Claustrophobia, is the uncontrollable fear of small and cramped spaces.

The Excalibur was not large, or even big for that matter. So it was a little cramped when it came to the interior section. I am eternally grateful that none of us were claustrophobic, or I would have knocked them unconscious. Princess Twilight Sparkle had surrounded Excalibur with her Elite Crown Guard and we locked ourselves inside to stop us being interrogated, or worse, arrested.

It had been no longer than ten minutes, and I already wanted to rip her face off. I don't think I hated someone more than her.

"So now what?" Star asked, with a undertone of worry.

"Ask Santa Clause for his sleigh. What do you think, dumbass?" I sarcastically retorted.

Star winced at that, but I continued to ignore him and the other two guys.

I was staring outside the reinforced glass, trying to see where all the Elite Crown Guard was posted at. As far as I could tell from my position and awkward view, there were three guards by the bay doors, two on each side and a final two in front of us, staring right into the cockpit.

Right at me. Smug bastards.

And all of this was overseen by Twilight herself. She'd occasionally pace into view and inspect a tool or object that I had constructed, just to piss me off. Luckily I made the cockpit glass one way, so that it was glare-proof. Otherwise it would be awkward to see Twilight reading my lips and figuring out that I was calling her all the words under Celestia's Sun.

The bitch deserved it though.

I got down from the pilot seat and looked around all the cargo containers, hatches and scattered tools for some sort of option to help us. Like I did the first five times, I came up empty.

"Does this thing even have electricity?" Armstrong asked as he was led on his back, staring at the ceiling of the interior.

"Think of it like a car. It needs the battery to start. So I had Star construct a magical battery that had enough juice to fire up the Crystal Core and all critical systems before letting the Core take over. Why, what are you thinking?" I asked Armstrong, raising my eyebrows.

I couldn't raise only one of my eyebrows. And I resented anyone who could and showed it off in front of me.

"Does the battery have enough juice to run the thrusters for a short time, for us to get away?" Armstrong replied.

"Long answer: the battery cannot supply enough power to the Magical Field Injectors for the thrusters, while trying to sustain power to the mainframe and life support. Short answer? No." I said simply before sitting on my haunches in a tantrum.

I hated being so helpless, but the worst thing of all is what would happen to us if Twilight caught us.

Throw us in a Equestrian Correctional Facility for a few years?

Impound, analyse, dismantle and destroy all of Excalibur, including the plans?

Deliver us to Celestia and Luna herself so that they can judge us themselves?

I really didn't know, and I was scared to find out. But I was content with being sealed inside Excalibur. At least I knew I was quite safe. Speaking of safety, how long did I program the emergency life support to be active for?

...Fuck.

"What do you want from us?" Star shouted through the crack in the bay doors.

"Twilight wants to talk to you four ponies. She has things to ask you." The burly Captain responded with a gravel in his voice.

"Yeah, talk." I said while raising my forelegs in the air as I said "talk", imitating quotation marks.

"Fuck that, she'd have us tied up, tortured and all of our information mentally stolen from us!" Armstrong said a bit too loudly for my liking.

"Shut up you fucking idiot!" I snapped at Armstrong through gritted teeth.

"Well, what do we do?" Star asked, looking around.

"I see two options." I said coldly.

Everyone else looked right at me and waited for what I had to say.

"One. We somehow manage to disarm all the guards around us, run for miles and miles, exile ourselves from Equestria, remain fugitives for all our lives and never see home again."

Everyone looked at me with a "are you insane?" type of look.

"Two. We turn ourselves in. Or one of us turns ourselves in on one condition; the rest are released without charge at all."

All of their faces dropped.

"Are you insane!?" Barrel said with a strain of anger in his voice.

"You do know that they'll keep chasing us unless we talk to them? We cannot get home if we are not fugitives. And to be honest, day-to-day pony life is better when you are not on the run." I retorted.

I mean sure, The Golden Oaks Job got us the scroll and aiding Discord in his mass-prank got us what we needed to finish The Crystal Core, but was it all worth it?

I was starting to think not.

All it gained us was wanted levels, our home and equipment seized, loss of what friends we had and now we were stuck inside the dead shell of a stupid idea. I sank to my haunches and placed my head in my forelegs.

"I just want to go home. I don't want to be chased all the time." I said, my voice quivering slightly.

My head was filled with so many conflicted thoughts at that moment in time, I wouldn't have cared if they killed us all.

"I'll hand myself in." Barrel said, looking down.

"Don't be fucking stupid, I'll do it." Armstrong replied to him.

"None of you are fucking doing it. I'm doing it. And you three are going scot-free. I'm going to make sure of it. I just need you to understand that if I do end up in some sort of jail, take as long as you need to figure out the way home. Just, don't forget me?" I said, a tear rolling from my eye.

"Great speech. Now, how about the best man?" Star said with the slightest of smiles.

"Yeah yeah, fuck you." I spat.

"Seriously though, if we are going to surrender, we need to do it rationally. Get our stories straight before we even leave this place." Star said, ignoring my insult.

I pondered the idea over. Perhaps we were thinking about this the wrong way. If we could pull it off as lost ponies, trying to find purpose, we could get out with no more than a slap on the wrist.

"Firstly, we need an origin story." I said thoughtfully.

"Needs to be somewhere without magic or flight, because we knew how to use neither when we arrived." Barrel chipped in.

"Griffins have flight, and Dragons have Firebreath which is a technical type of magic. How about the Minotaurs?" Armstrong said, surprising me that he knew about Firebreath.

"Yeah, that would make sense. And they are a mildly technological race. If they were the only sentient race on the planet, they'd be like us." Barrel replied.

"So, we were raised in Minotauria then? That's settled. When we came of age, our adoptive parents told us that we are not like them and we should have been from Equestria? How does that sound?" I said apprehensively.

"Sounds believable, I guess." Armstrong answered.

"At least then it's a quest for purpose, our Cutie Marks and maybe even our 'parents'. We could say that we are not entirely used to Equestrian Society, that's why we are kinda shunned away." I suggested.

"Alright, we will all stick to that then. And we were not born together. We all met in different circumstances." Barrel said.

"But do not mention Earth at all. And I mean references or anything." I said sternly.

"Well, duh. That'll blow our cover and we'll get done even more." Barrel replied.

"So how are we gonna go about doing this? Walk out? Fore hooves raised? Shout conditions of our release?" Armstrong asked curiously, with a hint of sarcasm.

"I suggest we ask what she wants to do. She might not even want to arrest us, she could just take us somewhere or something." I mumbled, tapping my hood on my chin.

"I fucking hope we are not instantly arrested." Barrel spat.

I walked over to the bay doors and cracked them ajar ever so slightly.

"Hello? Anyone?" I shouted outside.

No more than 10 seconds later, I saw that burly captain in front of me, looking right at me through the gap I intentionally made small.

"You had enough of stirring?" He said in that gravelly voice again.

"No, we've just calmed down. I want to speak with Princess Twilight personally." I retorted.

He simply huffed and walked away, without a response. I assumed he went to fetch Princess Twilight.

Two minutes later, a familiar purple figure stood in front of me.

"Princess Twilight." I said sourly.

"Mr Circuit Boost, it's a pleasure. I just hope that you wish to keep it that way." She snarked.

She was a bit more cocky than we was in the series.

"I have heard that you wish to have an audience with us?" I said, trying my hardest to not get sarcastic in anyway.

"Yes, I would like you and your three accomplices to come with me, on a secure train to Canterlot. We wish to have formal statements from each one of you, regarding yesterday's events." She smirked.

She was good. Very good.

"Then I would like conditions before we accompany. Or we will refuse complete co-operation." I said, hinting at a smirk of my own.

"Then name them." She instantly snapped.

"First, we are not being arrested in any way and I would like that in writing, signed by you. Second, I do not want you touching this project or anything relating to it. That even means illegal or dangerous equipment that may be installed or in the vicinity. And third, snacks on the train there." I smirked, as I could not resist saying the last statement.

"Deal, as long as you agree to my condition." She said, looking up, trying to act innocent.

I bet she's tried anal multiple times, the dirty bitch.

"Please continue?" I said, pushing the last thought to the back of my mind.

"Your interviews shall be in the presence of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and I."

All blood rushed from my face to my heart. Now I was scared.

Stoning my best poker face possible, I agreed.

"Then it's settled. Let me explain what's happening to the others and we'll come out once we are done." I said to Twilight, backing away from the bay doors.

"Please, take your time." She said with a flat smile before I closed the gap in the bay doors, releasing my eye contact with her.

As soon as the bay doors locked together, I sighed heavily and turned towards the guys slowly.

"And?" Barrel asked apprehensively.

"We're going for formal interviews about the other day in front of three of the Princesses. And Cadence cannot make it. We're getting a train there once I-" I said before being interrupted.

"Interviews by Celestia and Luna!? Fuck that!" Barrel said, nearly screaming.

"Calm the fuck down! Stick to the back story, and we'll be fine. None of this is getting confiscated and we have even got food on the train there." I said, nearly smirking.

"Food? Oh man, I am so fucking hungry." Armstrong said, looking at his barrel.

"Exactly why I pulled that off. We cannot focus of we are hungry." I added.

"Alright, since we know, are we going now?" Barrel asked.

"Yeah, once we finish this conversation. I am guessing we will get escorted to Ponyville Train Station, board a private and secure car and begin our journey to Canterlot. Or what I want call it; Cunterlot." I said, giggling.

Despite the circumstances, we all had a bit of a laugh.

I opened the bay doors and waved my hoof up and down, and five of the biggest guards surrounded us.

"Comfy?" I said to the guard closest to me.

He obviously ignored my quip and stood attention to his Captain, that was approaching us.

"If you four would like to follow us. We have a train waiting for you." The Captain said.

We were in no position to put up a fight or run. So we calmly walked behind the captain, continuously surrounded in all directions.

As we walked through the outskirts of Ponyville, some of the townspeople gathered around and started commenting on why four ponies were being heavily escorted to a train that was heading straight to Canterlot.

Fuck the lot of them.

After a tense few minutes, we arrived at Ponyville Train Station. And there was a car with our names written all over it. And what I meant by that, was that it was covered in a dark blue magic hue, as if Luna enchanted it... Which she did. Anti-magic and momentum dampener field.

But it was loaded with food. So the four of us climbed aboard and we were surprised when the car was locked shut behind us, giving us the entire car to ourselves.

"If we weren't on the way to getting grilled by the Princesses, this would be heavenly right now." Mario said before getting stuck into piles of sandwiches.

"Yeah, it really would. And I think it's gonna take us about 5 hours to get to Cunterlot so we can feast all we like." I said as I laid across a double seat in the corner of the car.

As we all decided to get some food and tuck in, the train started up and we were away. And I was counting down every minute, until I had eaten five sandwiches and two cakes. It didn't surprise me when I fell into a deep sleep, because I didn't even realise how exhausted I really was.

I just hoped I could get some peaceful sleep before we get confronted by the Princesses.

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