A small, weak groan was the first thing that escaped my lips as I groggily came to my senses. My eyes were squeezed shut, and I found I was hesitant to open them.

"Oi, she's waking up. Pepper, douse her would ya?"

I didn't even have time to be properly confused when something freezing cold was splashed onto my face and neck. my eyes snapped wide open and I let out a sharp gasp before raising my head.

I was lying sideways on a cold metal surface that rumbled and shook below me. The sound of rattling chains were the next thing that caught my attention.

I looked down to see that all four of my hooves were chained together. There were also metal clamps affixed to my wings, and flapping them proved to be a pointless endeavor.

"W-Wha—"

"It's about buckin' time ya woke up, princess," came a gruff voice from somewhere to my left, "now maybe we can get somewhere."

I turned towards the sound of the voice and was taken further aback when I saw the heavy thicket of trees pass me by behind a set of thick, sturdy looking iron bars.

I was trapped in an iron cage just big enough to hold me. That cage seemed to be on some sort of large wagon that traveled along a rough road littered with dark brown soil, fallen branches, and small twisting tree roots.

Looking up, I could just barely make out a few thin rays of sunlight poking through the large mass of branches and leaves that blotted out most of the sky.

From the look of it, I was in some kind of thick forest.

"I..." I blinked a few times and started to rise to my hooves, wincing as the hoofcuffs bit into my legs, "w-what's going on? Where's..."

As my vision fully returned, I could see that the wagon was a lot larger than I initially thought. To my immediate left was another cage, this one empty.

On the opposite side of where I was sat a thin, but lean looking earth pony stallion with a bright yellow coat and a short, messy dark green mane.

He stared at me with hard orange eyes and a wary frown. My eyes passed over his face and down towards the empty wooden bucket he held in his hooves, the stallion looking as though he was poised to toss its contents.

Judging by my sopping wet mane and fur though, it looked like he already had. I was reminded of this fact when a particularly cool breeze blew past me and made me shiver involuntarily.

"W-Who are you, a-and where's..."

I noticed the other two cages behind the stallion. One was also empty like the one next to me, but the other one held another pony, clapped in irons the same as I was.

My eyes widened as I realized just who that pony was.

"S-Starlight?" I cried, stumbling closer to the bars of my cage, "Starlight, is that you? Can you hear me?"

I ignored everything else around me as I tried to get the pale pink unicorn's attention. She sat slumped against the side of her cage, unconscious from the looks of it. Looking closer, I could see a few slowly fading bruises around her barrel and one on her cheek.

She'd been hurt, but remained completely unresponsive.

It was then that I noticed the small circle of metal surrounding her horn, and to my horror, I could feel the same cold metal near the base of my own horn now that I was paying attention to it.

Anti-magic horn rings? Chains? Cages? What in Celestia's name is—

"I think your friend might be in a coma, princess," came that same gruff voice, "won't respond to a thing we say, and roughin' her up didn't do any good either."

I finally turned to see another pony sitting at the head of the wagon and looking back at me with a strange, self satisfied smirk. The pony was a short and stubby looking sandy brown unicorn stallion with a short cut dark brown mane and a nasty scar over one of his cobalt blue eyes.

"Never mind the vegetable," he continued, "I wanna know more about you, princess. Not too often we get another alicorn out here, let alone all busted up and unconscious in the middle of nowhere like that."

He chuckled as though he was telling a particularly funny joke.

"In fact, I ain't never seen another alicorn besides the Queen herself," his smile turned thoughtful as he looked me up and down, "y'know, at first I thought it was some kinda trick. Thought someone was havin' a real good laugh at my expense.

"But then we gathered you an' the vegetable up an' you started healin' in your cage. Before Pepper an' I knew it, you were lyin' in there as good as knew. Imagine my shock when I saw that," he paused and looked at me expectantly, "go on then, imagine it."

"I... I don't understand," I replied weakly, "what's going on? Where are we, and why are we in cages?" I looked around, suddenly aware that something was missing. My eyes widened again and my heart began to race as I realized what it was, "wait... where's Spike... a-and where's..."

I turned back to the stallion sitting in front, pressing my face against the bars. Mine and Starlight's current situation took a backseat to the now more important question on my mind.

"Did you see a purple baby dragon and another mare who looked like me?" I asked desperately, "they should've been right next to us. What happened to them?"

"Whoa, easy there, princess," the stallion replied, raising a hoof, "I got no idea what you're talkin' about. You and that other mare back there are the only two we found. Like I said, the two of you were just lyin' knocked out in the middle of the road. Well, she was anyway, I thought you were dead when I first saw ya."

"Oh no," I muttered in horrified shock, "oh no... nononono..." I fell back against the bars at the back of my cage before raising my head and giving the stallion a pleading look, "I don't know where this is, who you are, or why you threw Starlight and I in cages, but you have to let us out."

"Um... no?" the stallion answered with an incredulous raise of his brow, "we didn't slap those chains on ya and throw you two in cages just so we could let you out, at least not until we reach our client anyway."

"You don't understand!" I shouted, throwing myself back towards the bars of my cage, "I need to find them, now! The mare—the one who looks like me, she's dangerous, and if she feels threatened she might—"

"Look, princess," the stallion interjected with an irritated frown, "I don't know what you're on about, but you're startin' to sound awfully insane. There was no baby dragon, there was no other alicorn, and I'm not lettin' you out of that cage."

I stared at him, and he glared back at me for a long moment before shaking his head and turning back around to face the road ahead.

"I had some questions I wanted to ask ya, but now I just want ya to keep your trap shut."

He muttered something under his breath about crazy mares before falling silent. The wagon continued to roll along, seemingly under its own power, as I saw no ponies pulling it forward.

I didn't know what to do.

I felt incredibly weak, and trying to pump mana into my horn only resulted in a sharp stab of pain. A horn ring shouldn't have caused any kind of pain at all, only blocking out the use of magic.

This meant that either there was something wrong with my own magic or this horn ring was different somehow. I cast another glance at the yellow stallion whose name was apparently Pepper, but he had moved away from me and was now staring out at the trees on either side of us, his face impassive.

Distantly, I could feel the beat of my own heart rapidly picking up, but with some effort and a bit of deep rhythmic breathing, I managed to push back the oncoming panic attack.

I could see the yellow stallion giving me an odd look, but I ignored him and instead focused on my current predicament. I shut my eyes and began to replay the events back in my head, hoping the mental cataloging would help my nerves and allow me some kind of control.

Okay, I cast the spell to take us back in time, the portal opened up and we arrived back in the past during the race. The plan was to stand by while Rainbow Dash pulled off the sonic rainboom... but something happened. There was an odd scream, and then something hit me, and... and I...

"...and I blacked out."

I swallowed as I stared at my shaking, manacled hooves. Confusion and disjointed images of what transpired flashed through my mind, and as I sat there, lost in the fractured memories, I let one of my hooves drag across my right side.

The fur was nearly pristine, and the skin was smooth beneath. There was no sign that I had ever been injured at all. I was suddenly struck by how strange it was that I never once thought to study my own anatomy since becoming an alicorn.

I had always wondered about how alicorns came to be, and how they worked, ever since I was a filly. It was only now that I remembered that Celestia had never really given me a definitive answer to those questions.

It was only now that I realized why that was.

The images shifted, and I once again saw the tragic events that had befallen my other self from her perspective. I could still feel what she felt, I could feel how all of that horror built up and crushed her beneath its weight.

I could feel her slowly slipping into madness as she was forced to confront the friends she'd thought, and nearly accepted, were dead and gone. I could feel the numb disbelief as she accidentally killed Pinkie Pie.

I could feel the agony she experienced as she died, over and over and over again. What happened to me seemed insignificant by comparison, and yet, it was the single most horrifyingly painful thing that had ever happened to me, physically speaking.

Then there was the whole thing with Starlight Glimmer.

By all rights, I should've hated the mare for what she'd done. I should've had Celestia lock her away in the deepest pits of Tartarus for tampering with the timestream like she had, but I couldn't do that.

I was the Princess of Friendship for a reason. I didn't have it in me to do something like that. I had even gone so far as to save her from the other me, putting both myself and Spike at risk in order to do so.

As I sat there in that cage, shivering from the experiences I had gone through up until now, I turned my gaze towards the seemingly comatose mare opposite me.

What had she seen when the other Twilight probed her mind? What really happened back there in that desolate timeline? It couldn't have been any worse than what I was forced to witness, I was certain of that.

Yet, she was the one who looked as though she had suffered the most, and I found myself asking, why? Why was she so broken when I was the one who had to helplessly watch as I killed my own friend?

I blinked.

Wait, what am I thinking?

The fact that I had suffered through traumatic memories didn't lessen her own experiences. She was just as much a victim as I was of what happened in that bleak world, if not more so. She was the one that was almost eaten alive.

But it was her fault that we were even in that mess to begin with.

I shook my head, pushing the thought to the back of my mind. Had it not been for Starlight, I never would've found out how much I had suffered in that other timeline.

And that's a good thing? Was it really for the better that I went through all of that? Was it worth it?

I grit my teeth and clenched my eyes shut, trying to fight back against the negativity that was beginning to overwhelm me.

It was worth it because I was able to save that poor mare from a life of solitude in that wretched place. She didn't deserve what happened to her, and out of all of us, she's the one that suffered the most.

Okay, that's fair, but there's something you're overlooking, Twilight. Quite a few things in fact, and they're all very, very important. Or maybe you're not overlooking the elephant in the room, maybe you're just avoiding it. Maybe—

"Where are you taking us?" I asked suddenly as I turned to the stallion in the front, "where even are we, who are you ponies, and most importantly, why did you lock us up like this?"

Thinking about what had happened wasn't going to get me out this situation, nor was it going to help me find Spike and my other self. I needed to focus on what was going on around me so I could look for a chance to escape with Starlight.

"I was wonderin' how long it was gonna take ya to start askin' questions," the stallion called back with a chuckle, "yeah, I don't mind answerin' a few things for ya. Not like you're going anywhere anytime soon."

He turned slightly so that he had one eye trained on me. Another smirk played across his face and he gestured to himself as he spoke.

"Name's Sandpit," he pointed a hoof at the yellow stallion, who continued to stare into the distance, completely oblivious to the conversation, "this here's Ghost Pepper, and as for where we are and where we're headed... I think I'll keep that little tidbit of information to myself for now."

"What?" I asked, furrowing my brow, "why?"

"For the sake of security of course," Sandpit replied as if it was obvious, "you see, we're in the employ of a certain group of powerful individuals, and the work we do is rather... sensitive."

My eyes narrowed slightly.

"What kind of work do you do?"

"Let's just say our clients tend to pay very well for the merchandise we provide and leave it at that, shall we?" Sandpit replied with a knowing smile, "I'm sure you'll put two and two together once we get to where we're goin'."

Merchandise?

I looked around at the cages, then back down at my shackles, my eyes slowly widening in shocked disbelief.

"You're pony traffickers," I croaked out in a small, horrified whisper, "you're trying to sell us into slavery."

I didn't know much about it, but I did remember reading something about it in passing. According to what I'd read before, it was something that happened often way back when the three pony tribes were still divided, and went a long way towards pushing that division even further.

It had been outlawed in Equestria since before even Celestia and Luna took the throne. Not even Discord enslaved ponies like this during his reign. The only pony to ever stoop to such horrible acts was Sombra, and he was cast down by the Princesses.

It just didn't happen in Equestria... at least, not in my Equestria.

That's right... this isn't my timeline, is it?

That had to be the case. That must've been what the spell was that I'd heard before I lost consciousness. The portal must've activated after whatever happened and dragged us all to another horrible future.

I felt ill.

I wanted to curl up and cry, and I might've if it hadn't been the myriad of other thoughts plaguing my mind. What happened to Spike and my alternate self? Did they arrive with us, and if they did, where were they?

Did they leave us behind?

No, I'm not sure about my other self, but I know Spike wouldn't abandon me. Something must've happened to them... but what?

I swallowed my fear and looked up at the stallion with a determined frown.

"I'm going to get out of here and find my friends," I stated firmly, "I'm not gonna let you just sell us off like this," I narrowed my eyes, "I swear I'll get out."

Sandpit just chuckled again in response, shaking his head and turning back around.

"Not gonna happen, princess," he muttered. He was quiet for a moment before glancing back at me with an odd sort of frown, "I could charge a literal fortune for you, and my client would happily pay it, so I'm not lettin' you go, not when I'm so close."

I blinked and furrowed my brow in bemusement, caught off guard by his words and the sudden seriousness in his tone.

"So close?" I asked, "so close to what?"

Sandpit turned to Pepper and they both shared some kind of significant look for a short moment. Then the stubby unicorn stallion grimaced and turned away once more.

"Never you mind, princess," Sandpit replied, "you just sit there and look pretty, you hear?"

I opened my mouth to push the issue, but decided against it. He wouldn't tell me anymore than that, so it would've been a waste of time.

Instead I glanced over at Starlight's unconscious form before turning my attention back to the forest around me. A tight knot of worry formed in my stomach and I frowned.

Spike, wherever you are, I hope you're okay... you and the other me.

So I've decided to make this story into a sprawling adventure focusing on several elements. Now that we've made it out of that apocalyptic world, there's more room to expand story and character-wise, and that's what I intend to do.