The Visitors

IR-1, Deck 12, I.S.C Hostile Takeover, জাদুঘোগ

Twilight blinked as the metal covers around her face slid away. She looked around frantically at the mysterious metal room she was in, and saw that it was completely empty other than a table in front of her and a chair on the other side. She sat, immobilised for what was evidently a period of weeks, as a regularly timed announcement repeated the same seven words in the same order over what she presumed was each passing week. After sitting for some weeks, she began to notice that she hadn't felt tired, or hungry, or thirsty, for the whole time she had been seated. Just as she was beginning to ponder this revelation, the wall opposite her slid open, and one of the mysterious beings walked in and sat down on the chair. Looking it over as best she could, she realised that this was the mysterious captain who had imprisoned her here.

"Ah, Ms. Twilight. You know, I never did catch your last name. Assuming, that is, that you have one."

"Mr. Wills, please, let me out of here."

"You know, I could do that, but then you would be a symbol of resistance to the populace below, and if it comes to an all out war, then I'm afraid that it wouldn't go very well for anyone. You see, we can't simply burn this planet to cinders. We would like to live here afterwards, and we would like to know how this 'magic' of yours works, as I'm afraid that even the public execution of the dissident elements of your population isn't discouraging resistance. So, you help us and we help you, you see."

At this, he leant back is his chair, and rested his feet upon the table, angling himself so that he could still get a clear view of Twilight should anything happen. He could just see the beginnings of tears welling up at the thoughts of executions and the safety of her loved ones no doubt running through her head.

"All right."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" he said, leaning forward and putting his feet down.

"I'll help you. But I have conditions."

"But of course." Pressing a few buttons on his wrist, the metal retracted from her legs and she felt her control return. The doors slid open once more, and she followed him out, jogging slightly to keep up with his long strides.

After walking for a while, and a lot of stairs, they entered what appeared to be a small room with several seats looking through a window at bare metal plating. The metal slid over her legs once more, and she was walked to a seat next to the captain, where several hundred small filaments slid out of the metal and appeared to merge with the chair. There was a rumbling that began suddenly, accompanied by a grating whine, and the metal outside of the windows began to move upwards. It was only when light shine through the windows that she understood that they had been moving downwards, and were evidently in some kind of flying vehicle like the one the captain had first arrived in. Straining her eyes, she was surprised to find that the land below appeared to be in the same condition that it was in when she had seen it last.

Ponyville, Equestria

The flight lasted only a few minutes, and they were soon down on the ground, where the metal quickly slid over her whole body, before suddenly becoming completely transparent. Looking down at herself in shock, she could see that whatever illusion did this also made it look like nothing was pressing down on her fur. She jumped down from her seat, and was surrounded by the ever-present guardsbeings that seemed to grow out of the walls. She was walked out of the side door and down the steps, and when the whining of the craft settled down, she could hear a crowd that she hadn't heard in a while. There were many of the voices she had come to know and love during her time in Ponyville, though some of the usual louder ponies seemed to be missing, and the crowd sounded more subdued than usual. As she was walked along the streets, she quickly realised they had landed behind the town hall, and before she could think of anything else, she was thrust up a set of stairs and onto a stage.

Looking around, she could see and hear and feel the raw elation rising off of the crowds as they saw her for the first time in what she had been informed was a little over a month of her time. Looking over the crowd, she practically broke down in tears when she saw the front row was occupied by her completely uninjured family, sans Cadance, as well as the other Elements. Noticing another strange noise, she looked up to see a small spire hovering above the town hall, with two curved surfaces rotating around it displaying her onstage with the words "Live From Ponyville" emblazoned across the bottom. She then felt a strange pressure, and could see the metal streaming away through gaps in the boards of the stage, becoming visible away from her body a mere fraction of a second before going out of sight.

All of a sudden, there was a noise like a piece of parchment being torn, and the crowd in front of her went silent. She felt something warm trickling down her front legs, and rubbed it with her hoof, and saw that it was blood. A strange peace came over her, and as the blackness creeped into the edges of her vision and, hearing her voice echo across the stunned crowd, spoke her final words; "Damn. And I had so much left to do." And she dropped, face first, into the boards of the stage as she breathed her last.