stuper, who was staring at the wall.  It brought her alive, and she jumped (as high as the chains would allow her) and whirled around, searching for the source. But the sound seemed to come from every direction, changing octaves, growing louder, more intense. To Pinkie's surprise, the walls began to move.

They lifted up and folded neatly into slits in the celing, filling Pinkie with a sense of excitement. They were going to let her go!

But instead of an exit, the only thing that greeted Pinkie were... more shiny walls, that extended into another room.

What? Pinkie reeled back, shocked. How many ponies were going through the same thing she was? She craned her neck around the corner to see further into the room- and froze. A shape huddled in the corner, blue and feathered.

Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie gasped and pulled forward. "Rainbow!" She called, unbelieving. Her friend jerked her head up in surprise, and gaped at the mare. Her eyes were wide.

Pinkie smiled tearfully. It was her! But before Pinkie could move again, the whirring sound kicked in and shook the floor slightly. Dumbstruck, Pinkie watched as Dash slid across the shiny smooth floor on a circle of metal beneath her hooves, coming to a stop a few feet away from her.

"Pinkie, is it really you?" Dash's voice was raw and bewildred.

" Yep! Why wouldn't it be?" Pinkie reached out to hug Dash, but she was just a few inches away.

Rainbow didn't respond, her gaze focused on something behind Pinkie, jaw slack.

Pinkie turned against her bindings and started at the sight of the rest of her friends. Residing in the same chains, they moved in by the floor system, glancing wildly around. The 6 mares staring at each other in shocked silence, tension thick enough to cut.

Then the silence erupted with the voices of many young ponies, grappling at the worst moment of their lives, shouting above all to be heard. Pinkie found that she had joined in too.

"What the hay is goin' on yall?"

"Girls, I'm scared!"

"Everypony just stay calm, all right?"

"This is freakin' insane! Whoever is doing this is going to pay!"

"Darlings, is anyone elses' chains really started to chaft?"

"This is so not fun, ponies! But you can help right? Do you all know what's happening?"

They turned to Pinkie with mixed emotions. "No, Pinkie. I-I'm sorry, I don't. We all just woke up here, and quite frankly, I'm very frightened." Twilight face softened, and she looked down, a tear leaking out.

"Twi, no! Ah'm not lettin' us, ya, give up like that! We're gonna solve this and be right as rain, yall see!" Applejack reassured her, but Pinkie was skeptical.

Apparently so was Rainbow Dash. "Seriously Applejack? This is not fine at all! We dont need to plan, we need action right now! Who's with me?!"

Fluttershy squeaked in response.

"Rainbow, that's one of the most thick-headed ideas Ahv'e ever heard! Yeah, lets go break out of these chains an' smash the walls down with our bare hooves! Awesome!" Applejack threw her eyes back in exasperation.

Pinkie, for some reason, couldn't hold in a crazed snicker. They were fighting at a time like this?

Rainbow seethed. "That's not what i meant, you-"

She was cut off by the all too familar sound of moving metal. Their was a collective gulp.

The walls folded down quickly, sliding back down into the smooth ground, and causing Pinkie's stomach to seize up. She hadn't realized how much she needed that extra space. She heard Rarity make a strangled noise, half cry and shriek.

" Their closing. WHY are the walls CLOSING again?!? WHY?" Fluttershy trembled, reaching volumes Pinkie never thought possible.

The room settled with a click.

Pinkie's body went ridgid.

"Good Morning, everypony!" A chipper voice boomed suddenly, giving Pinkie a heart attack. The feminine voice was oddly cheerful for such an occasion. "I trust you all had a restful sleep."

"Now, I understand your'e all confused right now, but just listen to me and everything will be fine, all right?"

Pinkie's ears flicked up in anticipation.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, you fillies, and many more ponies are part of our AESGG program. Some may worry about the pureness of our intentions, but it is all for the best in the end." The intercomm crackled. Pinkie narrowed her eyes. If it had anything to do with locking a pony up against their will, no way would anything good come out of that.

"Well, now, it will spoil the fun if I give too much away, but I guess your all wondering what your doing as part of the greater good."

Twilight gave a incoherent grumble.

"So, allow me to explain the basics of our expirement. In front of each of you will be a button, to put it simply. The staff at our company have designed them to, when pushed, release the chains around your hooves, and you will be able to escape this room, ok?"

Rarity sighed in relief, and Pinkie felt herself relax a little. Escape

Applejack gave the celing a weird look."But there's a catch, ain't there, honey?" Her tone was bitter and patranizing, eyebrow raised. The group of friends waited with baited breath.

"Oh? A catch. Yes, I suppose so. The walls, though they arn't very wide to begin with, are only going to get closer and closer. And you know how that will end. But, as I mentioned earlier, if you wish to be free from the creeping walls, simply push the button! The catch, however, is that only one button can be pressed, therefore only one pony can escape. Every hour, the sides will move, oh, just a foot or so in, so you have so time to decide who the lucky pony is!"

"Good luck, and goodbye!"

The intercomm clicked off to complete and utter silence. Pinkie didn't move, nopony did. Maybe she had imagined the whole thing. Maybe the mare had never really just said she was leaving all but one of them to die.

Maybe- the quiet shattered like glass,  due to Fluttershy's wracking sobs.

The sound was both heart-wrenching and terrifying, quiet, weak, hopeless. Fluttershy fell to the floor in her hooves, shaking in her cries, gasping, screaming, ...broken.

Her cries were joined quickly in by Rarity, hooves fluttering over her bloodied chest, sobs more real than they'd ever been to Pinkie's ears.

The mare felt herself begining to lose it. They were going to die. Never had one word felt so vile and despairing on her lips. Pinkie collasped to her haunches, and managed to wrap her shaking arms around Applejack. The farm mare shook with hardly contained terror. Pinkie's own eyes began to flood with tears.

This couldn't be happening.

Twilight Sparkle, strong leader and Alicorn Princess, always thinking on her hooves: broke

Rainbow Dash, arrogant, confident flyer, most daring pony in Equestria: gone

All her friends collasping under the looming weight of death, the unknown, hardly even able to reach each other for comfort. Pinkie shut her eyes.

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