The stallion looked up from his work, contemplating the room in which he sat. He had worked so very hard to get here, and now he had to wonder if it were worth it.

Varnished brown wood made up the furniture, with bookcases and end tables and such all scattered around the humbly opulent interior. Two red, high-backed fabric chairs stood near the window, the perfect seat for any two gentlecolts to share intelligent discussion. A great map of the Equine world hung against the left wall, expertly inked on yellow parchment. The office felt like his reward for years of service, and he was grateful for its offerings - comfort amidst his work, work amidst his comfort.

I merely hope that I am not about to throw it all away, he ruminated. More comes with a job than merely an office. Lost in thought, he fixated on a single golden pin on the edge of his desk. A momento. Ah, but what use would it have otherwise? I would hardly stick gold into my corkboard for any greedy maid or civil servant to pilfer.

There was a knock on the door, which opened silently, revealing three ponies beyond. Two stallions and a thoroughly dejected mare.

"Yes, Sargeant?" asked the room's occupant, wearily.

"Lady Sparkle ta see you, yer governership, as requested."

"Thank you, Sargeant. See her in, would you please?"

Twilight Sparkle shot the brusk guard an unamused glare as he ushered her in to the chamber, but it was nothing like the one she spared her new host as the door clicked shut. She gave him an icy, unblinking stare one could liken to that granted by the judge to one who, in such a barbaric society where as would be allowed, was about to sentence the defendant to the brutal reprimand of execution - or, failing that, community service.

"An arrest, Pool?" she seethed. " Tell me, please - your men didn't, after all - with what crime am I charged? Convince me that this isn't a simple abuse of power, please. I'd love to hear what felonies I could have possibly committed." Twilight was furious. The calm facade she had almost failed to keep on her escorted way to the mansion boiled away as the injustice and untimeliness of it all set in.

"Rejecting an invitation from the governor," replied the very same. He sat at a desk carved from dark, oiled wood, writing in swirling hoofwriting. Despite being a unicorn, he wrote with a quill held to his fetlock with what appeared to be a leather thong. He was an unassuming individual, grey with a sea-blue mane, both his hair and fur flecked here and there with white.

"Forgive me then, Pool, as I never received your letter," Twilight said, angrily.

"You never received it because I never sent it. I knew you would reject it, you see," the governor explained. "This way, I have saved myself parchment and ink." He finished his work with a flourishing signature, before removing his quill and standing. "Now then, what can I do for you?"

"Do... Do for me?" Twilight sputtered. "You brought me here on false pretences! You can start by telling me what you want!"

"Very well," he said, unaffected. "May I offer you a drink?" Governor Pool gestured to where a liquor cabinet stood against the wall, brimming with crystal bottles filled to varying degrees with red-brown liquids.

"I'm alright, thank you."

Twilight examined the governor carefully. Plunge Pool was, she knew, a career politician who'd barely made a career. He'd been a low-ranking minister in the Braytish cabinet, elected on the tailcoats of his own Prime Minister, and had been spectacularly lazy in office. He'd only secured Hockfall's governorship thanks to the incompetence of his incumbent opponent. The ponies of the Bridge-City had been quite happy to rid themselves of the incompetent Needlebottom, and the princesses in Canterlot had been happy to see him go, for his father was an outspoken opponent of the crown, even if he never acted on it.

"Very well then, we shall get straight down to business. Tell me, what do you know of the alicorns?"

Twilight was glad then that she hadn't accepted the governor's offer of a drink, or else it would by now have been sprayed several feet ahead of her. Her eyes flashed with surprise that she struggled to control, afraid that any answer would be enough to give away her concerns.

Is - He's not one of the Knights, we know that, we checked him out! He's just curious, surely, just curious. My PhD was in alicorn studies, after all. "A bit more than most," Twilight said, cautiously, trying to keep her voice even. "The princesses have the right to their own privacy, and as a friend of theirs I'd be doing them a disservice to ignore that." She hoped that the governor wouldn't notice her avoiding his eyes as she spoke, instead focusing on the wall behind his head.

"Of course, of course," the governor replied. "I hear you are truly a virtuous mare, Lady Sparkle."

"Doctor Sparkle, please," Twilight insisted, impulsively. She couldn't help herself, it had become a reaction. Ever since she had earned her PhD she couldn't help but feel a stab of annoyance whenever someone called her by her older title. It made her feel as if her brother's marriage was more important than any of her achievements, which was amongst the greatest insults any tongue could utter.

The governor merely raised an eyebrow. "Of course," he said. "My apologies. In any case, though, I have a question for you. Do they seem... Fit to rule? An eternity of leadership surely must place great strain on their faculties."

"If anything, I think it's made them stronger," Twilight replied, suppressing indignation. "So much of their role now is apolitical, they only - mostly, they only wade in to put down extremism. I - you've never lived in the Heartlands, have you?" When Pool shook his head, she continued, "I think I should tell you that they have a great deal of time for their subjects there. I know you may see little of Princess Celestia here in the Fetlochs, but if the Lairds in the north would stop complaining that she's 'had her time' then it would be a lot easier for her to arrange a visit."

"I don't understand what visiting has to do with this," the governor told her, now turning to move to the liquor cabinet, from which he withdrew a bottle of brandy and a single tumbler. "Are you sure I can't get you anything?"

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you," Twilight said, firmly. "The princesses, Celestia especially, have great empathy for their subjects, from watching over their lives for so many thousands of years. No elected leader could ever have their experience."

"Well, now we get to the point, you see," Plunge Pool replied.

Yes, tell me why you had me arrested, Twilight thought. The governor took a slight sip of his drink, setting the glass down on his desk as he began to speak once more.

"There are rumours, of course, that you yourself were selected as Princess Celestia's student because she thought you would make an appropriate successor."

Twilight's eyebrows flew up. "I - yes, I know of those," she conceded, "they flatter me. But I think I should tell you, governor, that I was completely out of touch when I first came to live in the Palace. The princess certainly didn't choose me for leadership qualities. I didn't really start to... to understand real life until I actually left, and that wasn't because of where I had been to begin with, but because I never bothered to try and see the world."

"But now you have?"

"Now I have."

The governor sighed, scratching his head as he shut his eyes and stood there, breathing deeply, for several moments. "Ah, well now," he said, at length, "this is where things could potentially get... Awkward. You... You are the Element of Magic, am I correct?"

"No," Twilight replied, "the Element of Magic is a tiara locked away in Canterlot. I'm merely one of the ponies capable of channeling it."

"Well, perhaps." Plunge Pool gave a sly grin. "But it isn't in Canterlot, is it?"

Twilight blanched. It suddenly became very obvious where this was going. The office around her suddenly became immaterial - only the governor's words mattered as the realisation sunk in that this was not somepony looking for greater influence in Canterlot. Well, he was in a way - but not in a way, had Twilight known, that she would have given any time to.

There was a certain level of malice in that grin.

"A source informed me a little over a week ago that three of the Elements of Harmony were removed from storage and sent east, in the same direction that another one, which I am informed by another source was removed a year before my election. I would assume at least one of them is on your person," the older pony explained.

"Your sources are wrong," Twilight told him, flatly.

"I don't think they are. You see, Twilight Sparkle," Pool said, as he started to pace around her, "you may be a learned mare, but-"

"For Celestia's sake, Pool, when did you fall in with the Knights?"

The governor snapped. "You really think it's that simple? Would it kill you to just listen to me? I am trying to save your life!"

Twilight flinched, stepping backwards. One hoof hovered uncertainly as Plunge Pool panted slightly, hastily raising his drink to down it. The door on the far side of the study creaked open, and a robed pony trotted in. Twilight couldn't see their face under the red hood he wore.

"Is everything alright, master?" he asked, softly.

"Yes, Cowlmane," the governor replied, his voice trembling lightly. "Please tell Laird Highpine that we are nearly ready for him."

"Yes, master."

Twilight's mind whirled. Highpine was a Knight commander, from the High Fets, but Plunge Pool wasn't one of the Order. He wasn't an enemy of the crown, he'd just spoken against it to gather votes. And that was when he was running against Needlebottom, who was...

"Would I be right in saying that the Pine Clan actually thought you were anti-noble?"

"Yes," Governor Pool answered rubbing at his temple. "After I beat his son in the election, Highpine invited me to his estate and practically indoctrinated me into his organisation."

"He indoctrinated you," Twilight said, skeptically. "You say that like you don't agree with him."

"I don't!" the governor replied, "and I do! It's not a black and white issue! Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia has ruled for far too long. It's time for her to step down as Princess, and - even her sister! Her sister can stay, she's only just coming into the public eye now!"

He was gesticulating wildly now. "But Celestia has been on the throne for - I don't know how long, tens of thousands of years! There are ponies out there who would remove her and her allies by force, but you, Dr. Sparkle! You could take that seat from her and nopony would have to get hurt. Otherwise - there are ponies that would go to war. Maybe not in our lifetimes, yet maybe tomorrow - these ponies are powerful, Dr. Sparkle. You didn't think I was one of them? This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are stallions of import out there who are willing kill thousands, and you could stop that!"

Twilight stared at him, shocked. His slight frame was heaving now, and he toppled backwards, landing heavily on his rump. He sat there, in the middle of his office, quite undignified.

She hadn't been expecting that outburst, not at all. Yes, there were ponies who could start wars. Over Celestia - Could I... Would it stop them?

She shook her head from side to side, angry at herself. "I won't call you a liar, Pool, but the Knights don't just want Celestia off the throne, they want themselves on it, and they want to get it through war."

"Not all of them..." Pool gasped. "Just... Most."

"And that helps your case?" Twilight half-yelled. "I can't help you. I won't. The princesses are my friends, Pool, and I won't betray them. If you're with the Knights, surely you know that if Celestia puts her alicorn powers aside, she'll die?"

"She doesn't even have to do that!" the governor insisted. "She could just - go, away. Leave. Like all the world's other alicorns, and leave you in charge. Leave us mortals to our own business."

"And then the whole world goes to Tartarus without its steward."

The governor let his face fall, staring into his own carpet. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dr. Sparkle. I tried. But I can't offer you any more chances. You've brought him the Elements, three of them. That's more than enough for a stallion who wants to go to war."

Twilight swallowed, as another knock sounded. Plunge Pool rose and walked to it, and she couldn't help but wonder what exactly she had just done.

Elsewhere

"Rather dark in here, don't you th-"

"Ssh!" hissed a voice, and Rarity fell mute. "Later." There was a creaking of unoiled hinges, a brief flash of light, and then darkness once more. Beside her, Rarity could hear Applejack's deep, steady breathing. If the farmer was calm, surely she could afford to relax too?

But the cellar was dark, and the Hock roared somewhere beneath them, muffled only by the thick, cold flagstones on which they sat. Rarity trembled, biting back an uttered complaint. It was going to be a difficult wait.

The Governor's Mansion, Hockfall

Twilight stood in defiance as the hulking beast of a stallion stamped towards her. His green-brown coat heaved with anger as he puffed, near-hyperventilating as he worked himself up. The titanic earth pony halted just inches from her, his black eyes staring her down. To her credit, she did not tremble. She stood her ground.

"Imperialist bitch!"

She did not resist. He had raised his hoof with his shout and, without warning, lashed it against her cheek. Twilight gasped, flinching sideways as it connected, far harder than she had expected, for the stallion's hooves were shod with iron and he had hardly held back. If she hadn't been through worse she would have been sent sailing into Pool's desk. As it was, she merely staggered, coughing as she realised the inside of her mouth was bleeding.

'As it was' wasn't exactly much better than the alternative.

Yet still she held herself proudly, turning back to her aggressor with rage in her eyes. "Is this a typical Fetloch welcome then?" she asked, angrily. "Impudence and violence?"

"Impudence!" the giant roared. "Ah'll give ye impudence, bairn. Sittin' high on her mountain in her pretty wee Palace ignorin' all the woes of us lesser, greater creatures? I am nae impudent. Celestia is impudent. She is impudence itself, and ye defend her!"

"I would, if you would give me the chance!" Twilight yelled back.

"Gentlemen!" came a shout, grabbing both of their attention. Twilight's head snapped around to see Pool, wringing his hooves nervously by the door. "Er, that is, Lad- Doctor and, uh, your Lairdship. Dr. Sparkle, this is-"

"-Laird Highpine," she interrupted. "I know all about you. You think the princesses don't know about you and your little secret society? Oh, we know." Highpine wasn't the head of the Knights - there wasn't one. But he threw a lot of weight around,

"We?" Laird Highpine mocked. "Oh, so ye fancy yerself a princess too, do you lass? Ah'm sure ye'd make a fine example. What do ye know about the poor, workin' pony who hasn't had the good fortune ta be born in the Heartlands? Nothin'!" he spat. "Ya think ye're smart with yer titles and yer theses - or is there a thesis? And y'know what? Know that Ah think about it, Ah don't recall it ever bein' published. Ah know all about you too, Lady Sparkle."

Twilight hissed under her breath, provoking a smirk from Highpine.

"Aw, did Ah touch a nerve there, bairn?" He moved to the desk, where Plunge Pool had set down the whiskey and tumbler. Ignoring the glass, he unstopped the bottle with his teeth and took a swig, causing both Twilight and the Governor shudder. "Mah man in Canterlot tells me that the Princess removed the Elements of Harmony from their hiding place on Hearth's Warming, just before she left fer Ponyville. Ye clearly have at least one of them about yer person. Ye will give it ta me."

"I don't have it," Twilight said, almost immediately. She hoped she hadn't been too quick, lest the brute pick up on it.

"Ye're a terrible liar, Twilight Sparkle," the Laird replied.

It's just a bluff. He can't know. "Maybe, but I'm telling the truth," Twilight insisted. "I don't have any of the Elements."

"Don't make me strike ye again lass. Ah don't like ta hit a lady, but if ye give me no choice, then-"

"That won't me necessary," Governor Pool chipped in, nervously. "Cowlmane, search her bags, would you please?"

The slight, cloaked colt scurried over to the wall where Twilight's bags lay. She hadn't noticed either the guards putting them there nor Cowlmane's presence in the room. She was definitely going to have to pay more attention if she wanted to get out of here unharmed - or at least, no more so that she already had been.

As the servant - was he a servant? Twilight wasn't sure - rummaged, she began to run through her options. I could teleport out - no, they'll be onto me too soon. I've got to hold on, hope for a chance to slip away.

Cowlmane was turfing out her belongings all over the governor's floor, but finding nothing that took his interest. A manebrush, a blank notebook, quills and ink - very typical things for Twilight to travel with.

Maybe if I can hold out long enough they'll have me locked up. That'll give me time to think, at least - as long as Highpine keeps his temper in check. She suppressed the urge to gulp. If a stallion introduced himself to a mare with a punch, how bad could he be if he flew off the handle?

"No sign of them, sir," the mysterious colt reported in his soft, patient voice.

"What about any weapons?" Pool suggested, frowning. "Anything that might indicate she's hiding something, at least."

"Nothing, sir," Cowlmane insisted, shaking his hooded head.

"Wha' about her staff?" Highpine snarled. "Celestia secretly made ya a mage, too, didn't she? Just like she made ye a doctor. Tell me, lass, what have ye actually ever earned?"

"Everything," Twilight growled back. Right now there was nothing she wanted to do more than to let fly at Highpine with all her magical might. She could quite easily take him - but she still didn't fancy her chances of getting out of the city with her friends beyond that.

"Quite astute, your Lairdship," Plunge Pool said. "Please, mage, show me your staff. I assume you would know a way to store it magically?"

"Uh-" Twilight's words caught in her mouth. Her capacity for improvisation failed there. She had stored her staff in a magical pocket along with all their other weapons - including the Elements of Harmony. Take one thing out and Cowlmane would probably spot the rest. "I don't have it," she blustered.

"Lies!" yelled Highpine, taking the bottle in his teeth and flinging it towards her. She saw stars as it clunked against her head and she fell to the ground, whimpering. The carpet grew damp underneath her and she feared she was bleeding - but the awful stench that accompanied the moistness told he that the bottle was simply spilling over.

"You, point-head," the brutal Laird ordered, "find her staff."

Where she lay, Twilight began to notice a strange pressure. It poked and probed at her, at a part of her she could not quite lay a hoof on, because that part did not technically exist. Her magical 'muscles,' as they were, were well trained enough to notice his intrusion.

More so, they could practically ignore it. Twilight found this incredibly amusing. Cowlmane was clearly strong, she could feel it, but nopony had been able to match her magical prowess for years now. It was her talent, it was her being. He could not even comprehend what it meant to touch it, nor how.

"Well?" Highpine snapped.

"She - she's definitely hiding something," the unicorn murmured, uncertainly. "B-but I can't quite-"

"Useless!" the noble barked. "Pool, get yer best magician in here. We're gonna be needing him."

"Cowlmane is my best spellcaster," Governor Pool replied, testily. "Nopony else in the city has a tenth of his capability. It was him who sensed the Elements on her in the first place, I don't understand how they - it's like they've just gone!"

"Well, ain't that inconvenient?" Highpine roared. Twilight snapped out of her reverie, having been disillusioned by her own prowess, as there was a hiss of air and Highpine's hoof connected with her side. She groaned, then groaned again as she thudded back to the floor, the force of the giant stallion's kick sending her off the ground for a moment. The pain was not unbearable, far from it - she had taken harder knocks - but it still hurt, a lot, and a fillyish whimper escaped, unbidden, in response.

"That's enough!" Pool snapped from somewhere over Twilight's head. She couldn't tell where, she had shut her eyes to stop the room from spinning. "If you- if we push her too far, we could quite easily kill her. I may not be a unicorn, but I do know that it's much easier to unravel a spell with the help of its caster, willing or no."

"Pathetic," the Laird spat in disgust and disappointment. "Fine then, stick her in a cell. A few days spent ne'er eatin' nor drinkin's as good as a hard beatin'. She should talk before too long."

"Agreed," Pool assented. "Cowlmane, escort Doctor Sparkle to the holding cells, if you please. Then return here and replace her possessions into her bag. I shall keep hold of them."

"Cap her horn first," Highpine insisted. "She's a tricky lass, no matter what ye could say about her."

Twilight didn't have a moment in which to retort. She was calculating hard, staying cool despite knowing full well that should she make a mistake now she may well never leave the city. If Cowlmane capped her horn - placing a dampener over it to stop her casting magic - she'd have no way to get herself out of whatever cell Highpine had her thrown in. But if she tried to teleport out now, she'd likely bring the whole of the guard down on not just her head, but her friends as well, wherever they had gotten to.

There really was no answer.

Cowlmane came back into view - she'd been concentrating so much she hadn't seen him go. He floated before him what she knew to be a suppressor cap, a metal object that neutralised a unicorn's magic as effectively as sticking an earth pony on a blimp.

It was a cold grey metal, dull, iron-like in appearance, although Twilight knew that it was likely alloyed with other minerals to enhance its dampening capability. Made to fit over a horn much like the hornblade Celestia had shown Rarity, rather than having a sharper tip, its point was rounded, so as to stop prisoners using their own natural weapons against their jailers.

In that moment, she nearly panicked. To most unicorns, magic was an integral part of their being, but for Twilight it was somehow more than that. Magic was her talent, her niche - without it she was crippled, alone and powerless she would be completely helpless.

That was what her captors would think, anyway. She had plenty of tricks up her metaphorical sleeves. She understood magic far better than they, and her wits failed her, she still had friends on the outside. But most importantly, submission was her best chance at keeping the Elements from the Knights.

It's funny, she thought as the robed pony slipped the cone on, but all I can think is that we weren't supposed to run into these idiots nearly so soon. Guess I was only fooling myself. There was an audible click as something within the cone pressed against her horn, all around its base. On reflex, she shook her head, but the cone held tightly in place, locked onto her body like a mollusk to a rock. Cowlmane gave the governor a satisfied nod.

"Get her out of here," Highpine ordered, and Twilight allowed herself to be led away. She could feel the suppressor not just on her, but within her, squeezing on her magic. But as she left, a small smile crossed her features as a pin rolled, unnoticed, off Governor's desk. It was not like her to boast - boastful pride was something she had long since learned to discourage. But there was a certain something, a real pride in realising that these ponies were taking on more than they could handle.

They were picking a fight with Twilight Sparkle, and they were going to lose.

Elsewhere

Rarity gazed into the inky blackness of the basement. She had long since grown accustomed to it, and by now could make outlines out - the rough table, the wall to the cistern, the padded bedroll on which Applejack gently snored.

The snore turned into a splutter as the door creaked open and golden light spilled in. Barely a moment passed before it swung shut again, shadowy figures moving in, and an iron bolt was dragged across with a worryingly loud scrape.

The sudden rush of brightness and following return to darkness jarred Rarity. She could see no longer, until the whoosh of an igniting match heralded a candle's lighting. The tiny speck of light was set down on the table with careful hooves, and Rarity was surprised to see not one, but two new faces.

There was there previous self-styled 'saviour', lowering her hood to reveal a shock of white mane strewn across her face. She was breathing heavily, and wore a concerned expression. But Rarity was more worried by her company - somepony - or rather, some gazelle - she hadn't been too keen on seeing before.

"Why are you here?" she hissed at Longhorn. "And where's Twilight?"

"That's exactly the reason I've come, the bard replied, laying his instrument gently against the wall. "Twilight was with me. We were looking for you, and then she got arrested. Our mutual friend here tried to warn her, but Twilight panicked, it seemed."

"Really, now?" Applejack asked, having stood. "Why should we believe it's not you we have to be worried about?"

The blue mare grumbled quietly under her breath for a moment. "You've been pretty happy to believe me for the last couple of hours," she replied.

"No, she's right," Rarity chipped in. "We came on the pretence of a promised explanation. I'd like to have it now, please."

"Fine," the mare said, grudgingly. "My name is Bluebell. I work for the Equestrian Secret Service. And I have to tell you that, thanks to a filing error, Twilight Sparkle has been captured by the Order of the Bloodied Cross."