TW: Gore is present in this scene.

I blink.

My vision swam as I was surrounded by darkness again. The memories dissipate as my eyes return to reality and assess the abyss surrounding me.

I look to my right. Jade green irises reflecting the lamp shining on us stare back at my tired teal eyes. Night Light is enraptured with my recollection of meeting Celestia, but her glossy eyes reveal her struggle to remain composed. She looked miserable, though not (just) because we were held against our will. She knew now just how much I had failed.

I felt my ears wilt beneath that gaze of pity.

“She sent you away.” Bon Bon’s voice cuts through the darkness, snapping my attention to her hidden face. Her hooves tapped impatiently on the table. “After you revealed the Aigaion’s intentions to her, she would devote all her time and energy to prepare Canterlot for an impending attack. She would call generals, arrange redeployed divisions, and re-route supply trains to the city; the list goes on.”

Her body leans in slightly closer, revealing Bon Bon’s eyes and her stern frown.

“And yet, such an attack never came. The days turn into weeks, and nothing came of Canterlot or any other city of an Airship.”

Again with that revelation.

On the surface, it would make sense. Of course the Changelings wouldn’t risk attacking Canterlot if we knew they were coming.

But at the same time, it seemed impossible for them to not try.

Something was missing. A piece of the puzzle we don’t know yet.

“Celestia sent you back to your Division Commander soon after she realized Canterlot was under no threat. But you and your squad were under a strict policy of secrecy about the Aigaion. No word of it was to be mentioned of it or else you would all be court-martialed. And you have upheld that secrecy since then.”

No reply. I furrowed my brow, lips tightening in instinct.

“Which pivots me back to you.” Bon Bon locks eyes with Night Light. I heard the latter swallow her throat.

Silence.

For a few short moments, the two engaged in a staring contest. But Bon Bon’s stare could freeze a cockatrice if she wanted to. Night Light blinked first, shrinking into her seat.

“I’m going to ask you one last time, and I want a straight answer this time.” Bon Bon sounded threatening. “And I don’t want any interruptions from you. Understand?” She locks eyes with me.

I couldn’t help but nod, my brain screaming at me for doing so like an idiot.

Bon Bon stares into Night Light’s soul as she speaks slowly.

“Are you a coward? Or are you a traitor?”

No response. I look at Night Light. Her eyes are even, her lips sealed and still. She sits slumped because of the restraints, but she commands her body to be as straight as it can be. Her muscles will themselves into rigidness.

But when she breathes in to speak, her breath quivers in anticipation and anxiety.

“I am a coward.”

She sounded like she was holding back tears when she spoke those simple words.

Bon Bon, meanwhile, sounds cold. “Then you admit it? That you fled Las Pegasus on December 7th, 1012? Abandoning your allies to die as you fled for your own life?”

A shiver unrelated to the cold travels up my spine. Darting my gaze between Night Light and Bon Bon, I can only catch glimpses of the emotions both are portraying.

Rage. Regret. Sorrow.

“... Yes.” Night Light answers.

My heart drops. I didn’t want to believe it.

But there was no doubt in that tone, no indication of lying. She spoke the truth.

The words repeated in my head over and over again.

I am a coward.

“Then you are aware you committed treason, then?”

I felt my brow furrow and I jumped from my seat. Synapses flare as I scream.

“That was years ago!”

I waited for a strike from the dark. But no such retaliation came from my outburst.

Instead, I had earned the ire of Bon Bon through her stare alone.

“Did you know that Captain Spitfire is dead?” She speaks to me

My brows raised upward as I felt my mouth slightly agape.

“I… What?” I felt another shiver.

“She didn’t survive the encounter with the Aigaion that day. December 7th was the day the Wonderbolts perished. All of them.”

A soft gasp to my right. I look to see Night Light quietly sobbing to herself, her eyes hidden beneath her bangs.

“Night Light here would’ve joined them in death. But instead, she fled.” Bon Bon spoke in a ‘matter-of-factly’ tone, eyes drifting back to Night Light.

“I’m sorry.” A choked whimper. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

My heart wrenched at the sight of it all. I felt tears building up, as well as a seething rage. Rage directed at our captors.

“Don’t apologize to me.” Bon Bon sneers. “Say sorry to the families and friends of those you left to die.”

I pounced.

I launched from my still-bound hind legs as they gave me one good jump, but the jump alone would not be enough to reach her.

But they forgot to bind my wings.

Lunging forward with extra momentum than anypony expected, I felt my head connect to Bon Bon’s snout painfully. A welt on my forehead would be visible, but I felt a crackle against Bon Bon as a sickly popping noise emitted from her nose.

“Grahhh!”

My primal scream and her cry of pain overtake the soundscape. My ears drowned in the adrenaline rush. I collapse atop Bon Bon’s now writhing body as the bodyguards quickly get to work dragging me off and subduing my wings.

As they tied them with extra-stiff plastic cuffs, I felt a few retaliatory strikes from Bon Bon’s legs as I tucked my face against the floor to avoid the worst of the bombardment of kicks. She bucks my crown incessantly, the guards busy dragging her off of me as well.

“Phucking Bish!” She screams with a noticeable slur as she grabs hold of her now broken nose. I could feel the weight of two stallions pressing me against the floor, I looked up into the darkness to see two more silhouettes wrestling with one another as Bon Bon screamed.

“Fucking—put ‘em in confinement, NOW!” she screams with a nasal tone.

Screams from Night Light were drowned out by the groans from Bon Bon and the guards as I felt the cuffs connect painfully into place behind my wings. There, the weight shifted off of me as I felt hooves latch onto my coat and drag me along the floor without care until I was outside the room.

I look over my torso as they dragged me by the shoulders to see Night Light receiving the same treatment, being tossed and dragged like a ragdoll while she flails and screams “I’m sorry” the entire time.

The adrenaline washed away, and all that remained was exhaustion with a hint of shame and regret. I was dragged along silently, frowning all the while as the guards said nothing to us. A few other suited ponies eyed the scene with a raised brow but otherwise went on with their business.

After a minute of dragging us down a mostly empty and sterile-looking wall, we stopped at a single metal door with a metal slit. One designed to peer through the door without opening it. Seeing the sight of that made me sigh to myself. Somehow, that tidbit aggravated me more than I thought it would.

It takes a moment to unlock the door with a key ring until the one dragging me tosses me inside a white room with a stiff concrete floor. My bones ache painfully at the impact of him throwing me, and I hear Night Light thump onto the floor next to me with a groan and a whimper.

No words were spoken as the guards closed the door. Soon, the locking mechanisms ground and sealed into place with a series of clicks.

There wasn’t total silence. Night Light was still quietly sobbing to herself. I drift my eyes to see her back facing me, wings also cuffed together like mine. Each movement of the joints was painfully tedious. My hooves couldn’t even wrap around her, they could only rub her back lamely in certain spots that I could reach. Mainly the spine between her wings.

My mind reels back. Everything had happened so fast that it only just now caught up to me the consequences of what happened.

We were well and truly trapped with no way out.

Night Light’s whimpers devolve into not-so-quiet sobs. My heart ached at the sight of her as I tried to awkwardly comfort her with a hoof rubbing her spine.

“Why?” she croaks.

I knew what she was asking.

Why did I do that?

And… I don’t know.

“... I’m sorry,” I answered.

I can only remember seeing red, and the feeling of wanting to hurt those that hurt us.

“I’m sorry,” I whimper with her, “I’m sorry.”

My eyes had been pooling because of the pain, but now they spilled over at the sight of Night Light. We wept, both in despair of our situation and in grief of what we had lost.

I can’t remember when I passed out. But I can tell now, that this is another dream.

The room feels too familiar, too intimate. The binds on my hooves are gone, and Night Light is no longer around. I am inside a Glass Box, but one that I am acutely aware of its interior. One I had lived in my whole life.

I stand up, my hooves stretching with their newfound freedom. Even if it was temporary. I am trying to remember the first memory before entering this dream.

Images of me breaking Bon Bon’s nose replay in my mind.

“... Oh, fuck.” I mutter in horror, realizing the consequences of what I did.

‘Oh, fuck’ is right!

A gravelly voice speaks from behind me as a familiar sensation washes over me. A clairvoyance of sorts. I turn to see an equine figure shrouded in shadow facing me with its white, beady eyes. They looked like stars in the night.

Fear grips my heart, but I remain standing in place. It opens its mouth to reveal sharp, pencil-like teeth grinning a hideous smile to me.

You done fucked up now, Sunshine.

“... We need to stop meeting like this,” I spoke with contempt at this being. Why am I suddenly being haunted in my dreams now? Is the universe trying to punish me?

No, it’s more like you are punishing yourself.

I blinked.

… What? Have you forgotten I am a part of you? That means I can read your thoughts, dummy.

“Great, so I am being haunted. Fun.”

The shadow tuts to itself, shaking its head.

Tsk Tsk Tsk. I expected a little more credit.

I frowned. “... Fuck you.”

There you go! That’s more like it!

“Why are you here?” I asked, taking a step forward.

It laughs. It’s a laugh that sounds like dull saw blades from a lumber mill grinding painfully against one another.

Don’t tell me you have forgotten me as well?! I told you Sunshine: I am the bad day.

“... But I am not dead.”

Never before had the entity I am speaking to shown confusion before, but it tilted its head to me at that statement.

… Obviously not. What's your point?

“You said you were ‘the inevitable’ last time we spoke. As far as I can remember, the only things inevitable in life are death and taxes. And I am still alive. What, have I not paid my taxes or something?”

Again, that horrendous laugh of a banshee guffaws out of the creature in front of me.

Witty. But no, you are not dead.

“... So why are you here then?”

Its smile dissipates.

Because once again, Sunshine, you are still bumbling about the pane. The window of truth remains closed to you, but you can feel its light. And it is starting to kill you. And soon, all of your past misdeeds will catch up to you.

I sigh, feeling my headache at the cryptics.

"I need a simple answer, please."

You are running out of time.

I raised a brow at the entity.

“Running out of time on what?”

How should I know? I know as well as you do. I just know that this is the truth.

“Okay… how long do you think I have?”

How should I know?

I groaned.

“Fine! What is—er, what do you think is going to happen when time runs out?”

The end of everything.

I felt my heart stop at those words.

Just a hunch.

I wanted to argue, to protest. But the words fail to form. They die before reaching my throat.

I knew with a quiet certainty that this was the truth.

“... The end of everything?” I whisper.

Nothing sad. Nothing tragic. No Betrayal. No heartbreak. It is simply the end.

I say nothing.

Imagine it. No past. No Present. No future. Only nothing. The world is gone. Well, it is not like it wasn’t lost already… But it will be well and truly gone soon, very soon. No promises. No regrets. Only stillness.

… And yet.

You feel it too, don’t you? That bitter, caustic sense of loss? You cannot help but wonder where it comes from, even after the end of everything. Even after the loss, great slimy sorrow slips into the water with you.

“... It hurts.”

I know it does. I know it does… But it is only the beginning.

“... So I am doomed, then?”

You were doomed from the start, Sunshine. It is merely a slow death. Death by a thousand cuts.

“Why?”

How should I know?

“... Fuck.” I feel tears stream down my cheeks.

‘Fuck’ is right…

“Then… if I am doomed, what is the point? What do I do now?”

I already told you, Sunshine. You need to remember why you forgot.

“But why? Why does it matter now? I fucked up so badly this time...”

The entity looks into my eyes with its white beads, its mouth sealed as it speaks with a sudden reverence.

Do you think you would do that to yourself easily? Do you think you would forget so easily? No. Something did this to you.

“But what?”

Maybe it was magic. Maybe it was a machine. Maybe it was an event so horrible that you chose to lock the memory away forever. Who’s to say?

I groaned. I feel a sensation of awareness creeping against me once more as I feel my head swim. The walls of the cube around me melt into hot sand, like an hourglass filling up. I am suddenly drowning in the sand as I reach into more sand.

The voice leaves me a parting message before consciousness overtakes me

Remember why you forgot. You are running out of time.

I awoke with a start to a glaring light damn near blinding me as I scrunched my eyes painfully open. I see the entire room is painted white apart from ourselves and the metal door. The walls, the ceiling, the lights, the one toilet seat, the painfully uncomfortably looking cot bolted to the floor; all were as white as the morning snow on Hearths Warming.

Night Light was seen sitting on her haunches atop the cot, staring at a corner in the wall with her back facing me.

I groaned as I attempted to do the same. A lot hard to do when you have your limbs tied together and can’t use them as leverage. I had to fight against gravity using nothing but my chin, but eventually, I pushed myself high enough to sit up.

It felt like an hour had passed, though it was impossible to tell the passage of time from here. I felt my stomach painfully scrunch up in hunger.

“Are you okay?” A monotone voice asks.

It took me a second to register it as Night Light. She never sounded lifeless before now. It was as if her soul left her body.

“Uh… yeah. Are you okay?” I clear my throat, trying to sound healthy and not like I had cried myself to sleep.

“Hah…” she replies with a dry laugh. Still facing away from me, her gaze averted to the corner in the wall. As if she refuses to look at me.

“Night…?”

“They came by while you were still out.” She informs me with a defeated tone.

“Who?”

“That mare whose nose you broke, and… another Stallion. I think it was Grimhooves.”

“... I don’t know who that is,” I admitted lamely.

“It doesn’t matter,” she remarks coldly. The way she spoke, the lack of life in her tone. It spelled bad news to me.

“They both came with their final verdict. We are both going to separate prisons.”

It takes a second for the news to register. When it finally did sink in, it sank alongside my heart to Tartarus below. I felt tears pricking my eyes. “... P-Prison?”

“I am going because of High Treason. You are going because you assaulted a government agent. Technically speaking, you got off lighter than me.”

She spoke with such acceptance in her voice. Like she was at peace with her fate.

I felt like my world was unraveling at the seams.

“But… Thats not…”

“It’s over, Sunshine.” Night Light quietly.

Three words.

It took three words for me to feel like I had been stabbed in the chest with a burning knife.

“Wh-what?”

“It’s over. We’re done,” she spoke with finality. “After today, we won’t see each other again.”

It was getting hard to breathe. I felt my throat tighten as my cheeks are starting to become wet with tears.

“You… You can’t mean…”

“What else is there, Sunshine?” she finally turns her back around to look at me in the eyes.

Her crimson, puffy eyes betrayed any notion of stability in her tone. Her face was wet with bodily fluids as she struggled to hold back more tears.

“I don’t blame you, for whatever that is worth.” her ears droop. “But… They are going to put you in a mental ward for psychological evaluation before putting you on trial. And I don’t know what they will do with me, but I imagine it won’t be pretty for what I did. It’s over…”

I wanted to apologize, but it just felt pathetic to even try. A hollow apology wouldn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t even make us feel better. Tears flowed down my cheeks freely. Night Light did the same, crying with abandon.

“I…” She stops herself. Shuffling over towards me on her haunches, she cranes her neck down into mine to nuzzle against me.

“I don’t know how long we have together until they take us away.”

I collapsed into her neck. I couldn’t hold it anymore. It felt like a serrated dagger was debriding my heart inside out. The composure melted away as I sobbed into her neck. She did the same as we both cried into each other's shoulders. A snotty mess of a pony was what remained of me.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” I wailed.

She attempted to comfort me, but she couldn’t. Her feeble attempts of stroking my back were thwarted by our binds. For a long while, both of us cried into each other shoulders just a hoof’s length away. Certain it would be the last day we would spend together.

Torturously dreadful solitary was our life. Both of us were still painfully constricted to our bindings, and there wasn’t much we could do. Most were metal apart from the ones around our wings, so no way of chewing them open or breaking them apart. They were starting to leave a rash mark beneath the coat with no way of scratching it.

For hours we sat like that, painfully trying to scratch our itches and sit as still as possible. It was madness-inducing enough to be locked up in this room. Being confined to itches one cannot scratch in said room in Tartarus on Earth.

Night Light sat together on the cot in the corner of the room, neither of us in any position to stand up or move around. We were hungry, thirsty, in pain, and going insane with nothing to do but our thoughts.

I sighed.

“I hate everything,” I mumble.

“Mhm.” Night hums quietly, leaning into my shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“No its not.”

“... It’s okay.”

Silence. Both of us are too tired to talk in complete sentences, it seems. Or, at least, I am.

“How long do you think it has been?” Night Light asks.

“At least three hours.”

“Mm.”

I yawned. I felt tired enough to sleep if I wanted to.

“Hey,” Night Light suddenly quips.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

My heart stops. For a moment, I forgot how to breathe as an icy chill courses my veins.

“I never got to say that before you left all those years ago. So I wanna say it here. I love you.”

There wasn’t an immediate thought. No emotion. No flaring neuron to focus on. All that greeted me was a sort of static in my brain from the fatigue.

“... Sunshine?”

I love you.

The words repeated in my brain a few times. The words of a friend to a friend; lover to a lover; mother and father, to daughter and son. The words of wanting what is good for another without a desire for anything in return. The words of someone willing to potentially be hurt by you even if it means getting closer to you.

I love you.

“... You shouldn’t.” My voice trembles.

“But I do. And I don’t care if I shouldn’t,” she spoke without hesitation.

Ah, hello again tears.

“I’ve been a bad pony to you, though,” I whisper.

“But you are trying to be better.”

“And I failed.”

“No, you haven’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I still love you, even through all of your faults.” She shuffles to make me look at her in the eyes, smiling sincerely behind her glossy jade irises. “You may think you are not a good pony, and you may be right. But I want to be there on your worst days, to make sure you are not alone. I want to be there with you on your best days, to help you live them to the fullest. I want to be there for the rest of your days, simply because I do.

“I love you, Sunshine.”

Somehow, I haven’t broken down bawling yet. Tears are streaming, but I still had some composure left in me to muster enough strength to do what I wanted to do.

Sniffing through my nostrils with a deep breath, I lean into her snout. Lips connect to lips, and at first there is genuine surprise as Night Light ‘meeps’ in her throat. She then relaxes and allows our lips to lock.

I didn’t think it was true before, but the cliché of a kiss feeling like it lasted for an eternity really was true. It was only a few short ephemeral seconds in reality, but it felt infinitely longer than that.

It felt like the first meaningful kiss I had ever given to her.

We parted lips, eyes locked. Words failed me for a moment until I knew what to say with certainty.

“... I love you too, Night Light.”

She cranes her neck down into my nuzzle, sighing. It wasn’t a warm sigh, more like a relieving sigh that lifted a weight off her chest.

For a moment, it made me forget my dire circumstances.

I blinked with crusty eyes.

Waking up from my uncomfortable nap, I tried to move my hooves to wipe them. The iron cuffs clinked with a painful chafing sensation around my fetlocks. At this point, the rash was starting to get worse.

I see Night Light sitting next to me. I looked up to see here looking down on me with a soft smile.

“I never get a chance to see you sleep before.”

I felt a heat rise to my cheeks. Despite my groggy brain just waking up, a silver of consciousness remained that prompted me to sit up. I smiled back at her. “Did I look peaceful?”

“You looked like a baby Ursa Minor. And sounded like one too.” She smiles back. “No wonder I always fall asleep first.”

My smile widened with a giggle. Quite euphoric, given how I fared all day.

Looking up at her eyes again, I noticed the bags beneath them.

“I hope I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“You did, but I am always tired waking up. I’ll be okay.”

I couldn’t help but frown at that. She knew as well as I did. Our time wouldn’t last.

“Have they come by?”

“I don’t know.” She ponders. “I… I am wondering if I may have dreamed them saying they would take us away.”

That got me to chuckle a little. “My dreams have been haunting me with ghosts lately.”

She looks back at me with a look of concern.

“Ghosts?”

“Well, I think they are ghosts. But it feels like I am talking to myself.”

“Oh…” she mumbles. “Maybe that’s why you talk in your sleep.”

My blood runs cold.

“I talk in my sleep?”

“Not a lot, but yeah. You say some words here and there. You did it earlier.”

“What, uh… what exactly did I say?” I was suddenly afraid of the potential answers.

“I think you said… ‘Doomed,’ or, something like that.”

You were doomed from the start.

“... Did you hear anything else?” I asked again.

“Yeah,” she seemed nervous, “You also said: ‘The end’”

The end of everything.

“You think you know what it means?” she suddenly asks.

Instinct tells me to lie to her. But what would that achieve? Only more distrust? Would it matter, if we were to be separated anyway?

I paused.

No.

No, it would matter because we are about to be separated. Now more than ever, the truth is what she wants to hear. And I have no reason left to lie to her now.

I already told her about the bomb, what is there left to lose?

“... I know this is gonna sound crazy, but, I think I have… forgotten something. Something very important. And I have these weird dreams where I talk to myself. Dreams that somehow are related to the thing I have forgotten.”

Night Light raises a brow but otherwise remains even in her expression.

“And sometimes in these dreams, I talk to myself… I think. I don’t know for sure. It feels surreal. Like it's a dream and not a dream at the same time.”

“Huh.”

“Do you have something like that?” I asked.

“No, nothing like what you are saying, that feels… wow. I’m sorry Sunshine, that must feel horrible to live with.”

“It is,” I spoke, suddenly a little more tired than I was before yet still waking up. “I feel like it’s haunting me. Hence why I said I was haunted by ghosts.”

“I can see that,” Night acquiesces. “I don’t know why that is happening, but I do know that cannot be good for you. Did you have one earlier before you woke up?”

“No,” I sighed, “thankfully it doesn’t happen every time I go to sleep.”

Silence. For a moment, Night Light doesn’t know what to say. There is no ambience to focus on otherwise though, nor a visual, only her. It feels like she is a lighthouse in an alabaster sea.

The lighthouse finally found the words to speak.

“What are these dreams about?” she asks.

I paused. Not sure how to answer. Except that, it feels like…

“A warning,” I answer with a sudden astuteness. “It feels like they are warning me of something.”

“But why now? Have these dreams been going on for a while? Or only just now?”

I paused. The more I thought about it, the more unusual it seemed for them to be happening all out of nowhere. Were they triggered by the trauma of me reliving my past? That sounded simultaneously plausible and silly.

I didn’t know, and the lack of an answer to the first question frustrated me. As for the rest, however…

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I replied honestly, “but otherwise, these dreams have been happening since last night… I think.” I scrunch my eyes up at the ceiling. “I don’t know how long we have been here.”

“I’d say at least half of a day.”

“Let’s go with that. So since last night then,” I answered.

“That doesn’t sound very long.”

“I’ve had two last night, and one earlier.”

“Was there anything else by any chance? Something to help us?”

Glass and Steel monoliths…

“... There is. One place keeps popping up in my head over and over again, but I have never been there before.”

“Where?”

“Manehattan.”

“... You think the bomb might be there?”

A voiceless scream…

“I hope not.”

“... Oh, goddesses.”

Silence for a while. I stare at my hooves, bound together. For a moment, my mind drew a blank as it was lost on what to do.

I heard Night Light clear her throat behind me.

“Do you think—”

Click-Clack!

The slit on the top of the door slid open, revealing a pair of dark hazel eyes scanning the room until they acquired us in the corner on the cot.

The slit closed, and soon the mechanisms of the door began to unlock lock by lock. It swung open to reveal two ponies standing in the doorway with batons holstered on their sides.

“Sunshine Tempest,” one of them announces, “You are coming with us.”

“Why?” I asked immediately, afraid of what was to come.

“You do not have a choice. You are coming with us for questioning.”

I frowned as they stepped into the room. Night Light attempts to latch around my barrel, her chains pressing against me.

“No…” she pleads.

Each hoof had two cuffs wrapped around their fetlocks, their tight chains preventing even the simplest of walks. As they began to unlock one of the pairs, I began to tell the difference already in weight and balance. It felt relieving to finally see them come off.

It was also disturbing to see the welts around my hooves from the iron wrapped around them.

They only unlocked one pair per side, still leaving me chained up on all four hooves but at least able to walk.

“Please.” Night Light begs.

“I love you Night Light. I’m sorry.” I spoke quickly, locking eyes with hers as they streamed more tears. Again, my heart was skewered with a dagger at the sight of her.

“Let’s go.” One of the guards spoke with simple finality.

And with that, I was hoisted up on all fours by two pairs of hooves. I was prompted to march, both of them flanking me.

I heard Night choke a gasp behind me as she began sobbing. I couldn’t turn back to look at her. I fought back tears of my own as I was marched out the door.

And with that, my fate was sealed. I was a dead mare walking, it felt like.

I began to walk down the sterile hallways that were painted grey, my eyes thankful to leave the snow-tinted room blinding my sight and draining my sanity. A sensation of numbing shock took over me as I trotted with a troubled pace. The guards pressed me onward a few times.

We took a left and a right. We passed by some ponies who gave us no passing glance. We passed by some more metal doors similar to the one I was locked up in. All of them closed and locked, soundproofed to hide who-knows-what behind those doors.

We also passed by some other ponies who looked like they were plucked in here just like me and Night Light were at the start of all of this. Confused and scared ponies babbling questions to their guards’ deaf ears.

‘What is this place? Why am I here? Am I in trouble? What is going on?’

Each went unanswered as they were taken away to somewhere deep in the facility.

Soon, we were taken to an express elevator that looked recently installed. That gave me the notion that we were underground. As the elevator doors opened, I eyed the panel to see the number of buttons. Eight of them, six were below the surface.

A sensation I was acutely aware of, but neglected to express, was building up as we continued to trot. It started as indignance. And soon turned into rage at my captors. But upon seeing the extent of the operation they had here? Seeing how far they were willing to go to take away ponies and their lives for their means?

The sensation was bubbling like an ill-prepared cauldron of dangerous alchemy. I looked down at my cuffs with a deep frown, my mind running laps at the possibilities and the chances of success. I moved an idle hoof forward slowly, feeling its weight. Its balance. And seeing how far the chains expanded before going taut.

I then noticed one of the guards had the keyring that unlocked our door.

“Take us up.” one of the guards speaks, the other nods. The latter pressed the ‘S1’ button, the doors closing in front of us. I noticed the current floor number says ‘B5’

When the doors shut, it was like a switch flipped on in my head.

I felt numb, shocked, saddened, and afraid.

But all of these feelings paled to the wrath that swallowed them whole.

My body exploded into action. My head lunges forward against the guard to my right, striking him on his temple as he reels back against the railings of the elevator, almost going over in the chute. I twist my body immediately after the impact, using the body behind me as a cushion for the fall. I raised my forehooves just in time to wrap my chains around the second guard's neck.

But he was quick. Quicker than I estimated. He had his body facing me just in time as I attempted to choke him, my chains grabbing onto his spine instead of his jugular. He anchors his hooves against the momentum of me pulling him closer to me, until he finally releases the resistance and lunges at me.

I duck my face just in time to soften the blow of his headbutt to my forehead, but it connected painfully to the welt of my previous attempts. The pain was enough to daze me for a few precious seconds until he was free from my chains.

The body of my first victim eventually mustered the strength to shove me off. An awkward scuffle of limbs flailing about ensued until they both managed to grab a hold of me.

“You got her!?”

“Yeah, I got her!”

I scream and flail about as one of them grabs hold of my barrel, wrapping around them with his hooves from in front of me. Belly to belly, were were inches away from each other as we both struggled for dominance. He was much bigger than me in size, my hooves were barely scraping the floor as he stood squarely on his hind legs.

“You aren’t going to win.” the one wrapping around me speaks calmly. “It’s over.”

Chomp!

In a singular motion, my teeth connect to his jugular. I focused my strength on my neck and pulled away from his as my teeth latched onto his skin for dear life.

Skin ruptures and pulls away like torn fabric, blood profusely seeping onto my face as my teeth break free from the traction of skin, pulling away a chunk of flesh and hair.

His strength fades almost immediately as he lets go of me. My hind legs land softly on the floor of the still-ascending elevator.

I turn back to see the second bodyguard paralyzed. His eyes were wide as saucers, his pupils dilated.

I latch onto his skin next, aiming for the same spot.

Ten seconds and one ruptured throat later, and both guards were dead. I stood over the two writhing, bleeding corpses as they both sputtered and gagged at the holes in their vocal cords.

I dart my eyes back up to see the elevator almost at its destination. A quick press of the buttons ‘B5’ sends my next destination.

The elevator stops mid-flight, and begins an uneasy descent back down.

Breathing heavily with the taste and scent of copper all over my snout, I began to search for the keyring on one of the soon-to-be corpses. I paid no mind to them reaching up at me as I eventually snagged my price with a manic laugh.

Getting to work at freeing myself was tricky when covered in blood, but the forehooves finally were free by the time the elevator doors chimed. I quickly snagged a baton in reflex, waiting for anypony to strike.

The doors opened to reveal an empty sterile hallway with a few metal doors off to the sides. Blood was now spilling onto the floors.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I got to work freeing my hind hooves until those chains too came off with a satisfying click. I began scratching the rash marks beneath the cuffs in giddy relief as I relished the newfound freedom.

Seeing red and with a bloody baton in my mouth, I imagined what I must’ve looked like now.

I must look deranged.

Shaking my head at the thought, I pressed onward. Remembering the trajectory of the path back to our cell—A right then a left, on the third door to the right side of the halls. Looking around for potential bystanders, I eventually arrived back to our cell alone.

I paused. Something stopped me from proceeding.

What is Night Light going to think if she sees you looking like a serial killer? What is she going to think about the bodies?

Do you think she wants to be saved by you? Do you think you are saving her?

I shook my head, dispelling the thought. We were running out of time. It is easy to sideline potential moral conflicts with yourself when you’re on an adrenaline rush.

I looked through at the keyring, shuffling through each key with my shaking hooves it took four failed attempts until I found the right key. Still no bystanders.

The latches click open with a satisfying groan as I push the doors open.

Night Light’s back is facing me. Her wings still cuffed painfully so. She is not-so-quietly crying in the corner on top of the cot, despondent at the noises of the door opening behind her.

My heart ached at the sight of her.

I looked down at myself. My coat was caked in blood and I smelled of death. Some of it staining the once pure alabaster room, now dripping in crimson. Bloody hoofprints trail into the room.

I took a deep breath in regardless of the odor.

“Night Light?”

The crying stops. There is a harrowing moment of silence as she slowly cranes her neck to me.

She locks her eyes with me and recoils slowly. For a moment, she looks horrified. The horror is only amplified even further when she recognizes me.

“... Sunshine?”

“We need to go. Now.” I wasted no time. “They are going to realize something is wrong.”

“Oh goddesses… Oh goddesses, what did you do!?”

“... Something horrible,” I answered.

“Oh shit!”

An alarmed voice behind me grips my attention, seeing another suit staring down at us with shrank pupils.

He springs into action, snapping out of his stupor remarkably quickly. I gallop forward just in time to stop him from closing the door and tackle him down to the floor. He shoves me off with a well-timed reversal, sending me flipping painfully on the floor.

I stood on all fours to see him charging me head-on, his coat smeared in dried blood from me tackling him. He jumps at the last second to pounce me, tumbling me on my back as he stands over and swiftly begins striking my face with his forehooves.

Each hoof connects painfully to my snout, bruising and welting the face with each strike. I was on the defensive, unable to find an opening to counter out of. I felt myself growing dizzier with each blow that landed.

My hind hooves flail on the floor underneath him until they rear up in one last, desperate buck. They aimed just high enough to hit him right in the center of his inner hindquarters. A shriek of pain was heard from him as it painfully landed, his weight instantly sagging onto me as I shoved him off with the last vestiges of my strength left. I struck back at his face multiple times, ignoring his pleas and cries until he was beaten unconscious.

When it was over, I turned around to see Night Light looking at me with wide eyes and silent horror etched on her face. I stood up, and she backs away from me.

My heart drops at the sight of her backpedaling away from me.

“... Sunshine.” she simply speaks my name, unable to form sentences.

“We need to go.” I kept it simple for her. “Let me unlock your binds. Please.”

She stood there, silently contemplating the insanity of how she got here. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t blame her for being terrified at the sight of me.

I stood for what felt like a harrowing eternity as she did not answer. No reply, only stunned silence.

I felt my heart twist up. But… what right would I have, to demand her to come with me? After what I did.

A creeping awareness of my adrenaline wearing off is catching up to me. I look back at the writhing stallion beneath me, still incapacitated.

My mind travels back to the bodies in the elevators.

“... Fuck.” my breathing hitches as the word leaves my mouth.

The weight of what I did catches up to me. I felt tears welling up as I felt a numbing sensation around me.

But despite the debilitations, I had one unwavering concern that won over the neurotic tug-of-war in my head. I look up at Night Light.

“... I… I need to get you out of here.”

Night Light says nothing. She stares with dumbfounded horror.

“But…”

“I know it's insane. But I am not leaving you.” I stretch my bloody hoof holding the keyring to her. “Please… let me keep my promise to you.”

She blinks. A moment passed as I waited for her response.

“Please.” I pleaded.

She blinks again.

“... Okay,” she whispers, nodding slowly. “Okay.”

I nodded back, trotting quickly to her as I got to work freeing her binds. It took more effort for her than myself strangely enough, and I quickly got to work chewing through the plastic cuffs surrounding her wings. She did the same to mine soon afterward, both of us no longer bound.

Night Light scratching her rash spots in giddy relief just like I did previously gave me a strange warm glow inside at the sight.

“Follow me.” I beckoned with a wave of a baton. A left and a right, and we arrived back at the elevators. The doors were still open, blood still pooling at the bottom of its cart. The two writhing bodies now lay still.

I dragged each body out one by one by one, bloodying my hooves further. It felt dried and caked on their coats, but some it still stained my fetlocks.

“Oh… I think I am going to be sick.”

“If you need to throw up, I won’t hold it against you.” I offered some consolation.

“... You did this?”

I did not answer as I dragged the second body out. Stepping inside, I waved a hoof to come.

Night Light hesitated, looking at the corpses beside her. She shakes her head, striding forward without taking another look at them. Soon, she stands next to me as I press a bloody hoofprint on the ‘S1’ button.

“This is insane…” she mumbles.

“I know.”

“This is crazy. We are going to be killed for this…” she mutters atonally.

No answer.

She was right. This was suicide.

Shaking my head, I look up to see the dial etch closer to the surface.

“Nopony has guns. We should be able to make a break for it if we hurry.”

“Do you know the way out?”

I paused. It never occurred to me that I would make it this far. I suddenly remember me, and Night Light being bagged up as we were dragged below ground, blinding us to the path out of here.

Shit.

“We wing it,” I spoke with as much confidence as I could muster.

“... We are going to die.”

The elevator doors chime with a ding, the doors sliding open revealing two earth ponies engrossed in conversation with one another.

Both of us locked eyes with both of them, staring in silent shock for a few seconds.

“... Oh.”

A sudden surge of feathers and fur rushes past them both as and Night Light simultaneously. Both earth ponies failed to be tackled as they attempted to grab onto nothing.

“RUN!”

The scream from Night Light prompts me into action we both trot together as panicked voices behind us scream in alarm. We ran past wider-spaced hallways made of carpet and drywall with doors made of wood. Windows revealing interiors of offices show a few puzzled ponies staring at the sight of two ponies making an escape attempt.

We move with haste as we pass by several other confused onlookers. They take a few seconds to register the situation before giving chase as well. Soon, we had a small group hot on our tails as we bobbed and weaved throughout the facility. Turning the corner, we sprinted down a short hallway with two double doors.

Bursting through the doors like a pair of angry twisters, we stopped cold soon after.

The doors led to an atrium with two balconies flanking overhead, a cafeteria bar to our right, and several doors leading further into what looked like living quarters. Benches arranged parallel to one another hosted various ponies enjoying meals.

Almost everypony freezes what they are doing and gazes at us. Two bloody, crazy-looking ponies that looked like additions to an insane asylum stared back at them with wide eyes.

“Fuck.” I swore aloud.

The doors behind us burst open, two earth ponies panting as they pointed hooves at us. “STOP THEM!”

“LEFT!” Night Light screams next to me, before taking off. I followed behind without hesitation, galloping past another series of double doors. A cacophony of screams and shouts echo off the walls of the atrium as the hornets nest behind us had been kicked up.

Bursting through the doors, we found a T-intersection splitting left and right.

“Which way?!” Night asks.

“RIGHT!” I scream without thinking, praying to Celestia it would be the way out.

Turning that direction revealed only a dead end with a glass window barely large enough to fit a pony. It revealed the night sky of Canterlot’s skyline.

“Dead end!” I scream, quickly twisting my body. A wall of angry ponies looking to stop us surge around the corner we came from.

We were trapped.

Twisting my body back around, I see Night Light looking at me with horror. In her eyes, a glimpse of uncertainty.

Was this the end?

I peer past her to the window, the glass pane looking thin on the window sill.

"FOLLOW ME!” I bellow as I galloped past her at breakneck speeds.

This was going to hurt!

Charging with as much momentum as I could, I gritted my teeth and jumped upward at the last possible second with my head tucked as low as it could!

CRASH!

The window shatters into small shards as my body lunges through the other side and scrapes painfully on the Canterlot concrete outside. I turn to see Night Light diving out with a graceful leap, unfurling her wings at the last possible second to glide over the broken shards over the ground.

“COME ON! LETS GO!” She screams as she drags me to my hooves, a few shards still embedded into me as I flap my wings to take off. The pain is thankfully mitigated with the adrenaline as I flew upward with a few successful flaps.

Soon, we were airborne and away, a choir of shouts below us screaming at one another to try and stop us. Thank Celestia we didn’t run into any unicorns to stop us with their magic.

“CLIMB!” I shout behind Night Light, both of us ascending into the night sky. I twist my neck for one last glance at the Pyramid we barely escaped from, feeling a surge of energy pushing me forward. The night sky of hosted two figures flying away for their lives, now on the run from the authorities.

Eventually, we reach a high enough altitude to hide behind a thin layer of altostratus clouds. We both stop to catch our breaths

“Where, huff, where do we go!?” Night asks in between pants.

“We can’t go back home! They will know where to look!” I answer, darting my head around. The valley of ponyville and cloudsdale were not visible from this afar in the night.

A thicket of forest extends beneath the face of Canterlot’s mountain, no more than a few miles away. It looked darker than the night surrounding it. A perfect place to hide.

“There! We go to the forest!”

Night Light gives one glance at the dark, foreboding woods below us. There was hesitance at first, but she nodded swiftly.

“I’m right behind you.” Night reassures me. My heart admittedly swells.

“Then let’s go.”

We both unfurl our wings and glided down with a controlled descent into the tree line. As we got closer, a looming thought finally pierced through the fog of adrenaline.

There was no turning back after this.

We were now criminals on the run…