Death Unbound: Days Gone By

Twilight’s eyes opened slowly. She pushed herself up, but a rush of pain was felt through her jaw and head. For a second she couldn't figure out why, that was until her eyes focused on what was around her, or more importantly, what was in front of her.

A large grey earth pony, wearing Royal Guard armor and spear in hoof was in front of her.

“Good morning,” He slipped a plate of eggs, over medium, fork on the side, under the cell doors, and over to Twilight’ “You've been out for over a day, you should eat, I've noticed your ribs are showing.”

She had just woken up and already she had no idea what the hell was going on, “I'm sorry, but what are you saying?” She asked

“Well, you were knocked out by one of our own. You woke up, and I'm here offering you food. It's the least we can do. Also, it was ordered by headquarters to make you feel comfortable,” He said with a light blush before giving a light chuckle.

“Oh.. Well, thank you,” she said with a smile as she tried to levitate the fork with her magic, but for some reason it wouldn't lift, “Why isn't this working?” She snapped

“We put a magic inhibitor on you. I mean, it's for our own safety, we saw what happened at the base you raided.”

“Oh..that,” she said quietly, picking up her fork and cutting into her eggs.

“You know, for a princess you've gotten yourself into a pretty shitty situation. I mean, no offense, but I'm surprised you're even alive right now. Everypony thought you died down in Ponyville. But here you are, killing our men and pissing everypony off,” He laughed.

“Believe me, if I could've gotten out of there without anypony dying, I would've gladly went along with that. Just, one thing led to another, and then I saw Applebloom all cut up, and I snapped… I never wanted anypony to die,” A small, single tear went down her face but was quickly wiped.

“Yeah, believe me, nopony wanted this. Listen, I'll be back to check on you in a bit, until then just wait around, alright?”

Twilight simply nodded, forking a piece of egg and eating it.

He left, and Twilight was left alone.
While she picked at her eggs the memories of the past few days came at her like a bullet. It felt like years since she slipped out of the cave that night. Since she first met Blue Field and his accomplices, since all but Blue Field died. So much had happened this week alone, she felt like she's changed so much since then too. It gave her goose bumps.

Just as he promised, the pony had returned, this time with a full on hayburger with fries.
Twilight’s eyes widened with joy as she realized that it was her longtime favorite meal, then went down with confusion, “Ho-how did you get the ingredients for this? I thought I'd never see another one of these things again!”

Well, pretty early on, we raided a bunch of shops and grocery stores in the area. Pretty much every base we have is stocked with enough food for 30 ponies, for a year, on the exception of headquarters, which has more. We wouldn't just use our resources on prisoners if we didn't have the luxury to,” he said as he slid the plate to Twilight.
She hesitated for a moment, but just for a moment. She stuffed her face with fries and took large bites from her burger. Something she hasn't done in a long while. For a moment she imagined herself back in Ponyville. She was at “The Hayburger” with the CMC telling them how proud she was of them for expressing interest in learning new skills. She missed that.

Just like she missed the hayburger, within a few seconds of her first bite it was gone.

“You sure are a messy eater!” He laughed heartedly at Twilight, who's face was covered in ketchup and crumbs.

Twilight blushed and nonchalantly used a pile of fries to wipe the mess from her mouth, “*giggle* I'm sorry. Hell, even back then I was this messy! If you could believe that,” She laughed. It had been a long time since she'd met somepony this friendly. It had only been five months, but it felt like a lifetime.

“Well, once you're done, I can show you around the base if you're feeling up to it. Although, you have to promise not to try anything.”

“I don't even think I would if given the chance, in these last few hours you've been kinder than anyone I've met out there combined.”
“Flattering. Well, let's get to it.”

“And this is the kitchen, we have very talented ponies in there who make sure we don't starve, being the incapable dumbasses we are.”
“That's great,” Twilight said, trying to hold in her laughter, “But Grayson… I want to see my friends. They're all I have left.”

“You will, don't worry. Just, don't expect it to be soon. You've killed a lot of our men, more than we're comfortable with.”
Yeah… I've seen enough. Take me back to my cell.

Grayson nodded and walked her back. As he turned away from her a sigh left his mouth, ‘Who knew I could fall for a Princess?’

The next day Twilight woke up to Grayson sliding a salad under the bars.
“Hey there Twilight, I have some good news for you! Tomorrow you and Rainbow Dash will be reunited.”

Twilight’s eyes glimmered, she was delighted to hear the news, “Really?!” She ran up to hug him, but realized they were separated by the bars.

“Yep,I just got the message from headquarters! Also, I was given permission to take you on a little trip to our cafeteria!,” Grayson exclaimed, showing a bit of immaturity as he bounced slightly.

“Holy shit, not only are you messy, but you're a big eater too!,” Grayson gasped in pure amazement and awe as he watched Twilight go at nearly ten hayburgers.

“Oh shut up, I haven't eaten anything near this amount in months! I'm starving!” She took an entire burger and downed it in one bite, “So, when tomorrow am I supposed to to see her? And also, why not Applebloom?” Her eyes narrowed, “If any of them hur-”

“Relax, nopony has hurt her. She's a lot more important than you think.”

“How so?”

“She just is, you'll find out soon, he just wants some time to access the situation.”

“He?”

Grayson’s eyes widened as he realized his mistake, “I'm not allowed to say, you'll find out soon enough.

“If you say so.. Why are you even keeping me alive? You said yourself that we've killed a lot more of you guys than you're comfortable with! This is just a dead end, don't you think?”

“No, like I said, you'll soon find out why you're alive. Just relax and eat your hayburger.”

Twilight woke up once more, but this time on her own accord. Grayson wasn't there, and the weird thing was that the cell door was open.

She curiously walked out, and saw a sign, with an arrow pointing to another, leading to another, and another. She once more, followed. Unsure of what would happen she placed herself on guard as she walked into an empty room.

‘Why would-’

“Hey Twi!”

Twilight jumped, she turned around and was met with Grayson, “oh, you scared me. Why did the signs bring me here?”

“Well, you know how you're suppose to meet your friend today? I want to run over it with you, rules and stuff.”

“Oh.. Alright”

“Well, you're only allowed within five feet of each other.”
“What? What do you mean only five feet?!” Twilight grew angry.

“Listen! It's for safety measures, one of you might pull something and we don't want that happening.”

Twilight let out a groan, she could deal with that. As she turned her attention back to Grayson she heard two ponies outside the room speaking. She couldn't understand what they were saying, however she did pick up one word. Prisoner.
Twilight adjusted her attention nonchalantly to the background ponies, ignoring Grayson completely.
“Did you get the order from Mac?”
“Yea, so, how do you want to do it?”
I don't know… I've never straight up executed a pony before.”
Twilight’s attention swapped back to Grayson.

“There's also something else I wanted to ask you.. Maybe sometime we can-”

“Is that what you met by reunited?” Twilight’s voice rose. Her eyes gazed at Grayson.

“Wh-”

“DON'T YOU WHAT ME! I heard them, they said something about executing me!?” Her voice turned from a yell into a dangerous and serpent like strike.

“What? Twilight I didn't know, they just told me th-”

“I trusted you! All this time you were just bullshitting me!” The inhibitor on Twilight’s horn began to shake, “I'm done with you!”

“NO TWILIGHT DON'T” Grayson screamed as Twilight’s inhibitor broke, and a beam of energy went through his chest, and through his heart.

The door flew off its hinges, crushing the two ponies outside. The others took note of this and tried to attack her. Twilight sent a large blast, comparable to the level of the one against Tirek, down both sides of the hallway. Killing everypony in it.
She walked over to her cell, and with a burst of super strength, tore a piece of bar out. She walked through the halls, killing anypony who dared try and stop her.

All that was left were two mares, a unicorn and a Pegasus. The Pegasus rushed Twilight, she dodged and jumped at the unicorn. With the metal bar she smashed it into the unicorns face. Doing a 180°, she struck her horn out at the approaching Pegasus. It dug itself into her lungs, Twilight didn't even care as she slowly choked to death while still stabbing her.

In the distance she heard a loud boom. It was Rainbow Dash, it had to be. She just had one job left now.

Twilight turned to the unicorn, who was just barely recovered from the pipe to the face, and hit her leg, breaking it.

She raised the pipe once more, “Where is Applebloom?”