How Friends May Fall

How Friends May Fall – Part 5

As much as Twilight tried to struggle, it was of no use. There wasn’t much she could do. She couldn’t run away because of her cuffed hooves, and without sight she could not aim her magic. Even if she had been able to do both, she was still surrounded by far too many guards, and even more of them were still spread around the asylum grounds.

Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted from the floor, and being laid down elsewhere. Almost immediately, felt a disturbance in the surface below her, soon followed by rough winds and the sounds of flapping wings.

“W-What’s going on?” said Twilight, her voice slightly shivering in fear. “Where are you taking me?”

But there was no response. She couldn’t even hear if there was anybody else around, all she heard were the wind and the flapping wings.

She then realized what was going on. She had been loaded into one of the chariots, and the guards were taking her somewhere. A feeling of dread came over here as she came to this realization. Why did they take her away like this? Where were they going? What were they going to do with her? At least she knew that it had to be somehow involved with her research. Otherwise, Lieutenant Mane most likely wouldn’t have been there.

Knowing that there was no escape, she just laid down where she was. The only guards remaining now were most likely the ones carrying the chariot, but she had no idea how far above the surface they were. She did not want to risk falling to her death. With a sigh, she just began to count the second she was there.

One second… Ten seconds… A hundred seconds… Five hundred seconds… A thousand seconds… Five thousand seconds…

She slowly became woozy by the repetitive counting, and soon slipped away into slumber…

With a soft groan, Twilight opened her eyes. She didn’t feel the wind anymore, nor could she hear the wings. In fact, other than her own breathing, she couldn’t hear anything at all.

She rubbed her eyes, and took a good look at her surroundings. She found herself within a dark area, completely surrounded by black smoke, with just a tiny, magical sparkle hanging several feet above her.

Suddenly, she realized that she could move her hooves freely, and that she was able to see again. Her cuffs and blindfold were gone!

“What is this place?” she whispered to herself, as she got back up on her feet.

“Hello.”

Twilight was startled by a voice right behind her. As she turned around, she saw a white-maned yellow filly, standing right behind her.

“Um… Hi.” replied Twilight, feeling a little uneasy about this weird place. “Who are y--”

“Hello.”

Once more, she heard a voice behind her. This time, it had come from a red-maned white filly, who too was standing right behind her.

As innocent as the fillies seemed, Twilight began to feel very uncomfortable. Where had these two fillies come from? The yellow filly might have been there all along, but she was absolutely certain that she hadn’t seen the white filly coming her way. Had they come from beyond this weird black smoke?

“W-Where am I?” asked Twilight to the two fillies, backing up to face them both.

The two fillies looked at eachother for a moment, and then turned their heads back to Twilight. Instead of answering, they simply smiled at her and stared right into her eyes. Slowly, their smiles turned into grins. Both their grins and eyes grew wider, and wider, and…

In horror, Twilight watched as the fillies’ cheeks tore apart, blood pouring down from the wounds as their hind teeth and jaws became visible. Their eyes began to swell up and bleed, until they popped into a bloody mess. Completely distressed and frightened, Twilight wanted to turn around and ran as fast as she could. Yet, just as she wanted to do so, she suddenly heard the loudest and most terrifying howl she had ever heard right behind her. Cold sweat dripped from her back and forehead as she turned around and faced--

“Miss Sparkle, wake up!”

With a high-pitched scream, Twilight awoke from her sleep. She was breathing heavily, and her back and forehead were covered in sweat. She took a quick glance at her surroundings, and found herself lying in the back of a chariot, as she had assumed before. With a relieved sigh, she looked back at the colt that woke her. It was Lieutenant Mane, holding the blindfold that Twilight wore before in his hoof.

“What the hay were you dreaming about?” asked the lieutenant. “Your struggling almost caused the guards to lose control of the chariot!”

“It was nothing.” replied Twilight quickly. “Just a… bad dream.”

“I’m afraid that you’re going to have to tell us more than just that, Twilight.”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Lieutenant Mane. Twilight instantly recognized it, as well as the pony it originated from, who walked straight up to her. In front of Twilight stood none other than…

“Princess Luna!”

“I’m glad to see that you still recognize me, Twilight.” replied Princess Luna with a smile.

The princess turned her head towards Lieutenant Mane, and nodded. The lieutenant nodded back, and began to uncuff Twilight’s hooves.

“I’m sorry for the whole scare, Twilight.” said Princess Luna. “Lieutenant Mane here gets rather… thorough in his assignments. All he had to do was bring you here.”

“Bring me here? Why?” asked Twilight, as she rubbed her uncuffed hooves together to get the numbness out of them. “Does this have something to do with the research I’ve been doing?”

“I’m afraid so.” replied the princess with a nod. “We have reason to believe that the basement beneath Sugarcube Corner is somehow related to the incident. We also believe that you think the exact same thing, as one of our undercover officers spotted you within the Canterlot Asylum earlier today.”

Twilight thought back to her time in the Canterlot Asylum. She did recall seeing a colt in the entrance hall, who had entered the shower right after she had left. Had that colt been an undercover officer all along? And if so, how long had he been following her?

“But… Why are you here?” asked Twilight. “And why do you need me?”

Instead of answering Twilight’s question, Princess Luna turned around and took a few steps away, Lieutenant Mane following right behind her. She turned her head back at Twilight, and motioned for her to follow.

“We’ll discuss that elsewhere.” said the princess. “Please follow me.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Twilight stepped out of the chariot and followed the princess. As she followed her around, she took a better look at her surroundings. They seemed to be inside of a certain structure, yet it looked much different then what Twilight was used to. Instead of being colorful and made out of stone or wood, everything seemed to be made out of iron and glass, and some of the rooms they crossed were stocked with advanced equipment she had never seen before. It felt almost as if she had travelled a thousand years into the future!

However, everything had an eerie feeling about it. Why would the police force be in possession of such advanced equipment? After all, this single murder case was supposed to be the first one that had occurred in hundreds, if not thousands of years, and since that time this was the worst crime ever committed. But even so, all this technology seemed so… excessive. And how could this all be related to the basement she found beneath Sugarcube Corner?

“We’re here.”

They stopped in front of a door, which after a second automatically opened itself. A sign was placed right above the door, with the writing ‘interrogation room’.

Other than a single table with a lamp, the room was completely empty. There was a single window in the back of the room. Standing up on her hind legs and leaning against the wall with her hooves, she could only barely reach it. She found that they were in a skyscraper in a large city she had never seen before, almost at the top level of the building.

“We’re in Trotham City.” said Princess Luna, as she stepped to the window and stood beside Twilight. “It’s all the way on the other side of Equestria, at least several hundreds of miles away from Ponyville and Canterlot.”

“Several hundreds of miles away??” said Twilight, as she backed away from the window and faced Princess Luna. “How long was I out for?”

“Not too long, actually.” replied the princess, as she walked back to the table. “Only half an hour at best. We have small offices spread everywhere, including near Ponyville and Canterlot, which provide instant teleportation to our headquarters with the use of technology and magic.”

Baffled by the thought of such things being possible, Twilight followed Princess Luna to the table and stood at the other side. Lieutenant Mane shut the door, and positioned himself next to the princess.

“We need to talk about that dream of yours, in fact.” said the lieutenant, as he grabbed a notepad and a pencil from a drawer on his side of the table. “Could you tell us exactly what you dreamed about?”

“H-How is that relevant to anything at all?” asked Twilight confused.

“We’ll answer all of your questions soon, Twilight.” said Princess Luna. “But first, there are some questions we would like to have answered.”

With a sigh, Twilight began to tell about her dream in as much detail as she could remember. Although Lieutenant Mane simply nodded and scribbled some things down on his notepad, Princess Luna began to look ever more worried as her explanation dragged on. Almost as if she recognized Twilight’s dream as a bad omen.

“…and that’s when I woke up.”

Lieutenant Mane looked at Princess Luna, who simply remained silent and stared at Twilight for a few seconds. Her face had become a bit pale, and she truly looked like she was worried about something.

“And how do you feel right now?” asked the princess, with a clearly concerned tone in her voice.

“Well… I’m a bit upset about that dream, but otherwise I feel fine.” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow. “But like I said, what does my dream have to do with anything?”

Lieutenant Mane turned back to his notebook, and wrote something down. He then turned on the lamp, and aimed it straight for Twilight’s head.

“Hey! What is that for?!” said Twilight, disgruntled.

“Standard procedure for an interrogation, Miss Sparkle.” replied Lieutenant Mane. “We wouldn’t want you to lie about anything.”

“But why would I--”

“Miss Sparkle, you had just spoken with the Pegasus known as Rainbow Dash when you left the asylum, right?” said the lieutenant, interrupting Twilight’s sentence. “Please tell us what she told you.”

Twilight thought back to her talk with Rainbow Dash. Other than the fact that the room was somehow related to the incident, she hadn’t learned much from her visit. However, she remembered Rainbow Dash shouting some other things that didn’t quite make sense…

“Well, I’m not sure what to believe.” she said somewhat hesitantly. “She told me that Pinkie invited her over for cupcakes, but that Pinkie murdered her instead of the other way around.”

Once more, Lieutenant Mane scribbled something on his notepad. It was making Twilight feel very uneasy, but Princess Luna tried to soothe her a bit.

“Please, Twilight, isn’t there anything else that she told you? Anything at all?”

Twilight lowered her head in thought. Rainbow Dash had said some other things, but she didn’t know if it was the right choice to tell that to them. After all, she still knew nothing of this whole organization that the lieutenant and Princess Luna seemed to be a part of, and she had no idea how this could possibly end for Rainbow Dash.

“I can’t tell you.”

“What?” said Princess Luna. “Why not? I assure you that you can absolutely and positively trust--”

“How could I possibly trust you?!” shouted Twilight, as she raised her head and stared in Princess Luna’s direction. “You kidnap me from the asylum, blindfolding and cuffing me in the process, only to take me to a strange place on the other side of Equestria, where you bombard me with questions while refusing to tell me anything about what’s going on!”

The lieutenant and the princess both backed away from the table, having not expected such an outburst. Twilight could see her words sinking in, as they began to doubt whether or not they should tell her about this supposed organization.

Princess Luna looked in Lieutenant Mane’s direction, who nodded at the princess in approval. The princess faced back in Twilight’s direction, and walked back up to the table.

“If we tell you everything that’s going on, will you tell us everything you know?”

“I will.” said Twilight. “But only if you will answer any and all of my questions.”

“Just one more thing.” said Princess Luna quickly, with a serious tone in her voice. “What we are about to tell you can drastically change your look on the case, if not all of Equestria in its entirety.”

Although she kept a firm and resolute expression on her face, Twilight began to doubt whether or not she had to continue this way. She remembered the warning that Princess Celestia had given before, and it seemed awfully and suspiciously applicable in this situation. Could Princess Celestia herself have known that this would’ve happened?

“Twilight.” said the Princess. “Are you absolutely and positively sure that you want to everything?”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight swallowed her doubts and fears and nodded her head. It was no longer about simple curiosity that drove her to know more. It was the fact that something big was clearly going on, something that could very well influence and change all of Equestria. And with everything that had occurred, it couldn’t be anything good, either.

She wanted her remaining friends to be safe… And for that, she had to know more.

“Very well.” said Princess Luna. “I will tell you all you need to know.”