A/N (March 1st, 2013): Quick note before this chapter starts. A part that was supposed to go at the start of this chapter ended up not having the desired impact in its position in this chapter as I thought it would, and I realized this the moment I tried fitting it. Instead, I re-allocated its slot to place it at the end of the previous chapter, where I hope it will do a better job than it would have done here. Those wishing for continuity (and those who have not read the added segment, added in on March 1st, 2013) should re-read that portion before reading this section.
Herald of the Night
Chapter Twelve: The Marked Ones
The air grew more and more musty with each step down into what Twilight's mind had automatically labeled as 'The Dungeons'. With each window - barred, of course - that they passed, the unicorn received a blissful, refreshing breath of air from the outdoors before another turn down the staircase.
She started panicking again. Her hyperventilation was forestalled by a reassuring nudge on her side from Zecora, whose eyes seemed to be taking in every detail, calculating as they went. All Twilight could really notice, once her focus had returned, was the overwhelming lack of saddlebags, which had been confiscated on their way down. This meant that both her books - and the invaluable and mysterious Lunar Sapphire - were gone from the safety of her possession. Neither of which was a good sign, should they be examined more closely. The pouch may elude notice, at least at first, but the subjects written about in the books would definitely hint at something more than a mere research trip's objectives.
The floor beneath her hooves, cold and dank, leveled out and stretched out into a long hallway of barred doors. The pegasus withdrew a key from beneath his right wing, where it had hung on a hidden catch upon his armor. The wards upon it assailed Twilight's senses, rudely informing her of the futility of trying to levitate it away from the pegasus guard.
Twilight was nudged into the cell, the metal door clanging shut behind her with an ear-cringing finality, and the sound of the guards' horseshoes retreated back up the stairs, leaving them alone in the dimly-lit corridor.
Well, at least she had thought she was alone.
As the guards departed with Zecora - taking her to another wing of the dungeon as per their instructions - and the dungeons grew quiet, Twilight became increasingly aware of the sound of shuffling hooves from the cell across the way.
"Hello?" came a tentative greeting.
Twilight was torn from her desperate staring through the window and the darkening sky, searching for the moon and failing to find it in the skies of the coming night. The purple unicorn turned and slowly approached the door to her cell and seeing the vague figure in the cell opposite hers. "Who... Who is there?" she asked, nervously trying to light her horn to give her some illumination. The light spell fizzled and sent a lance of pain through her head.
"Yeah, I wouldn't try that again. Don't get me wrong, we all tried that at some point. Only natural." the female voice chuckled as the white mare wrapped her hooves around the bars, looking out from beneath her scraggly pink mane, which she brushed aside for a moment to show the horn beneath it. "Magic dampener on this entire cell block. Gives one hay of a headache. I'm Twinkleshine, by the way."
"Twilight Sparkle." the lavender unicorn replied with a slight nod of greeting, still wincing at the pain in her head. "What's going on here?" Twilight asked, moving up to the cell door and looking over to the other mare, noticing a few other ponies appearing at the doors to their cells, as well. A pair of stallions and a handful of mares.
"What, you don't know? You're here for the same reason the rest of us are here. Cutie marks. As far as we've been able to tell, all of the marks here either have something to do with the stars or the moon. And you..." Twinkleshine squinted to look more closely at Twilight's flank, "... you got the short straw. You got both. Faust, I'd hate to be you, come morning."
Twilight's gaze flickered to her own cutie mark before looking at Twinkleshine's - three blue stars - "But... why?"
"I hear Shining Armor has a vendetta against ponies with moon cutie marks. Something about his sister's disappearance. As if he didn't already have a reason to be hard on us Marked Ones..." Twinkleshine said, shuddering at some memory that she alone was privy to, before continuing, gazing upon Twilight with pity. "If you've got any brilliant ideas on trying to get out of here, I'd get them out of your system before the guards get back. Use up your hope before they drain you of it and then break you."
"And Princess Celestia allows this?" Twilight asked, voice shaking. For all that Princess Luna had said of her sister... This wasn't exactly what she had been expecting. Ponyville had seemed so peaceful... Was it like this everywhere? The secret fear? The dread of what may come with the unspoken illegal cutie marks? This was not the act of a regal, loving and harmonious immortal. These were the acts of a terrified leader. "You said she vanished?"
Twinkleshine nodded, "Just after last year's Summer Sun Celebration."
"That's... That explains a few things." Twilight said, beginning to pace. A nervous habit, but one she had come to practice while thinking. It certainly did explain a few things. Princess Luna had been acting strange around that time, too, spending many hours in the observatory. Standing and staring at the stars, horn aglow, noticing nothing around her aside from the loudest noises. Luna had, of course, dismissed it as meditation, but no mere meditation utilized the level of power emanating from her horn.
"Personally, I think it has something to do with Nightmare Moon."
"Mmhm- Wait - WHAT?" Twilight gaped, having almost missed Twinkleshine's last remark. "Who's Nightmare Moon?"
Twinkleshine raised an eyebrow, "You aren't from around here, are you?"
Twilight waved a hoof dismissively, "It doesn't matter. What was that you just said? Who is Nightmare Moon?"
"An old mare's tale, don't listen to her, she's crazy," muttered one of the stallions.
"I am not crazy! My mother had me tested!" Twinkleshine said with a huff, glaring at the stallion before turning back to look at Twilight. "She's a dark harbinger of the night. Banished a thousand years ago by Celestia and the Elements of Harmony, but returns once in a while to gobble up foals and scare people on Nightmare Night! Bwahahahaha!"
Twilight looked strangely at Twinkleshine. "Yeah... okay...?"
"Craaaazy...." the stallion said with a smirk.
"It's true, though!" Twinkleshine said, stomping a hoof. "Foals go missing all the time, with little to no explanation! All the witnesses-"
"But there are no witnesses! Only crackpot conspiracy theorists like you! All rambling about Nightmare Moon and humans!"
"Stop it! Shouting solves nothing!" Twilight said, mind starting to strain with trying to take in all this information. Nightmare moon... a thousand years... Elements of Harmony... missing foals? Twilight turned to look out the window. The moon was still not visible through the barred aperture. No answers from Luna tonight. She'd have to make do with what she could acquire from the natives.
Taking a deep breath, she looked back to Twinkleshine. "I know it sounds weird, but I need you to tell me everything you know about this... Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony. Anything related to her banishment, too."
Twilight was almost disturbed by the look of glee on Twinkleshine's face before the pink-maned mare launched into an enthusiastic babble of information. Dawn was going to come all too soon and the lavender unicorn needed as much information as she could get before the guards came back.