Each tug of the rope sent Twilight screaming into her ear as they swayed high above the ground. Rainbow Dash stared at the masked Pony, the mask being solid white with red war stripes drawn from the crown to the tip of the nose, and tried to shout over Twilight, over the roaring wind. "Whoever you are you'd better let us go right now! You're with those bandits aren't yo-" she coughed as she was smacked against the side of the small dragon, and finally the Rider had them next to him. Dash couldn't fit her hoof through the net hole, but at least her snout could fit. She tried to clamp onto his tail hair, but he twisted, grabbing something from a bag. He pulled out what looked like a shadow with tiny red eyes and teeth, and tossed it onto them.

Dash nipped at the thing, but it didn't seem to notice as black tendrils slid around her neck. Dash bucked and kicked as much as she could but her movement was heavily restricted, and with a pained snort felt it begin to squeeze. She tried to gasp for breath, but it squeezed harder and tighter, each breath causing it to squeeze more until she couldn't breath at all. Panic began to set in and she started to thrash as she choked, but the creature was relentlessly powerful in her bound state. Tears stung her eyes and her lungs burned with need for air as the little black creature slowly unwrapped one tendril, and grabbed Twilight's throat, causing her scream to waver. As Dash's vision began to tunnel she realized this wasn't something she could win or fight. For a moment she felt she was going to die.

The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was Twilight's screams choke out. The Rider, grunting with relief at the silence, hitched the two girls to the dragon's wing joints behind him.

---

Air.

She stared down her chest at her body, feeling weak and defeated. She heard the faint crackle of fire from the torches around her, and she shifted to stare around the room. It was large, and in each corner were… Instruments. A large metallic coffin filled with spikes, a table with chains and wheels and ropes to hold and stretch the limbs, whips held by hooks on the walls, and chain manacles along each wall. Dash knew fear from angering a dragon, and she knew terror from seeing Nightmare Moon, but never had the feelings sapped her strength and will. Maybe it was the room, maybe it was having been strangled.

She shook her hoof, and felt resistance. Looking up, she saw she was in one of the manacle sets. No, it was her freedom. They'd taken her freedom. She couldn't move, she could only shake around a bit. She spread her wings and flapped, rising upwards, and outwards, but the only thing that gave her a glimpse of was Twilight's fate. She fell, smacking against the wall with a pained grunt as she stared into the middle of the room, almost hidden from the lack of light provided by the small torches, but there she was.

Twilight was laying on a table similar to the rack, but there were only manacles wrapped around her hooves rather than ropes around wheels. She looked helpless on her back. Dash could hardly bare to look at how weak Twilight seemed. They'd been arguing earlier, and as she hung there it just felt…

Pointless.

Where had it gotten them? What had they discovered? That ponies flying on dragons wanted them apparently. Part of her knew they had to escape, but in her weakness, in her lack of movement, another part was just defeated. The scared, lonely, afraid to lose part that made her the quivering wreck during the Fliers' Competition. "No…" She whispered to herself. She couldn't accept defeat. Applejack would never accept defeat, and Applejack was the only person worthy enough to be called a challenge.

She lifted one of her back legs back, and slapped it against the stone wall behind her, making a clapping sound. "Twilight!" She hissed. The figure began to stir, and slowly the unicorn's eyes opened. They widened, and she took a deep breath, then let it out slowly in relief. Dash sighed with her. "Up here Twilight!"

The unicorn turned her head and looked, and in an instant shook, trying to roll over, but getting caught. "Rainbow Dash!" She jerked again, and the chains grew taut, "Ow! Rainbow Dash, are you okay? Where are we?" She called. The pony on the wall glanced around slowly, then shook her head.

"I'm not sure Twilight. Looks like a…" She looked around at all the instruments and thought back to some old shows. "A torture chamber?" She finally said. Then it hit her. It must have hit Twilight too, because now she was flailing violently, her horn glowing as she tried to blast off the manacles.

"Th-they're resistant! I can't get them off! Rainbow Dash you have to escape!" Twilight turned her neck and faced the Pegasus, who flinched as the horn flared with light, and shot a manacle. No luck. "What… What's going on here!"

"Quit panicking Twilight! Just… Let's sit and think for a moment, okay? You're a smart pony, you can do this!" Dash urged. Twilight stopped shaking around so much, but she could still hear her whimpering. Dash wanted to let out a good cry right now, but she was strong, she had to be strong. The strong didn't cry.

She just needed to calm down and think. That was all. She wasn't dumb, if she tried she bet she could escape this thing a hundred times in the next minute. She just had to be smart about it, like Twilight was being, meditating herself. Her horn began to glow and sparkle, and for a brief moment, Dash felt hopeful.

All too brief.

A heavy wooden door opened, and Rainbow Dash watched as six heavily armored ponies stepped inside, each wielding a vicious spike on their helmets and the front and back of their hoof-covers had small, but sharp spikes for trampling. The six ponies surrounded Twilight, who opened her eyes from the noise and looked around slowly. 'Don't panic Twilight, you were about to cast a spell, you can do it if you don't panic. I don't care if these ones die as long as we can be free!' She thought out loud. She grit her teeth in fear as Twilight began to scream again.

"Silence her!" A unicorn entered the room, covered in fine robes and looking at the screaming pony with utter contempt. He glanced to one of the guards, who pulled out a funnel from a bag she'd been carrying, and then a large glass bottle of something clear. The guard hovered the glass over Twilight's gut, and Dash felt herself kicking the wall, trying to get near and smash the guard out of the way, but she'd already dropped the bottle.

Twilight let out a painful hack and lay still, tears pooling at her eyes as the guard took the bottle and began to open it. "Leave her alone!" Dash shouted from the wall, lunging forward, pulling the manacles, causing them to cut deep into her legs but she ignored it. "She's just an innocent girl! Leave Twilight alone! Leave her alone or I'll-" They ignored her as two of the soldiers pried open Twilight's mouth and jaw, and pushed the funnel into her mouth.

Dash figured it out all too late as the guard with the glass lifted the bottle and began to pour it into Twilight's mouth. The unicorn's weeping eyes bulged, and she gagged as the liquid flowed inside. 'Don't swallow it don't swallow it don't swallow it don't swallow it for the love of Celestia Twilight don't swallow it!' Her neck bobbed, and Dash screamed in fury as she kicked the wall and lunged again. They continued to pay her no attention as they poured the entire bottle's contents into Twilight's mouth.

The unicorn began to kick and squirm but was quickly held still by the other guards, and she was forced to swallow what was left. She let out a cough, coughing louder and louder, kicked and twisting her head around, but slowly she began to stop. Rainbow Dash stared for the longest time as her friend began to go still, the only indication she was alive was her slowly rising and falling chest. "No!" She shouted, feeling fur rub away as she pushed out again. "No you leave her alone! You sick monsters leave Twilight alone! She did nothing! The horn's not her fault! Get away from her she's-" hooves collided with her stomach, and she rose, her eyes wide with pain. The guard set his back legs down and nodded to the Unicorn.

Dash watched in wheezing silence as the Unicorn took out what looked like a series of small rings of various sizes and began to slide them down Twilight's horn. Each locked into place at a certain ways down Twilight's horn, and when the forth was placed the Unicorn went digging for something else. He pulled out a small quill and glowing ink, and using both began to write on each ring. Twilight laid still, her eyes half lidded and mouth partially open.

The Unicorn put his things away and nodded to the guards, who unshackled Twilight. One shoved her roughly off the table, near Dash's hanging legs, and she weakly pushed forward again, wanting to get to her limp friend. She drew blood, and the guards put the pony on a stretcher and hauled her off. "Well, that's one. Suppose this one will fight?" One of the guards asked, staring up at Rainbow Dash.

"Nah." A second turned and reared her back legs, and Dash began to shout until they drove into her stomach, causing her to hack up something vile into her mouth. She felt limp as they unshackled her and laid her on the table Twilight had just been on, still warm. They chained her hooves down, and the Unicorn gave orders Dash didn't hear. Two of them stood by her sides, each grabbing a wing she tried to weakly pull in, and pulled them out and laid them flat. "Quit moving Blue, or we'll start using nails to keep you still." The kicker threatened, making Dash stop twitching her wings. The unicorn dug into his bag and held something in his mouth as he walked by.

Scissors.

Rainbow Dash tried to kick, but only managed to weakly lift her leg and let it fall, the pain from her stomach running all over her body as the Unicorn carefully had one wing lifted, and starting at the edges of her beautiful blue wings, began to clip.

---

They'd hauled her forcibly down long stone passageways, brightly lit by large torches and hanging lanterns, revealing rows of solid wood doors. Each hallway seemed long and wide, and as she turned her head slowly to watch, she only apathetically noted that the place was fairly empty. Every now and then a guard or two, but for the most part the place was dead silent, and very still.

They dragged her across an atrium, and she noticed a pony standing with two others, with a white mask on, with two red lines down his face. The masked pony waved cheekily and turned back to his companions when Dash was dragged down another hallway. Her limbs her, her stomach was churning with pain, and she held back tears when she touched upon the burning sensation in her wings. Everything about her hurt, but more than anything her ego, her feelings, and her sense of self. Meekly she flapped the ragged things behind her, loosening a few feathers from the tips that hadn't been cut out, but a kick to her side told her to stop. She did.

They dragged her down a spiraling staircase, letting her bump painfully against each stair until they reached the bottom, where they dragged her across a floor with small piles of wet hay laying around. She turned her head to the left, and saw this was a prison. Two cells stood side-by-side. The one nearest to the door had a purple figure lying down in it. Rainbow Dash was thrown unmercifully into the one with no inhabitants, and the sliding, barred door was slammed shut.

She stood weakly as the guards walked out of the room and up the stairs, shutting the door behind them, leaving Dash to herself. There was water all over the floor, dripping from a few cracks in the windowless wall. It soiled the hay on the floor, making it soft, tasteless, disgusting. Gruel and floor water. In a far corner was an old, molded mattress, and across from it was a hole in the ground. She didn't need three guesses to figure out what it was for, judging by the smell.

She sat on the floor, pushing herself up on her front legs to stare across the far wall where there was a single torch. Here she was, the great Rainbow Dash, in a jail cell, weakened by beatings, wings clipped to an unusable state. The incident had been petrifying. The Unicorn didn't even try to exercise whatever medical professionalism he may have had, simply clipping away and magically tugging out the wonky feathers. It had stung, and she had finally started screaming since her capture. The one Pegasus guard who had been in attendance had to even look away.

You do not take away a Pegasus' wings.

A small thought occurred to her, and an argument that felt like so long ago sprang to mind. 'Only if you remove your wings.' Had they taken her horn? That's what they wanted, right? The horn? Rainbow Dash felt the pity for herself turn to concern for Twilight. Whatever they had fed her made Dash's gut wrench just thinking about it. She pushed her snout through the bars.

"Twilight?" She whispered, wincing at the pain and softness of her voice. "Twilight are you there? C'mon Twilight, speak to me…" She trailed off on the last word. She heard the slightest sound of straw shifting, and nothing else. Twilight wasn't with her.

She began to scream again.

Her voice grew ragged as she screamed and shouted, stomping her hooves against the ground, kicking the stone walls, throwing herself against the door until she bruised. The place was solid, even if she was at full strength her legs were just muscle and bone, the walls were all stone and the bars were metal. She kicked and screamed until every part of her hurt more and more, and only stopped when she couldn't scream anymore and couldn't kick anymore. She fell on her side near a wall, and shut her eyes. Time passed easily on the outside, and she slept until the sun fell and the moon rose. Restless, pained, and crying.

---

Rarity hated to admit it, but Fluttershy pulled off bandages very well. With her naturally soft personality and beautiful looks and face, the bandages around her head and chest looked good. The other citizens seemed to think so, extending offerings of help to the girl slowly padding up the street, at a much more precise pace.

"Should you be walking?" Rarity asked with worry, walking out of the boutique to greet the Pegasus in the middle of the street. "Really darling, you'll get those fresh bandages grungy and dirty! And there's no need to strain that graceful walk of yours. You're going to hurt yourself." Rarity fussed, stepping around Fluttershy who lightly turned her head to keep track of the fashionista.

"I'll be okay as long as I don't rush. The Nurse said I just need to avoid any strenuous activity for several days. With some care I may be able to move sooner." She smiled a little, and Rarity returned it.

"Well, if care will help, why not stay in the hospital? Nurse Redheart is a fantastic caretaker. When I cramped my hoof from sewing she took oh so much care to keep my pedicure perfect while examining and treating it."

"Well, that's just the thing, see, I want to be cared for but, see, Twilight promised me she'd help." Her smile disappeared as she thought. "She promised she'd be back from Zecora's soon and she never takes long. She should have been back hours ago."

Rarity rubbed her chin as she thought about it. She did recall Twilight saying she'd spend the night with the soft pony. "Twilight isn't the one to skip out on a promised engagement. Wherever could she be then?" Rarity didn't want to consider Twilight skipping out on purpose but it was there. She figured she must have had a good reason, she really did care about her friends. After all, it's what let her break away from the angry self.

"Well, I was thinking, maybe we could get Rainbow Dash to go to Zecora's and ask for us? I hope she didn't run into another cockatrice." Fluttershy slowly turned her body, and faced the direction of the forest, and gulped quietly.

"Ya'll mention Rainbow Dash?" Applejack approach from the side, Pinkie Pie trailing behind her curiously.

"Yes, we were discussing Twilight not showing up to tend to Fluttershy, and were thinking about asking Rainbow Dash to go into the forest to see if she was there or on her way back." Rarity explained as Fluttershy slowly stretched her untouched wings.

"I'll go to her house and ask her." She gave a light flap of her wings and rose slowly, then landed with a tiny shake. "Or not…" She whimpered, squeezing her eyes at the throb her chest gave her.

"If she were at her house, Pinkie an' I'd know." Fluttershy walked over to Fluttershy and brushed against her softly for comfort. The Pegasus sighed her thanks, but looked to Applejack curiously.

"We took my balloon!" Pinkie Pie grinned. It was well known that, despite being an Earth Pony, Pinkie Pie liked to be in the air. "We rose up and up and floated straight into Dashie's door and I thought 'how rude!' so I knocked anyways but there wasn't an answer, not even shouting!" The pony rubbed her chin again in curiosity at the oddness of the situation, and Applejack turned to a passing pony.

"Hey, ya'll seen Rainbow Dash or Twilight Sparkle anywheres? Two seem to have gone missin'." She asked the boy, who turned his head towards the forest.

"Rumor has it Twilight Sparkle went into the forest and Dash chased her in." He said as he faced the forest with a suspicious stare. "I know you four are close to those two so I'd say go get them, fast if they haven't come back yet. And close your ears, a lot of people are saying things." He sped up and passed by. Fluttershy finally noticed the way people were acting.

They rushed everywhere, barely stopping to admire their surroundings as they went from place to place, the only ones staying outside were in large groups. The four of them watched the people around them act, of all things, inhospitable. "Ya think this is connected to Twilight?" Applejack asked, and Pinkie Pie skipped towards the forest.

"Only one way to find out! C'mon ponies, we have friends to find!" The four set off into the forest, at a slow pace to make sure Fluttershy could keep up. Applejack looked to the typically shy, scared pony with some worry, seeing her injury and pains, but she wouldn't be able to hold her back without force now. Their friends were gone, possibly in trouble. There was no way she'd stay back now, not when something needed help.

'I hope you're alright Twilight. I know you ain't the reason for this. Ya can't be. Ye're Friendship after all.' Applejack thought, walking behind the rest so they couldn't see the frown she wore.

---

Rainbow Dash could only assume it was morning because she'd woken up only fifteen minutes ago. Ten minutes?

Five?

She didn't know anymore. The only sense of time she'd had since she woke up sore and ragged-winged was the steady drip of water from the wall. She didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night. She remembered shouting and kicking and crying but the instances between falling asleep and waking up felt side-by-side, yet her sore flank was a clear indication she'd been asleep for some time on the hard, wet floor. She'd rubbed herself against the walls that weren't wet to dry off but she still felt soaked. It only added to the misery she was feeling and the misery of the cell.

The hay was old, and what was dry was dusty and made her cough, and what was wet was disgusting. She chose to stop eating after three mouthfuls and curled up on a mattress that smelled heavily of mildew, but it was better than standing around and laying in water. She'd wrapped her legs around her head and listened to the wall drip.

Was it twenty minutes now? Was it still only five? She hadn't been here long and already she felt like her sanity was slipping away. She was alone in a cold, wet cell in a stone fortress who knew where surrounded by a bunch of people who decided to snip up her beautiful wings and make her a pointless show mare.

Her eyes pulled open and widened further than they'd had in a long while when she heard wailing from the next cell. She jerked her head up and listened to the pained crying, and stood up to her hooves quickly. She recognized the noise, it was Twilight. She walked towards the bars, her hooves slapping the water. The wailing died down to soft whimpers at the noise, and Rainbow Dash pushed her snout through the bars. "T-Twilight?" She called just above a whisper, afraid as if the noises would leave her if she spoke any louder.

"…" Dash cocked her ear as she heard shuffling. She could imagine Twilight's pained struggling, trying to get to her hooves, kicking water and hay away. She heard her get to her hooves and the slap of water. She'd fallen. Dash whimpered. She wanted to be there for her, to help her up, stroke her head, tell her it would be okay. She knew she hurt, maybe more than she did herself. "Dash…"

"I'm here Twilight." Dash whispered, the strength in her voice cracking. She winced at how weak she sounded, even to herself. It hurt, and Twilight couldn't have missed it. She looked back at one wing, which was now only a stub compared to what it used to be. "I'm here."

Silence, followed by more struggling. She heard uneasy steps, and winced as she heard another crash from Twilight falling. It hurt to just hear, reminded her of how useless she was. Another crash, another wince, until she heard something land against the wall separating their cells, sturdy as it was. Rainbow Dash walked over and did the same, and as she poked her snout out between the bars, she could see the tip of purple just outside her vision.

"How do you feel?" Dash finally asked. She knew the answer, but even a little normalcy was welcome.

"… My horn hurt more." Twilight admitted weakly. Her voice was tiny. "But my head and my stomach…" She heard Twilight take a few steps, and a few moments later there was an abominable retching sound. Dash began to feel pity. Whatever they'd fed her must have been terrible. All this crappy hay wouldn't help anytime soon. Dash felt broken but Twilight was in actual pain.

Was there really a difference between the two?

"… Sorry…" Dash whispered, hanging her head and pressing it against the cool stone wall.

"H-huh..?" Twilight whimpered from the other side, groaning in pain as she tumbled to the floor again. Dash winced at the splash, and pressed her hooves against the wall, as if she could reach her.

"I said I'm sorry." She spoke up a little, and heard nothing. She heard Twilight land against the wall again, and heard a sigh. "Your horn's trouble. Not you. I shouldn't have been mad at you."

"…" Still silence.

"Twilight, can you hear me? Please say something, I said I'm sorry…"

"…" She didn't like how quiet she was. It reminded her of earlier, in the torture chamber, when she'd just laid there… "I am too…" The silence felt heavy and uncomfortable. If they intended to hurt the ponies they were doing a good job of it. Even the most meager of conversations stung.

"We'll get out though, right? We're gonna get free." Free sounded good. She listened, and heard nothing. She was almost sure Twilight was no longer listening after the few minutes of silence. "We're gonna go back to Ponyville and see all our friends. Pinkie Pie will throw us a 'welcome home' party."

"…" She wished Twilight would say something. She didn't want to think all she heard were answers in her own head. She got a small idea, a small one that made her heart twist. She stuck her hoof out of the space nearest the wall and a bar, and reached over the wall. She bent and twisted, sidling as close as she could to stick her leg around the wall. It must have nearly been a foot thick, but she felt the edge. Her hoof barely stuck around the edge, but she wiggled it. She heard unsteady steps, water shifting, and she wiggled her hoof again. She felt hopeful as she did, and it only bloomed as a nose touched against the hoof.

"You are there…" Dash whispered in very soft excitement, feeling the nose rub her hoof up and down in a nod. "Do you want me to be quiet?" A shake of the nose. No, she wanted to hear her. "Don't wanna talk?" Another shake. "… Why?" She had to ask. Quiet, no movement, and a thought occurred to her. "Hurts to?" A nod. "Sorry…" A soft nuzzle. She was forgiven. They stood there for a few moments, Dash straining to keep her leg up and Twilight nuzzling the presented hoof, and it seemed peaceful. It made her a little happy.

She heard, in the distance, the sound of an opening door, and then hoof steps. She apologized quickly and pulled her hoof from Twilight's head and retreated back into her cell as she heard the footsteps come closer. She began to tremble as she heard the door open. Four hooves in a row, there were two guards. "You saw the look on Rukafelth's face when he was told?"

"I would not want to be Belizio right now. He was fuming that they used up a whole bottle on her. Speaking of which…" Twilight's jail cell opened, Dash heard, and the two entered. "Yikes, she took it hard."

"You drain a full bottle of that and come out sunshine and flowers." Dash heard Twilight gasp in the next cell while the guards spoke, and squirmed to her feet, a sense of anger filling her. Her heart throbbed as she pushed her snout through the bars.

"Leave her alone!" She shouted, causing the entire room to go still.

"They weren't kidding about her voice. Hey, uh, prisoner number two. Quiet down."

"You're an idiot."

"At least I tried something, what would you suggest? A kick to the teeth? Rukafelth took the whip to Norlan for that." The guards stepped out in front Dash's cell, covered head to toe in the same vicious armor as the rest, ropes around their legs as Twilight meekly followed, both wrapped around her neck. "Listen blue, we don't got much against you but we can't let you out. Get comfy until we move and we may even give you a classy room to get locked in, and if you quiet down, you'll probably give hangover-girl here an easier morning."

"And what are you going to do to her! I don't care about a fancy room, what are you doing with Twilight!" She shouted, for the first time noticing the way Twilight cringed and quivered at her voice. Dash took a step back and fixed her with concerned stare. When Twilight looked, it was one full of hurt and apology and sweet Celestian sun her eyes looked awful.

"There, see? Quiet down and spare her some pain, eh?" The guard smirked, and the second snorted.

"Prick." Both him and Dash grumbled at the same time.

"Malta c'mon.." The first chased his partner as he turned tail and left, pulling Twilight along. "She knows better now, right? There's that!"

"Rukafelth is going to snap his leg off in your ass." Dash pressed her face to the bars and watched them leave, shutting the door behind them. Twilight had given her one last, longing look before the door shut, and again Dash felt alone.

---

The constant bickering was the hardest part, not the slow ascent up the stairs. Twilight closed her eyes multiple times on the way up and tried to block out the noises, each which sent a flash of pain to her head. Everything felt amplified through all five of her senses, and the two idiots dragging her up the stairs weren't helping the matter. One's voice was quiet and calm, if a bit on the sarcastic side, while the other chose to shout to get his points across and plead for some take.

Even worse was the ache in her chest. She wanted to go back, to talk to Dash, to get to her somehow. She didn't mind being alone in her big ol' library where everyone could visit and she could step out to see her friends, but she hated to be forcibly separated from them. She felt so frail without them…

The quiet one walked behind her as the loud one opened the door, and she was pushed through into a hallway. The light at the end of the hallway was bright enough to make her eyes force shut as she was lead closer and closer towards it, until they finally emerged in an enormous atrium. She knew it was enormous because a lot of voices had gone quiet, and she could feel eyes on her. She knew it was them, her captors and her torturers, and she was being brought before them and presented to them for their entertainment, or whatever purposes they truly had.

The two guards stopped pulling and she collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. She held her head between her front legs and breathed shallowly. Nobody had said anything or made a move at all. Then there was a heavy step. Then another, and she heard what sounded like a giant approaching her. She squeezed her eyes shut as a hoof twice as big as her own rested on her back, trailed up her neck, nudged her ear, and rested on her forehead, just near her horn. Still. Silence? The hoof stepped down in front of her face, and when she opened her eyes she could see it was wrapped in a very light bronze metal. "I believe I had given my orders clearly." His voice was so low, yet it was so easily heard. He made Jazz singers sound like little girls when comparing their voice. "She was not to be harmed."

There was uneasy shuffling going on around them as the enormous pony above her began to walk slowly around her. "Sir Rukafelth, we brought no harm to the fake. She was like this when we retrieved her." The loud, whiny guard from earlier explained. It was quiet for several seconds, and she was almost sure he approved until there was an enormous smash as he pounded his hoof into the ground.

"So you observed her sickness, witnessed her pains, and saw her exhaustion, and you did not inform me she was not fit for audience? What sort of information will I extract from the sick and beaten?" She lifted a hoof to watch him, and hid her gasp. The pony, Rukafelth, was taller than princess Celestia, at least by a full head. His entire body was covered in shimmering, yellow-bronze armor that reminded her of a setting sun, and rather than be covered in vicious spikes like his darker-armored subordinates, each stud was small, thick, and tactfully placed where each joint in the armor would bend, the slightest, yet effective sign of intimidation. His coat was snow white, not as pure as Celestia's, with solid black hair that reminded her of a stream-lined lion's mane. It was his eyes though. His eyes that told her what a beast this pony was. Nopony with eyes as clear, blood-red as his went down in history on good terms.

"I," the guard pony was lost for words for all of two second, "well I'm fairly sure Malta has no medical training and neither do I. Were we supposed to take her to the medic?" He asked with a soft laugh.

"If it really isn't too much to ask. Belizio, step forward." In her skewed vision she saw a few hooves unsteadily move inwards towards Rukafelth and Twilight, and a small glance up showed her it was the unicorn. She gasped and curled into a tighter ball at the recognition and hid her tears as the unicorn stopped by her. "Tend to her. I want her to be able to stand on her own when I speak to her and think clearly. If that's not too much to ask for." She could feel the venom in his voice, even if it wasn't directed at her.

"O-of course not Sir." The unicorn stepped towards the softly quivering form on the floor and leaned down, tapping his horn against Twilight's side. Twilight squeaked and curled up tighter, feeling heat surge from her ribs and spread to her nose and to all four feet. The heat filled her, and she began to kick and try to counter with her own magic, but despite trying she could not counter the heat until it dissipated. She laid still, wondering what he'd done, until she realized the throbbing in her head and twisting of her stomach had disappeared. She opened her eyes and looked up to the backend up the unicorn, who was retreating into the crowd quickly.

She heard, or rather felt the heavy step behind her and slowly turned her eyes upwards to face the giant. His eyes were piercing through her, as If he was staring straight through her confused face to see what else there was behind her wide, scared eyes. Twilight couldn't remove her gaze from his. It was so terrifying yet enrapturing, reminding her of Nightmare Moon all over again. Rukafelth watched her for a long time, and finally flared his nostrils as he lifted his head. "We are not to be disturbed." He announced, leaning his head down and grabbing an abandoned rope. He turned and pulled, throwing Twilight towards him with a grunt. "On your hooves, girl. I will pull you all the way if I have to, but I won't be gentle." Twilight took the hint and scrabbled to her hooves, and stood uneasily. They were all staring at her with mixed expressions. Some with confusion, some with curiosity, and some, she noticed, with outright hatred. One of them she recognized on stance alone as the female guard who'd dropped the bottle on her stomach.

She sped forward and placed Rukafelth between herself and the guard, drawing an interested glance from the enormous pony as Twilight watched the room disappear through his legs. They'd walked towards the head of the room where a simple throne had been, which did not look big enough for Rukafelth to sit. They'd walked around it, through a simple door, and entered a new room. It was wide and well-furnished, with red-satin tapestries along the walls and an enviously enormous bed crammed hastily into the corner. In the middle of the room was a massively wide table, which Twilight had to look at once to notice it had a map of Equestria laid on it. The door shut behind her with a massive kick of the colt's leg, and he quietly went to the other side of the room, around the table. He kicked a cushion towards her underneath the table, and then came back around. This time, in his mouth, was a whip. He dropped it on the table and turned his attention to Twilight, who'd backed herself against the door.

Now, being alone with a pony that could sit on her to death, who apparently was terrifying enough to send those frightfully brutish guards into panic at the mere mention of his anger, she was willing to go back into the room and face the crowd.

"You have a friend with you, in that prison." He stated in a deep rumble. Twilight flicked her eyes back to his unrelenting stare. She could swear she'd never seen him blink. "A Pegasus with mutilated wings. Is she important to you?"

Twilight's mind raced in thought as she stared at him, hundreds of worries cycling through her head. This is what torturers did, right? Use information again you? "No, she's not." She said quickly. Rukafelth turned his head and picked up the whip. She pressed herself back against the door.

"Is that so? Then you would have no qualms should I choose to march her in front of my subjects and have her whipped?" He flicked his head, and Twilight screamed as she fell back, the tip of the lash snapping right in front of her, disturbing nothing but air. Twilight trembled on the ground as Rukafelth set the whip aside again.

"N-no! Don't you dare hurt her! She's done nothing wrong!" She took in a lot of dry gulps of air to calm her down, weeping as the giant snorted softly.

"No, she has not. I'd prefer to not have to put her in the line of fire but I do need you to answer my questions truthfully." The large pony shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned down to look her in the face. "You can do that, I assume."

"I could also lie." Twilight reminded him with a hardened stare that twitched too much.

"If that was the case then I'd have to torture you." He told her as if the consequence was so simple and minor she could have eaten ice cream without permission and that would be the punishment. "I'd have to do so until you were so broken up with pain the idea of lying will have left you. Until all you can speak is the truths I need to hear. Please don't make me torture you." He sounded sincere, and Twilight meekly turned her head away. She didn't understand Rukafelth. She didn't understand what was going on. "Are you ready to tell me the truth?" Twilight nodded quietly on the floor as Rukafelth calmly took the cushion he'd kicked over and rested on it, staring at the unicorn. "How did you get the magic around you?"

She turned to stare into his eyes. He wasn't staring at her or through her. He was staring around her, at whatever magic Celestia said she had. She stared at her own person in confusion and shook her head. "I don't know." She finally spoke. Rukafelth turned his head and his teeth slipped around the handle of the whip. "I don't know! I'm telling the truth, I don't know where it came from or how I can even access it! My horn just hurt one morning and-" The whip snapped just above her head, the cracking noise making her ears ring as she curled into a tight ball, babbling through a mouth that wanted to scream and tears that kept falling "- I don't know! I don't know! I just don't know! I don't know!" She whimpered on the floor.

It had been years since Rukafelth had seen somebody so very willing to show their emotions in front of him, or anyone in his home kingdom. This girl, Twilight had not known the hardships his kingdom had faced, and did not mask her feelings. A part of him felt guilty for sending her into these convulsions, but his duty left him with little choice. "So you woke up and your horn hurt. Then you had the magic?" He asked plainly, receiving a brief, sad nod. "What is the nature of your magic?"

She laid quiet and still on the floor in front of him, and he flared his nostrils again. "… I don't know…" She answered in a meek voice. He tensed his neck muscled and snorted.

"Yet you used it to incinerate my comrade's men. Turned their own weapons against them and commanded the skies while receiving no damage from any attack they dealt in turn. How?"

"I don't know…"

"You used the magic effortlessly to remove them. There was no pause to gather power whenever you attacked, just aiming and redirecting."

"I don't know!"

"You showed signs of a personality change. Aggression, wanton fury, manipulation, tyranny, why?"

"I said I didn't know!"

Rukafelth narrowed his eyes and stood quickly, and Twilight meekly shoved herself into the wall hard as a pair of legs crashed down in front of her, and her eyes were filled with Rukafelth's deathly red pupils, brimming with annoyance. "You don't know at all! You're just some magical filly who happened to get a God's-worth of magic, no idea how to use it, yet somehow against all logic fight off eight trained soldiers single-hoofedly without understanding its nature, origin, or reason!"

Twilight began to openly cry as she spoke. "Yes! Yes I don't know what's happening or who you are or why this is going on but I just don't know! All this is happening and I don't know why and-" she sniffled and curled up into a tight, quivering ball, "-people keep getting hurt and I don't know what's going on anymore…" She whimpered.

Rukafelth slowly backed away as he stared at the filly. Testingly he lifted a hoof and pressed it against her side, making her cringe and curl in tighter, waiting for a coming blow. She did not fight back, did not lash out, did not say anything. She couldn't see his eyes as they filled with concern. He turned away from her and walked away, leaving the unicorn to herself. When Twilight opened her eyes, she could see him staring at the map on the table. One hoof was nervously scraping at the ground. "Listen, girl, what is your name?"

She laid still and hid her eyes again, wrapping her legs around her face so he wouldn't see her. She heard him shift in front of her. "Your name, girl, what is it?" She gently uncovered one eye and saw he had turned his head to look at her, but she remained quiet. Then he turned his body and leaned down in front of her with an unreadable expression.

"… Twilight Sparkle…" She whispered, barely heard by the great pony.

He turned and went back to the map on the table, staring at it for a long time. "This land, Equestria, has it fought in wars? Does it have enemies? Conflicts?" He asked. Twilight wracked her brain and shook her head.

"We had an incident earlier this year when an old evil who was locked away for a thousand years returned…" She didn't want to reveal her part in it. He might get suspicious. "It was stopped, and the curse around the evil was broken, and the Princess was restored to her normal self and introduced back into Equestria."

"The evil was the Princess? And she was just…" He worked his jaw. "Returned?"

"Well, the evil wasn't her, it was something else. Like weird evil magic. The real her is really nice and pleasant and shy. There weren't any deaths and nobody got harmed." She added while closing her eyes at the memory, hearing that her quick work with her friends had kept all of Equestria safe and sound. "And we've had no wars with anybody for thousands of years, and the only deaths that weren't by old age were quickly dealt with, and murderers are kept far away, locked up until we're sure they can safely be released or just never released."

"And your enemies?"

"We have none." Rukafelth returned to his map and stared at the landscape of Equestria. "Where are you from?" The colt turned to the little girl on the floor, and grunted softly.

"The land of Golding. It's a ways away." He answered quietly as he considered all the information given to him. "Very far west." Maybe he shouldn't speak so openly to her, but he knew the girl was harmless. Especially with the inhibitors on her. She was quiet for several moments.

"Why are you here? Attacking me?" She asked. Rukafelth did not answer, and instead, walked to the door. He pushed it open and ducked under the frame to poke his head out of the room.

"Malta, Ziel, return Miss Sparkle to her cell. Provide her and the other prisoner with fresh hay. No questions." Twilight was forced to her feet as the large male tugged her up with the rope, and passed it to the two guards. Twilight shakily followed them out, glancing back to Rukafelth as he went to his maps again. The atrium was completely quiet as she was lead past the many guards, all watching her disappear down the hallway and through the door.

She met no eyes, instead staring at the floor. On the way down the hallway towards the cells, she looked down a passageway on chance, and noticed at the end a door that stood out from the rest of the wooden doors. It was solid stone, two slabs pressed together to form a line, with a rock archway covered in runes. Two Unicorns were there, horns glowing, doing… Something. She didn't know what. She didn't care. All that mattered was, when she looked, a word popped into her head: "Exit."

---

Her back legs hurt severely. She was pretty sure she hadn't broken anything but she may have strained something badly. Dash gently rubbed her hurt legs while wincing at the sting in them. After they'd taken Twilight, something in her just snapped. Thinking about it made her shiver, as she'd remembered shouting out the bars at the door, screaming in anger and sorrow, kicking the bars, kicking the walls, throwing herself around the room impotently. Every part of her churned with anger, but she'd helplessly resigned herself to the old, dirty mattress in the corner of the wet cell.

The cell was too confining. She'd looked at every inch of it she could and found it to be solid. It was too small, too wet, and full of too much hay to effectively even run around, and worse yet, without her wings, an entire dimension had been cut off from her. She was feeling more and more claustrophobic with each passing minute, and already the walls looked like they were falling inwards, getting smaller and unhealthier. She closed her eyes to stop seeing it. Kicking herself raw had been an even worse idea, since now she didn't want to move.

She rested her head on her front legs and tried to not think, but she was worried. They'd taken Twilight from her, and doing who knew what. They were rough enough just attaching the rings to her horn, but now they'd try to pry information. Rainbow Dash trusted Twilight, but wasn't sure the unicorn wasn't hiding something. The horn? The magic? The weird evil Twilight? She knew Twilight was a smart pony, she had to know something. At least she wanted to know why they were captured. She knew they wanted Twilight, possibly her magic, but what for? Were they going to be killed? What if they never found out and-

"No no no no no no NO!" She hissed as she stood, pain shooting down her legs, but wobbly she made her way to the cell bars and stared at them again, trying to find some way out. "Not gonna stay forever. Not gonna stay forever…" She whispered. She pushed against each bar with her hoof, and found them to be completely solid. She looked down at her hooves as she lightly tapped one in weak fury, and happened to notice the way the water pooled around one bar. She kicked again and looked closer, and saw it disappear around the steel rod's base. She lightly tapped the bar, and noted, that despite the solidness, it shifted just a little. She stuck the tip of her hoof in the stone around the bar and scratched backwards, and watched the slightest bit of dirt tug away. Recognition hit, followed by a warm feeling in her chest, and then a cold pit in her stomach as she heard the door open. While she was busy she hadn't heard them coming down the stairs, and she backed away from the bars quickly, keeping steady as her legs strained to keep her up.

She watched one of the guards tug a rope, and heard a few unsteady steps while the cell door creaked open. "In." She heard in a dull voice, and heard Twilight grunt in response. "In, please?" The guard asked with a tiny sigh, and she heard the unicorn get pushed into her cell. It was slammed shut, locked, and the two left out the door into the prison. The lock clicked.

"Twilight/Rainbow Dash!" They whispered to each other through the bars, "I found a way out!" The two froze as they heard the other, but Dash was the first to break it. "Are you okay Twilight? You don't sound sick anymore."

"They healed me so I could answer a few questions from their leader." She admitted, and Dash noted the water Twilight's voice lowered.

"If those guys did anything-"

"They didn't. Their leader, Rukafelth, was… I don't know how to describe him. He's absolutely beastly. He's bigger than Celestia and has these evil looking eyes, but when I told him I didn't know anything that was going on…" She paused and walked to the front of the cell. "I think he started to believe me. He stopped talking to me though. He has this huge map of Equestria and-" her voice warbled as it lowered, "Dash, they're worried about my magic. They're looking for something in Equestria, and he called those eight ponies that I, well… He said they were his comrade's men. There more of them Dash, and from what I heard him talk about, I think they're planning a war…"

"With EQUESTRIA!" Dash moved as fast as she could to stick her snout out between the bars and watched Twilight's mouth. "We have to tell somebody!"

"I know. I know that Dash but… First we have to get out of here. Then we go tell somebody, then I'm going to do a lot of researching. They come from this place really far West of here called Golding and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on. I don't care where they come from, why are they here?" Dash demanded.

"I don't know Dash… I just don't know. I don't know what's happening around here, I don't know what Golding is or who its people are, why they're here, why they want war, why they want me, why they want my magic, where my magic comes from, I just. Don't…" She hung her head, sliding to her belly, getting wet in the process. "I don't know Rainbow Dash. I don't know anything."

The silence was uncomfortable. Twilight heard shifting from the other side, and lifted her eyes to see a hoof a few feet above her outside the cell bars. "C'mon Twilight… You know lots of stuff. Way more than me… Like you said, you just have to look into it, right? But we gotta escape first. I found something." She pulled her hoof back, and Twilight cocked her ear when she heard a scraping noise. "Look at the bottom of the bars, the stone around it. I think all this water made it really weak. With a little bit of time we'll be able to loosen the bars some. Then if we kick it enough, maybe be able to knock it out of the roof." Twilight stood slowly, ignoring her soaking coat and reached out with a hoof, and tapped a bar. She watched it move in the stone, take water around it.

"…" She stared for a while, lightly scraping the stone until a few loosened bits came out. It would destroy her hooves and sting, she knew, but by Celestia it was a way out. "Dash, you're a genius! These holes for the bars couldn't have been molded around them to keep them permanently firm, not for a tiny prison like this, the holes have to be a little bit bigger, especially in the ceiling." She began to scrape more furiously, watching bit by bit, the stone loosen and make the hole around the lower bar bigger. Water slipped into the crack, and that made Twilight smile, just a bit.

She heard Dash working in the cell next to her, while Dash began to talk. "Hey, you said you found a way out too. What was your idea?" She asked, scratching at the ground. Her dedication began to come back. As a goal entered her mind, a direction of where to go, ideas of what to do began to fill her, and she devoted every ounce of her once constant energy into performing it. She stared at the space on the ground like she would the sky, and tugged her hoof along it, opening it slowly.

"Up the stairs is a hallway. In that hallway is another passageway, leading to a stone door covered in all these runes. Two unicorns were sealing it I think. If… When we get out of here, we just need to make our way upstairs. If we can avoid getting caught I might be able to open the door."

"With what?" Dash asked, scratching faster at the floor as she saw some more loosen.

"Um… Magic, what else?" Twilight answered, then it occurred to her. She leaned down and tapped her horn against the ground and… Nothing.

"I thought those ring things they put on your horn were supposed to prevent you from using magic?" Twilight stopped. She looked up, and just outside of her vision, saw the changes on her horn.

"What… No!" She hissed, and reached up with her hooves to remove them. They didn't budge, no matter how hard she tugged. She tried twisting and turning, but they were stuck fast. She attempted to use magic, but it wouldn't react. She could feel it inside of her churning as she tried to call it up, but the rings prevented it from escaping out of her horn.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" Dash called as she heard something striking the bars.

"Breaking the rings!" The unicorn called back, rearing her head to the side and crashing her horn against the bars, but to no avail. She rubbed her head and groaned, staring down at the floor, and began to dig again. "Look, Dash, I don't think I can get these off by myself. We have to try though."

"Yeah, who knows, maybe we can open it just by ourselves!" Dash smirked at that. Magic or not, she had something magic didn't: sheer, stubborn, bone-headed determination. All they needed to do was knock down the bars and get out. Then she could put her wits up against fancy Unicorn magic.

---

The room had been darkened until all that could be seen were the small flames of four candles set in a line pattern against the far wall. Rukafelth, unable to see even his own hoof before his eyes, stared at the candles as he shifted his weight to his hind in discomfort as he pulled at the reservoir of energy in his stomach and felt it course through his body, down his legs and into the ground. He watched two trails of flame extend from each hoof towards the candles. Each candle lit up bright green as the flames touched the wax, and the flames began to rise to the ceiling and expand, until they were tall green walls with only the thinnest line of space between each one. In each flame was a face.

From his left to right, he saw Cloppin, Shallom, his lord and king Galio, and the court wizard, Balla. Cloppin's usual smile shown much brighter than usual today, Shallom was calm, Galio's expression continued to show royal reservation, while Balla watched them with interest. Her eyes were wide with curiosity as she considered all the men before her.

"I wish I could have you file reports in a more comfortable and formal manner but the circumstances require more immediate ways of discussion. Thanks to Balla's efforts we have been rendered untraceable. The shield will allow us free use of magic without warning the Unicorns of the land to our presence. You may speak openly about your efforts." Galio spoke, turning his head slightly. "Shallom, any discoveries so far?"

"Afraid not Lord Galio, though the search has been extensive. Even with the magic pulsing through the ley-lines, Atmos' legacies are surprisingly resistant to being found. Work is slow, though, my soldiers are not used to being so…" He cocked his head in thought. "Sneaky."

"You merely lack subterfuge Shallom." Cloppin's smile bloomed further, revealing rows of perfectly white teeth. "You float in, boasting full of hot air, but when you set your hooves on the ground you can't help but trip over them. If you took your head down from the clouds-"

"A lesson in stealth from Cloppin." Shallom snorted. "The hypocrisy is plain astonishing. Tell me, jester, what valuable tidbits of information have you uncovered from Horshire?" The Pegasus snorted, and Cloppin's smile grew and grew.

"Oh so so much my dear bird. I'll have the data sent to you in the shadows soon enough, and I promise you'll see how I do my work." The two stared at each other with either contempt or amusement until Galio turned to face Rukafelth.

"That answers my question to Cloppin. Rukafelth, how has your search for the fake and Laputa been?" He asked the great colt. Rukafelth stood in perfect silence as every eye turned to him. He thought to himself carefully.

"We have found her, yes." Cloppin's face went from distractedly happy, and paid solid attention to Rukafelth. Shallom himself looked absolutely ecstatic, waiting to hear more. Rukafelth noted with some self-satisfaction that his success made his lord change from reserved royalty to excitement, and Balla was all but bouncing. "And she has been captured and questioned as well. I was careful during the interrogation. Every word she spoke was the truth."

"And?" Galio leaned in.

"What is the nature of her magic? Is it the same as ours?" Balla's head disappeared and Rukafelth heard the sound of paper shuffling. "How has she taken it?"

"How does she plan to impede us further? How did you even catch her with that much magic inside of her?" Shallom asked, smirking. Revenge.

"I will speak frankly and honestly. When I set my eyes on her, I did not see the bold-speaking tyrant your men saw Shallom. When she'd stepped into my room, she had no magic around her to be dispelled. She did not lie or hide. She was a simple, scared girl. I questioned her about the magic and she has no knowledge of how she got it or how to use it. She does not know how she killed your men and regrets it. She is entirely unaware of it other than that it exists around her." Balla looked severely disappointed and opened her mouth. "No, trust me, I understand Balla. She herself does not understand how she got it."

The five of them stood in silence, considering what they'd been told. Cloppin's interest merely grew and he disappeared to find some papers as well, while Shallom fumed to himself. Lord Galio had his eyes closed in thought while Balla took notes. "So she knows nothing. Is that all you found?" He finally asked, reserved once more.

"No. Lord Galio, I'm uncomfortable with our military presence here, we spoke in short length about Equestria. They have not known war for thousands of years and all violent incidents are quelled peacefully and respectfully. These people are nothing more than peaceful farmers and crafts makers. If we aren't careful, we could seriously disturb the balance here." The silence following his words was harder than he expected. He knew he was challenging the Lord's wisdom but he had to know what consequences could be wrought. Cloppin had disappeared, but his reaction would have been hysterics. Shallom gave Rukafelth the quietest glare the Pegasus had ever offered anybody, while Balla looked unamused.

"I spend weeks preparing the shield and you want to just bring that down? There's lot of resources we'd lose if we brought it down to return the soldiers home. The magic could get disrupted unless we make it whole. Not to mention, even if we went through with this peacefully, the awakening would cause just as much harm to Equestria if not more. With us here, we can at least suppress it!" She reasoned, making Rukafelth sigh.

"I followed Miss Sparkle's information-"

"Sparkle?" Galio raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, the unicorn. I followed her information and did some reading. Their Princesses are more than capable by themselves but they have plenty of unicorns trained to non-violently protect the kingdom. They could dispel the aftereffects on their own with minimal casualties-"

"And risk the entire operation." Galio concluded, eyes closed. "We'll do what we can, Rukafelth, but Golding comes first. Equestria comes after. I understand your reluctance, but do not hesitate to do whatever you have to do to push forward. When you reach Laputa, call for our next meeting. And as for this Miss Sparkle…" He opened his eyes, and Rukafelth wilted a little under his firm stare. "Don't grow familiar with her. She is a risk, and will have to be an unfortunate loss later. I don't want you growing attached to an empirical traitor. Am I understood?"

Rukafelth stood in silence, his head hung low. He lifted it slowly, and gave a quiet nod. "Of course sir. I will keep her in her cell. I am afraid to station guards though, she is able to…" He gulped, recalling the feelings of defense and care he grew during their talk, "Gain favor quickly."

"Troubling. But do what is necessary. I'll be returning to my duties. Everyone is dismissed."

One by one, the flames went out. Rukafelth stood in the darkness and considered his place quietly, unable to dismiss the innocent clarity of Twilight's eyes in the face of danger. Could he remove that from an entire kingdom personally?