Herald of Dawn

Shadows crept slowly around the room, being cast by a gently swinging light bulb. Twilight tried to catch it in her magic, but found that what little ability the land left her with was gone. It was all gone. She sobbed, her head in her hooves. Slowly, though, it dawned upon her that she was alive.

Why hadn't Sonny killed her?

He had certainly intended to, that much was made clear to Twilight but why didn't he? It was obvious he had no problem killing other ponies ... Twilight looked around the room. She had shackles on her hooves and neck -- there was no way for her to stand up but she could move her head. The room was empty; cold concrete punctuated by dark stains that Twilight hoped were rust. A single metal door was on the wall directly in front of her.

If she focused, she could almost hear hoofsteps. The hoofsteps drew closer until it seemed they were outside the door. The handle creaked, flecks of rust falling off the tumblers. The door swung open. Just beyond the threshold was a crystal mare. She balanced a tray neatly in her magic, floating it over to Twilight. On the tray was a sandwich, a few crackers, and a bowl of soup. The mare came over and unlocked the shackles binding Twilight's hooves.

"Wh-who are you?! Where am I?" Twilight cried, grasping at the mare. The mare shook Twilight's hooves loose, her deep frown never wavering.

"I am afraid, child, that we are already acquainted. I am Shining Dawn. I have come to feed you, and then make you presentable to the Queen," Dawn said, gesturing down to the tray. "She will be back late tonight, but she will want to see this. To be honest with you, I was going to let you go. Pretend I had never seen you, and scrape every last trace of the encounter from my mind; you know how it goes. But that brute just had to have you ..."

Seeing Twilight's worried expression, Dawn quickly backpedaled and said,

"No, no, don't worry. He didn't hurt you. Rivers saw to that. She, above all of us, wishes only to please her Queen. What better gift than the prized student of a loathed enemy? You can start to see how I was outvoted." She laughed, undoing the shackle around Twilight's throat. "You really should have hid yourself better. Oh well."

Twilight scrambled to her hooves, barely missing the tray. Dawn put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Don't try to run. There are six guards outside the door," she whispered. "If I see an opportunity, I will get you out, but for now, play your part." Twilight nodded. In such a weakened condition, there was no way she could simply fight her way free. She was forced to trust her life to this mare and hope that she wasn't making a bad decision.

She ate the food that Dawn brought, and then followed her out, her head hung low in a show of submission. The guards all watched her as she slunk by. She was glad that Dawn warned her -- just one of these monstrous ponies would be the end of her. Twilight had to wonder if there were steroids in the water or something of that sort.

Dawn trotted off at a rapid clip. Twilight marveled at the architecture.  The whole building was reminiscent of cathedrals built by Celestial and Lunar cults. Sunlight filtered through tall stained glass windows, casting gem-like light across the floor. The ceiling was much further up than she expected; it gave the building a cavernous sort of feeling.

At the very end of the room, two floor-to-ceiling windows utterly dominated the wall holding them up. Twilight recognized Queen Enigmatic Insanity from her diplomatic briefings but the pegasus depicted on the other window was unknown to her. She shivered under his gaze -- she had never seen somepony with so much hate in their eyes.  His fur was a color shared by a restricted technology -- guns, Twilight thought. He was the color of a gun.

She had never seen one up close, but she had read about them and their potential for chaos. Twilight wondered to herself if the creatures in this country had guns. She hoped that the Queen was wise and had restricted them here. So much death could be caused by just one gun; she couldn't imagine an entire country having them.

Twilight rushed to catch up with Dawn. The mare was waiting for her in front of an open door.

"I thought you were going to be out there forever!" Dawn joked, gesturing for Twilight to go ahead. Dawn followed after, closing the door behind her. She gestured to the bed where a gown was laid out for Twilight. It had the soft purples and oranges of a rising dawn. Stars sparkled at the collar of the dress where the darkest blues lay.

Out of habit, Twilight tried to levitate the dress in order to put it on. To her shock, she had full control of her magic again. The energy ran through her ley lines, throbbing at the base of her horn like a loyal hound, waiting for the command. Twilight turned on Dawn, letting loose a blast that should have killed the mare. The magic fizzled, exploding in a shower of sparks.

Dawn laughed at her. Seeing Twilight's confusion, she kicked aside the rug on the floor. Beneath it was a complicated spell matrix, carved directly into the stone.

"Any energy amount greater than 13 watts of alicorn, or about 56 joules, trips this here enchantment. You have the ability to levitate things and cast a light spell. Nothing more," Dawn explained.

"Is that why --" Twilight began.

"You can't use magic in the city? Yes. Also because of this, Pegasi can't fly, and Earth ponies can't use their strength either. Exception being the Queen's Guard but I think you knew that. If you ripped up the foundations of this city, you would see hundreds of thousands of these matrices," Dawn interrupted. "Now get dressed. The Queen should be back any minute now."

Twilight did as she was told, slipping on the silky dress. Dawn cast some sort of spell on her mane, rearranging it into a pinned up style with a braid crown. Her tail was left as it was. She looked to Dawn for approval. The crystal mare nodded, sparkling in the light. She turned to the door and opened it. Outside were two unicorns. They wore armor that looked to be made from carved darkness. It altered and bent their faces and bodies into a more draconic shape.

Dawn tossed her head at Twilight, stepping aside to let them in. The two stepped in, their gait mechanically militaristic, or perhaps just constrained by their heavy armor. One of them stepped towards Twilight, his horn alight. She felt her hooves become heavy, realizing that she had been put in shackles. The two unicorns then lifted Twilight in their magic, carrying her out the door like she was naught more than a glorified statue.

Twilight fought for hours, once she realized this wasn't to be over with soon. The moment they stopped, the unicorns cast a petrification spell. Twilight could breath, and see, but she was silenced and immobile.

She could only wait.