Applejack's eyes have slowly grown accustomed to the dark room, and now she sees she was wrong in thinking that there were only two humans in the room. In the shadows surrounding the bright screen, six more lurk. They're large and burly looking, clearly some kind of guards. They're holding weapons that look similar to the ones their fellows used against them in the alley.
As best she can without moving, she tries to figure out the safest path from the cage to the massive device in the center of the room. She's never faced weapons like these before, but she's sparred with unicorns enough to recognize and seek cover in cases like this. Before too long, she feels like she has a reasonable plan.
"I'm gonna go grab some coffee, kid," the big human in the middle of the room says, interrupting her musing. "Want any?"
"No sir," despite Applejack's unfamiliarity with humans, there's no mistaking the quaver in this one's voice, "but what if she shows up while you're gone?"
"I can't imagine she'll get here that fast. Besides, you have the guards. If she somehow does, just hit the switch, they'll take care of the rest." the large one's clearly a practiced liar, but Applejack isn't the Element of Honesty for nothing; she's pretty confident he isn't planning to come back.
I wonder what's going on there, she lets her thoughts drift a bit, but then returns to the practical issue of planning her escape and inevitable support of Twilight. She's exactly as confident she can help as she is Twilight will appear, which is to say, she's sure of it.
Driving through Cambridge is hard enough at the best of times. Following a frantic, incandescent alicorn on an impromptu search pattern isn't the best of times. The effect of said alicorn on the other drivers also doesn't help. Nonetheless, Polaris manages to make it work, primarily due to the erratic nature of that search pattern. Twice she almost loses her, but she gets lucky and the Princess veers back into her sight.
Half an hour in, infuriatingly stopped at a railroad crossing, she remembers her Glass prototype, pulls it out of the glove, and sets it to record.
Fifteen minutes after that, as she's driving along a seemingly unremarkable residential street on the southern side of town, near the river, Twilight stops dead not far above her, the first time she's been motionless. She pulls over and hurries out of the car just in time to catch the purple contrail as the Princess comes to the earth like a meteor. The impact site's under a block away, and she sprints down the street towards it, staff in hand.
Even through the heavy concrete walls and thick metal door of the apartment building's basement, Twilight can sense the magic in Applejack and Fluttershy's bones clearly. It's like nothing human, or anything she's sensed elsewhere in the city, and like this, with all her skill focused on drawing in and detecting magical energy, she couldn't possibly miss it.
Of course, with the amount of stray energy she's pulling in just by being this receptive, there's bound to be some leakage. It's just light, except right up against her body, and she expects she might need the power, so she considers it an acceptable price to pay.
Right at her hooves, though, the energy is incredible, and the pavement will tell the tale - her physically gentle landing nonetheless kicks up a cloud of pulverized concrete and leaves her hoofprints blown into the sidewalk. She frowns at it and takes lightly to the air again, hovering just above the several-inch-wide zone at which the magic rolling off of her is tactile. There's only one door into the basement. It's unmarked and made of heavy steel, clearly intended as a service exit only. The main entrance is no doubt inside.
Both, she realizes, are probably traps. But she's far beyond caring now. It's already been too long since the demand without a response; her friends aren't dead, she's sure, because she can still feel their magic, but she's afraid of what Mr. Gray might have done to them. Torture doesn't seem outside his playbook. She's afraid for them and out of patience, and with it any desire to be clever. She glares at the door and it blows inward off its hinges in a cloud of pulverized concrete, clattering to the ground a full body length inside the dark basement.
Eyes still casting a clear white light, the rest of her glowing magenta, she floats into the basement. Against other unicorns she'd raise a full shield, but she's done the math; the metal projectiles the humans use will be torn apart by the magic rolling off her coat. She has nothing to fear, so she's filled herself up with anger instead.
Then, as she crosses the threshold into the basement, a horrible keening wail fills the air, making her feel like her head is splitting, and she feels a sharp pain all along her horn. She's not quite sure what's going on, and she can still feel the magic, but it's like taking a blow right to the base of the horn - the pain shorts her out, and she loses the spell for a moment.
It only takes a moment for everything to go straight to Tartarus. The newly uncontrolled energy rolls out from her, scorching a blast pattern on the concrete floor around her at a radius of more than a full body length. The shockwave shatters every glass object in the room, including a computer screen, and blows out a significant chunk of the empty door frame, filling the air with choking concrete dust. It also knocks the humans in the room reeling, but by the time Twilight collects herself, they're already recovering, and she's significantly outnumbered. The horrible high noise doesn't seem to be bothering them, but it's making it impossible for Twilight to concentrate, and she can't bring advanced spells together.
Advanced spells like, for example, her shield.
She sees Applejack and Fluttershy lying in the ruins of a cage. They're hooked to IVs, but their sides are moving evenly as they breathe, and they don't appear to be hurt. She makes a snap decision, and dives behind the remains of the door to consider her next move.
Applejack too can barely concentrate over the awful noise filling the air, but she's seen enough to know Twilight needs her. The humans are all focused on the door. They're still firing the darts they used against her, she sees, and is relieved they seem to be trying to take Twilight alive. Still, her friend is in trouble - these humans clearly have a plan. Two of them hang back, firing the occasional dart towards her hiding place to keep her pinned, while the other four work their way around the outside of the room, out of Twilight's easy line of sight should she glance around the corner.
Of course, all of them are ignoring the unconscious ponies in the cage - a cage that's been blown open by Twilight's magical surge. Not that Applejack would have any trouble kicking it open, but it'll certainly help keep the humans unaware. With Twilight pinned, they're moving quickly and confidently across the room, secure that there's no danger.
As the first one creeps near, Applejack shows him the error of his ways. She pushes off with her powerful hind legs and extends her forelegs, smashing them into the human's chest and knocking him backwards into the wall. She's trying not to aim for anything vital, but she knows she can't afford to leave them upright; as soon as she moves, her clock is ticking, and she's not at all sure she'll be able to get to the two at the rear in time, let alone the ones on the opposite side.
"Twi'," she yells as she lands, "I'm okay, gonna do what I can in here!" She hopes her friend will be able to help somehow, even with the horrible noise apparently disrupting her magic.
No time to worry about it now, though. She's rolled with the impact to let her momentum carry her near the second human, and she bucks his leg with all her might, feeling the bone shatter. He falls to the ground, dropping his weapon, and she shatters it underhoof as she moves towards the two in the rear. The distance looks too far, though, and they're already bringing their weapons to bear on her. She weaves back and forth, trying to make herself a hard target, but a dart hits her side from the opposite wall, and she feels herself slowing just a bit as the sedative tries to take hold again. She doesn't think she'll make it.
Polaris arrives just in time to hear Applejack call out to the Princess from inside, and sees the object of her devotion taking cover in the ruined doorway. She's no longer glowing, and Polaris frowns to see her on the back foot...hoof? Whichever.
"Princess," she calls out, "what's wrong?"
"This awful noise! It's got some resonance with my horn, I can't concentrate right!"
"What noise?"
"You can't hear it?" the Princess frowns at her, then her eyes widen. "We must not have the same aural range! It's too high or low for you to hear, but it's driving me crazy!"
"They're fighting you with a dog whistle?"
"Depressingly clever, I agree. But Applejack's in there, I've got to help her, magic or no!"
Polaris drops into her fighting stance, readying her staff. "I've got your back. Ready?"
The Princess nods at her and smiles a tight smile. "Go."
Polaris leaps around the doorway and quickly takes in the scene. An orange pony is charging at two men in the rear of the room, but looks to be under heavy fire and flanked by two more crouching against the wall to her left, on Polaris's side. The Princess's side is free and clear. Another man is in the middle of the room, but he's unarmed and cowering behind a strange-looking machine. She decides the quadrupeds will get to the back of the room faster, and herself charges at the two on her left with a yell, hoping to throw off their aim.
She takes the first by surprise and knocks the gun out of his hand, then follows up with a knee to his crouching face. His head snaps back and hits the wall, and he slumps to the ground. The second turns and raises his gun at her, but she pivots to the side and the dart - not a bullet, she notes - harmlessly impacts the thick edge of her robe, rather than her stomach. He doesn't get another shot - she strikes the back of his hand with her staff and he nervelessly drops the gun, then she twists the other end around behind him, sweeping him from his feet. She kicks the gun away, confident she'll be well on her way to the other two by the time he can retrieve it --
"Stop," a menacing voice fills the air, and she turns to see one of the two men at the back pointing his weapon right at her. This isn't one of the weird-looking tranquilizer guns the others have been using - it's unmistakably a combat rifle. "We don't need you alive, girl, so stop right there."
She looks around. The orange pony is out cold a few feet short of the second gunman at the back, who's now got the Princess pinned behind a support pillar in the middle of the room. And at this distance, there's no way Polaris is going to be able to close against an actual automatic weapon. Desperately she looks around the room, and wonders if she can tell her Glass to call the police softly enough not to be heard, and if they can possibly arrive in time.
Then she sees what their enemies can't. Hidden behind the bulky machine, a yellow, pink maned pony is staring, wide-eyed, at the unarmed young man. Polaris doesn't have a clear view of both the pony's eyes, but even at this angle, she's nearly unbearably adorable, and Polaris has to fight down the urge to squeal like an eight-year old.
The young man, caught full-on by her gaze, doesn't stand a chance. With a sigh, he pulls the heavy switch back down into the off position and stands up, hands raised.
"I surrender," he says.
"Sean, what the fuck--" says the man with the rifle, but he's cut off as the Princess takes to the air again, hovering in the middle of the room. Her horn glows brightly and Polaris cries out in joy. All the thugs are surrounded in a magenta glow, hands and feet bound with ropes of energy. One starts to protest, and finds his mouth filled with a translucent glowing gag.
"Thank goodness," the Princess says, "that noise was about to drive me crazy." She looks over at Sean. "What was that?"
"I saw your speech on YouTube," he shrugs, idly stroking the yellow pony's head. She hunkers down adorably, but doesn't try to stop him. "I didn't sign up to shoot cute ponies, I just wanted to catch terrorists. I just needed...a reminder."
The Princess blinks at him, then grins. "Fluttershy's good at that, yes." The yellow pony smiles back at her.
Polaris reaches up to the side of her headset and stops the recording. Then, after a moment of thought, starts it uploading to YouTube.