Mistress Do Well: Reparation
by milesprower06

The Tangled Web

Twilight sat in stunned silence, staring at the pile of sand on the library floor. So many emotions churned inside, that not a single one was able make it to the surface.

Rainbow's inner turmoil, on the other hoof, had made it to the surface, having journeyed from her stomach and exited via her mouth as she retched in the bathroom. Two minutes later, the toilet flushed, and a sleep-deprived Rainbow came back out to the main room.

"Why? Why wouldn't they tell us? Why would they hide something like this from us?" Rainbow asked.

"We... We don't know for sure that she's alive." Twilight said, with no certainty whatsoever.

"Then explain why Celestia gave me a sealed urn of sand!" Rainbow yelled in return, making Twilight flinch.

"Sorry, Twi. I'm just trying to make sense of this."

"No, it's alright. I don't know how to feel about this either."

If Twilight was completely honest with herself, she had considered Rarity dead ever since she had nearly bashed her skull in more than a year ago. She figured that if she ever woke up, that she would spend the rest of her life in prison. When Rainbow came back that night, apparently killing her in a dream, Twilight had considered that situation finished.

Clearly this was not the case.

The possibility of Rarity being alive isn't what chilled her to the bone; it was that it was being hidden from them. Worse than that, they had been reasonably convinced that she was dead, even with the absence of a body. Every time Twilight tried to believe Celestia had a good reason for this deception, the sand and empty urn on the floor shattered her every argument, reminding her of what Rarity had done. She had turned Rainbow and Fluttershy into nothing more than sex slaves, and the rest of them into willing participants.

The possibilities angered her, even though Rainbow had convinced Celestia to re-enroll her in school. Her inner analytic egghead kicked in. She had to know why. Did her parents know? Did Sweetie Belle know?

"Rainbow... How do we tell the others?"

Rainbow looked at her, unsure of how to reply at first.

"Do we tell them at all?"

"We have to tell them. If we don't, we'd be going down the same path as Celestia and Luna."

"What we have to do is find out where she is."

"And where do you propose we start? We have to get together as a group and talk about this."

Rainbow rubbed her forehead with the tip of her hoof, relenting with a sigh.

"Fine. If that's what you really think we should do, fine. But right now, I need some sleep. I doubt it's gonna come very easily..." Rainbow muttered as she walked up the stairs to the bedroom. Twilight took a deep breath, wondering how she was going to collect herself. She magically took hold of the urn, and returned the sand to it, twisting it closed and setting it on the center table. She heard Rainbow get into bed. As badly as she wanted to write a letter to Celestia demanding answers, her gut told her that it wasn't going to do any good.

Rainbow found herself standing in a medium-sized closet. There was a wooden table with a screen on it, connected to a tape player. The screen was on, white with noise. There were two doors that lead out of this room; one in the front left corner, and one on the right wall. She walked towards the door in the corner, and opened it. She would have been afraid, but she had a good feeling she knew where she was, and she had long grown accustomed to visiting this place in her sleep. Walking through the doorway, she stood at the top of the stairs to Rarity's basement. Some of the lights overhead hummed to life, illuminating the left half of the room, and what she saw startled her. Her eyes widened at the cage against the left wall, looking at herself sitting inside it, staring at the floor, collar around her neck.

Seeing this hastened her trip down the stairs. She trotted up to the cage, and found it securely locked. There were no other items in the room to attempt to open it, and the Rainbow inside hadn't even acknowledged her presence yet.

"Hey, hey are you alright?" She asked her other self.

After waiting several seconds with no reply, the second set of lights came on, illuminating the right half of the room.

"That's something you're going to have to figure out now, isn't it?"

The voice sounded familiar. Rainbow turned to see a blue and white dapple pegasus sitting on the other side of the basement, adjacent to the cage. It was the pony she had met in Mustang Springs.

"Noctilucent?"

The ponies faded away, and the cobblestone walls of the basement crumbled to reveal the library, with the late morning sunshine coming through the balcony window. Looking at the clock on the wall, Rainbow discovered she hadn't even been asleep for two hours. Giving in to the fact that she was just going to have to have a tired day and crash hard tonight, she flipped the covers off of her and got up, wondering why her latest dream had ended abruptly.

Heart rate. Brain waves. Blood pressure.

Life Line had been an orderly in Canterlot Hospital for three years, and for the past one, he had a task added to his otherwise menial routine. Go into room 315 at 4:00 in the morning and record the heart rate, brain waves, and blood pressure of the comatose patient that resided within.

'Barely a patient. Prisoner is more like it.' he thought as he walked past the two royal guards, a solar unicorn, and lunar pegasus, also commonly referred to as a 'bat-pony', standing silently on either side of the doorway to 315.

Heart rate. Brain waves. Blood pressure.

The guards had become more than accustomed to his presence; he had only been in here over 300 times. Room 315 had been royally designated a high security zone. No one without clearance passed the guard, be it the small number of doctors, nurses, and orderlies - at least one of each was here 24 hours a day, ready to respond to whatever came up.

'In case she ever wakes up, I suppose.' Life Line mused. No doubt the two guards were the closest means of communication with Celestia and Luna, as well. They'd want to know as well. He knew who this unicorn was, and what she had done. Quite frankly, he wondered why they hadn't buried her alive, or whoever had beaten her to a pulp hadn't finished the job. He picked up the clipboard on the rack just inside the door and approached the bed with the motionless white unicorn. Walking around to the right side to the life support machines, he took the data down on the clipboard as he had done countless times before.

Heart rate. Brain waves. Blood pressure.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, he heard the heart monitor begin to beep a bit faster. 'That's new,' he thought, going back to the readouts, seeing that her heart rate had increased to 42, up from the usual low 30's. It continued to climb, and his eyes were drawn to the spiking brainwaves. All four of his hooves nearly came off the ground when the unicorn behind him shrieked in terror, causing his heart to nearly burst out of his chest. This had immediately caught the attention of the two guards outside, who came in to investigate.

"What's going on?" the Solar Guard shouted over the screams.

The patient began to flail wildly on the bed, and thinking quickly, the night guard fastened the bed restraints onto her hooves, limiting her movements, but still she thrashed, screaming, seemingly in pain.

Life Line tore his gaze away from the bed and looked back to the monitors.

"Brainwaves spiking! She's seizing! Heart rate 110! Blood pressure climbing!" he announced.

The night guard hit the call button for a doctor. The unicorn's horn lit up with the next scream, nearly blinding the three occupants as magical energy chaotically erupted from her horn in lances of light and magic. The lights and machines in the room began to flicker, and sparking orbs of light bounced harmlessly onto the bed and floor, eventually fizzing out. The unicorn was shaking quite violently now, but the restraints kept her from doing any serious harm to herself.

The next surge of magic came, shoving the other three occupants against the wall. The two unicorn guard futilely attempted to overcome her magic, as the force of her seizure was now starting to push the machinery away from the bed. She arched her back with one final cry, and the wheeled cart upon which the brainwave monitor rested tipped over, sending the equipment crashing to the floor.

Even if he was able to move away from the wall, Life Line wasn't sure if he could, due to the fear that had overcome him. He could do nothing more than stare at the seizing unicorn as her horn became a blinding beacon of magic. A minute passed. Another. Finally at nearly two and a half minutes, the unicorn went limp and motionless, and the magic emanating from her horn faded. Slowly, Life Line got to his hooves, and cautiously approached the bed. As the machines surrounding the bed had all been shorted out and probably damaged beyond reasonable repair, the only thing he could do was slowly lean down and put an ear to her chest. He listened for several moments before coming back up, turning to the two guards, who were now on their hooves.

"She's alive," he announced to them.

The solar and lunar guards exchanged glances briefly.

"Get a doctor," the solar instructed Life Line. As the young orderly made his way out of the room to do as he was told, the lunar guard followed, turning back to his partner.

"I'll inform Princess Luna at once."