Thief of the Frontline

Chapter 2

Twilight opened her eyes. Her head was pounding with pain and her limbs and back ached.  She looked around.  She was lying on a hammock made of some sort of industrial fishing net.  Whale, maybe? No, it wasn't thick enough.  It didn't really matter.  She was in a dim lit room with a wooden table in the middle, a few dressers along the stone brick walls, and no windows.  She looked to her right.  Standing there, facing away from her, was another pony.  He had a light gray coat and a deep, but slightly faded, navy blue mane.  He was digging through a drawer for something.  She was about to open her mouth to say something when he turned around.  The pegasus's, wait no, batpony's emerald eyes widened as they starred into her own.

There was silence for a moment, and then Twilight spoke.  "Uh, hello."  She said in a nervous tone. "Where am I?  Who are you?"

The stallion opened his mouth to speak, but the words never came.  His eyes looked down and moved side to side rapidly.  He shook his head as if trying to rid himself of the momentary inability to talk.  He looked back at Twilight, who was still waiting for an answer.  Finally, he spoke.  "You're in the old castle of the two sister."  He paused.  He looked down again, trying to compile his thoughts, and then back at Twilight.  "I'm Nightfall."  He stepped forward and began to walk toward her.  When he reached her, he sat down and placed what he had taken from the drawer onto the short table.  A bandage, a small white cloth, and a small glass flask containing some sort of liquid that she did not recognize.

"So what's your name?" Nightfall asked calmly.  He was surprised that he was able to talk straight.  He had so many question.  How did you get turned into crystal?  Why were you below Canterlot?  Are you a princess?

"Twilight.  I'm Twilight Sparkle," she said.  "What happened?"

Nightfall wasn't sure how to answer, but that name, Twilight Sparkle.  He knew that name.  Then he remembered what he was originally going to do before the alicorn awoke.  He pointed to the top of her head with his hoof.  "From the looks of it, you took a nasty spill."

Twilight reached up and rubbed the spot that Nightfall had pointed to and felt a bandage.  It hurt slightly when she applied pressure.  She looked at Nightfall who was pouring some of the liquid from the flask onto the cloth.  It was most likely some kind of wound cleaning solution.

"Here," he said.  "I wasn't able to disinfect it when I found you.  It would be a good idea to do so now."

Twilight leaned forward and let Nightfall peel off the bandage.  The cut wasn't bleeding as much anymore, just a little bit.

"You said you found me?" Twilight asked.  She looked more confused than she did when she woke up.

"Yes," Nightfall responded.  "You were in the caves under Canterlot.  You... um, you were incased in crystal.  At first I just thought you were at statue."  He started dabbing the wet cloth on Twilight's head.  She flinched slightly.  "Sorry," Nightfall said.

"Its okay," replied Twilight.  "So how did I get here?  And how did I end up as a statue under Canterlot?"

Nightfall finished cleaning Twilight's wound.  "I carried you here on my back," he said, putting the cloth back on the table and replacing it with the new bandage.  "As for being a statue, I was hoping that you would be able to shed a little light on that."

Before Twilight could say anything, the door to the room swung open.  Two unicorns walked in.  One was young and smiling.  The other was a little older and frowned as he walked through the door.  He had a pale brown coat, and a white mane that had a few streaks of yellow.  Also, he looked like he hadn't slept in a while.  His light blue eyes were only halfway open.  "This better be something good, Nightfall," he said in a tired voice.  Nightfall pointed at Twilight.  "Better than good," he said.

The exhausted stallion's eyes shot open and his mouth nearly hit the floor.  He rubbed his eyes and blinked.  Twilight was still laying on the hammock, looking at the group of three.  "Where did you find her?"

"In those stupid caves you sent me into.  Interesting enough for you?"

"Yes, but," he paused and looked back at Nightfall.  "We can't keep her here.  If the king finds out about her..."

"He won't find out," Nightfall interrupted.  "I'll make sure of it."

Twilight was getting more confused with every word that the two stallions spoke.  And apparently, it was quite obvious.

"You don't understand at all what is going on, do you?"  Twilight turned her head towards the voice.  It was the young unicorn who had walked in earlier.

"No, I'm so confused.  Why are you all being so secretive?  What's this about a king?"

Nightfall turned to Twilight.  "I'll try my best to explain, but first, I need you tell me something."

"Alright, what do you need to know?"

"What's the last thing you remember before waking up in this room?"

Twilight thought for second, doing her best to remember.  "Well I was in Canterlot.  Princess Celestia had sent me a letter the day before requesting my presence in her court.  So I packed my bags and went.  When I got to the castle, I immediately went to the throne room to greet her, but nopony was there."

"Anything else?" the older unicorn asked.

"No, nothing," she replied.  "After that, everything just goes fuzzy until I woke up here."

"You are Princess Twilight Sparkle, former bearer of the Element of Magic, correct?" Nightfall asked, but he already knew the answer.

Twilight nodded.

"According to the history books, you and Princess Celestia became oppressive rulers who were overthrown by Celestia's younger sister, Princess Luna.  After becoming crazed with power, she was later overthrown by the current regime of Equestria."

Twilight stood up and interrupted Nightfall before he could say anymore.  "That doesn't make any sense.  I don't even remember falling asleep."

"It doesn't make sense because its all a bunch of lies," the stallion next to Nightfall said.  "All of it is just what they want us to believe so that they can control us."

"So what really happened?" Twilight asked.

Nightfall continued with his history lesson.  "You and Celestia went missing about one hundred years ago.  After you were never found, Luna replaced Celestia as the monarch.  She was progressive and took many risks, but due to her inexperience, relatively speaking, there were times she was wrong.  She always willingly took the blame though, even when it wasn't entirely her fault.  No matter what, she would always take it upon herself to fix any mistakes she made, just like any good leader should."  He shot a dirty look at the older unicorn who was now struggling to stay awake.  "She made a lot of enemies because of these mistakes.  And now, they have all the power."

Twilight wasn't sure how to respond to what she had just been told.  It all seemed so... so... crazy to her.  "So that makes you some sort of resistance?"

"Yes," the younger unicorn spoke after remaining silent for some time.  "Wait no, not yet?  Sort of?  We haven't come out of the shadows yet.  So to speak.  We don't have enough ponies or support to actually go out and take on the Imperial forces of evil... yet."  He smiled.  "By the way, I'm Paper Cut.  The most spectacularly handsome lookout in any organization, of any country, anywhere."  He held out a hoof to Twilight who returned the gesture.

"Its a pleasure to meet you Paper Cut,"  she said as they shook hooves.

Nightfall grinned slightly.  "Yeah, and this is our "glorious" leader."  Nightfall pointed to the stallion next to him who was now on the floor asleep with his hooves in the air and tongue hanging out.  "His name is Solar Spark.  He can be hard to get along with and he doesn't always make the best decisions, but his heart is in the right place and he was the one who started this little rebellion.  So I follow his leadership, for now."  The last part of that sentence had a slightly sinister tone to it that disturbed Twilight a little.  "Anyway, its late and you probably need to clear your head.  We can talk some more in the morning."

Twilight nodded.  "Alright that sounds good.  A good night's sleep would do me some good anyway."

Nightfall looked at Paper Cut.  He was still smiling at Twilight, quite creepily.  "Alright Paper, its time to hit the hay."  He shook  Solar Spark with a hoof.  "Hey wake up."

He opened his eyes.  "What?  Oh, sorry.  What did I miss?"

"Nothing really," Nightfall replied to the sleepy unicorn.  "We're going to talk more in the morning."

"Okay great.  I'm going to bed before anything else that could possibly dictate the future of all pony kind shows up asking to borrow some flour."  He started walking for the door and motioned for Paper Cut to follow him.  He stopped when he reached the door and turned around.  "Twilight, welcome back."  With that, he and Paper Cut left the room, closing the door behind them.

Nightfall walked across the room and lied down in a hammock a few yards from Twilight.  He closed his eye and dosed off.  Twilight on the other hoof, didn't even make an effort to fall asleep, she just pretended to.  She was now thinking about what she had been told.  Was any of it true?  Was everything alright and these were just crazy ponies who kidnapped her?  Of course they were, they had to be.  Everything she had been told was ridiculous.  They probably weren't even using their real names.

Twilight had played it safe.  She listened to them, nodding and pretending that she wasn't actually terrified of what was happening to her.  She waited for awhile, around an hour.  It was time to get out now.  She needed to get to Canterlot and talk to Princess Celestia, tell her about all this.

She looked to her side, toward where the batpony that called himself Nightfall had gone to sleep at.  She couldn't see him, all the lights were off and it was very dark.  She would have to take a chance.  Slowly and carefully, she made her way out of the hammock and across the floor.  She had to take very light steps to keep her hooves from making noise against the hard, stone floor.

When she finally reached the door, she looked back over her shoulder.  Nothing seemed different as far as she could tell.  She started opening the door slowly.  It made a soft creaking noise.  Twilight stopped.  She looked back again.  Same as before.  The door in front of her was open just enough for her to squeeze through.  She took a step forward, but out of nowhere Nightfall appeared upside down in front of her.

"AHHH!" Twilight yelled as she fell back.

"Where are you going?" he asked as he hung from a hole in the ceiling.

"Bathroom," Twilight replied, trying not to sound like she was lying.

Nightfall dropped to the floor and landed on his hooves.  "You're very good at acting.  You may have fooled Paper and Solar, but I'm not that easy.  You can't go outside."

"What do you want with me?" Twilight asked as she backed up.

Nightfall stepped forward and sat down.  "Nothing," he said.  "I know it seems like we're crazy.  I know you don't believe anything I've told you, but it's all true.  We want to help you."

"You can help me by letting me go!" Twilight said angrily.  "What kind of twisted game is this?!"

"I can't let you go.  You'll jeopardize everything."

Twilight had had enough.  She wasn't going to sit here and listen to this psycho anymore.  "Just try and stop me," she said.  Before Nightfall could even blink, Twilight's horn lit up.  There was a flash and she was gone.

Nightfall sighed heavily.  "Shit," he said under his breath as he rushed to the door.  As he quickly exited the room, he looked both ways only to see Twilight on his left.  She had teleported around him and was now running off down the hall.  Nightfall sighed again.  She was going the wrong way.

He spread his wings and took off after Twilight as fast as they could carry him.  "Will you please just listen to me?" he called out as he began to catch up with her.  She kept running, not even turning her head to acknowledge him.  "Fine!" he said.  He passed Twilight, quickly landed only a few feet in front of her and spread his wings out.

Twilight ran straight into him, full force.  They both tumbled to the ground.  Nightfall landed on his back and Twilight landed on top of him.  He rapidly rolled over, switching their positions where he was then able to pin Twilight's forelegs to the floor.

"Let me go!" she yelled.  "Somepony help!"

Nightfall backed off of Twilight and sat down, holding his hooves in the air.  "There, you see?  I'm not restraining you.  Now, can we just talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about," Twilight said as she sat up.  She was now panting heavily, trying to catch her breath.  "I want to go home."

Nightfall thought about what was happening for a second.  He had told her everything and she didn't believe him.  She thought that he was crazy and really he couldn't blame her.  He couldn't let her go, though.  She was Equestria's last hope for a good future.  "How about I prove it to you that what I'm saying is true?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow.  "Proof?  What makes you think that you can prove that these absurd claims are true?"

"Well, why don't you follow me and find out?"

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Twilight shot back.

"Oh come on, aren't you at least curious?"

"No."

"If this doesn't convince you, then I'll let you go and never bother you again," Nightfall said in a monotone voice.

Twilight was now standing outside the castle with Nightfall who was leading her, well she really didn't know.  The only reason she agreed to follow him was so that he would leave her alone.  The last thing she wanted was for him to show up at a really inconvenient moment.  Like the Grand Galloping Gala.  That would just ruin the entire night.

"Come on, this way," Nightfall said as he lead Twilight down into the canyon that ran along side the castle.

Twilight didn't like this.  She readied herself to run incase this was some sort of trick.  She also began to try and recall any kind of offensive spells.  She hoped that it wouldn't come down to it, but if she had to, she would defend herself.

When the two reached the bottom of the canyon, Nightfall walked forward up to a large concrete wall that was embedded into the cliff face.  "I'm sure you're familiar with the tree of harmony.  Say hello to the several hundred tons of concrete that prevent anypony from ever seeing it again."

Twilight walked up to the giant wall in shock.  "No, this can't be right," she said out loud.  She was staring at the entrance to the cave that housed the tree of harmony, at least that's what it used to be.  Instead, the entire opening was covered in a massive grey wall with a large seal of some sort.  Twilight didn't recognize it from anywhere.

"That there is the royal seal of shitting on everything that Equestria once stood for," Nightfall said from behind Twilight.

"How did... how..."   Twilight was at a loss of words.  All she could do was stare at he behemoth before her.  "What happened?" she finally managed to say.

"The king," Nightfall replied.  "I don't really know which one though.  We've had several since Luna fell."

"No, no, no!" Twilight said in frustration.  She began to claw at the wall.  "This isn't right! This can't be happening."

"It already did happen," Nightfall replied.  "He came and stole the elements and then filled the entire cavern up with concrete.  I guess he didn't want there to be any symbols of the old Equestria left for ponies to rally behind."

Twilight sat down and folded her ears back on the head that now hung low to the ground.  "No," she whispered in a depressed tone.

"I'm sorry Princess," Nightfall said.  "I know it must be a lot to take in.  Why don't we head back up and start over.  I'll even forget that you tackled me while trying to get away.  Sound fair?"

Even with the dire situation at hoof, Twilight was still able to smile just a little at Nightfall's joke.  "You didn't exactly give me enough room to stop," she responded.

"We can forget that too if you want," Nightfall said with one of those smiles that said sorry that things are the way they are.  "Are you ready to go back?"

Twilight looked at the royal seal one last time.  How could this happen?  She looked back at the batpony that she no longer thought of as an absolute lunatic.  "Yeah, I'm ready," she said sadly.

They went back to the room in the castle where Twilight had woken up.  Everything was as they left it.  Twilight lied on down on the hammock and tried to go to sleep.  Nightfall did the same, but after a few minutes of silence, Twilight found herself unable to dose off.  She sat up and sighed.

    She really didn't want to believe it.  She wished she could go back not believing Nightfall, just so she wouldn't feel as terrible as she now did, even if it was just for a few more minutes.  But how could she not believe him, after what she saw.  Even if he was lying about what had really happened, there was no doubt in her mind that Celestia and Luna were no longer in charge of Equestria.  This new ruler had buried the tree of harmony.  How could somepony do that?

For now, Twilight needed to rest, but in the morning, she would need to find out as much as she could about the state of Equestria and if these rebels were really worth helping.  Or if possibly, there was another solution.