Friendship is Revolution

by ultiville

The Storm

Intellectually Twilight's aware that her namesake time is longer here, where no magic raises sun and moon, but it still catches her off-guard when she experiences it, and makes her remember savoring that long sunset in the hills with Fiona, that seems so long ago. Tonight she feels all these things as the shadows lengthen and the sun sinks red, but it seems her stomach's following it in descent, since she knows it marks the approach of something unknown but terrible, the last grain of sand in the unseen hourglass she's felt counting down the pregnant peace of the last few weeks.

Before she can wax too poetic, her friends start trickling in with whatever supplies they felt most useful.

Rainbow Dash is the first, second, and third back; she's taking frequent laps to the sporting goods store, hauling outdoor blankets, tents, and sleeping bags to distribute to those that don't have them and don't want to flee. Applejack and Fluttershy are together, and return next. Applejack's roped a wheelbarrow to herself, and filled it and her saddlebags to the brim with produce. Fluttershy trots beside her, bags bulging with more.. Rarity arrives next, floating many bottles of (sparkling, of course) water in her wake. Twilight sees the neck of a bottle of wine poking out of one saddlebag. Pinkie Pie's the last one back. She's somehow commandeered three shopping carts, roped them together, and filled all three with baked goods. She sits gleefully on top of a pile of bakery boxes in the lead cart, wearing a party hat and watching streamers and glitter stream behind her as she speeds across the pavement. Twilight decides to be glad she's brought so much, and to not think about how, exactly, she's steering or propelling the cart-train. Needless to say, concerned humans scramble out of her way, but she rolls perfectly to a stop directly in front of Twilight, arriving with a burst of confetti.

They load all the supplies into a tent, and Twilight touches it briefly with her horn, enchanting it to keep the inside chilled. The sun's scraping the horizon now, and Twilight turns, throat dry, to look at Massachusetts Avenue, the major road that runs along the park. Still nothing looks amiss; summer sunsets are late enough that rush hour's already over, and traffic's flowing freely, the slowing effect of the packed park long since passed as the protest merged into the city's routine. Then Twilight notices the police cars pulling up. Their lights aren't on, so it takes a moment to realize they aren't just normal cars parking, but then she counts five or six, including a large van, and she starts galloping towards them. With a shout, her friends are beside her, and they draw up to the edge of the road in time to see the van's doors open.

Out of it come Rachel, Alanna, Rosie, Fiona, and Annie-Jane. Rachel's in uniform, but the rest are in work or casual clothes. From the other police cars, in ones and twos, Rachel's squad-mates emerge.

"Rachel," Twilight frowns, "what's all this? Didn't you just text me?"

"Yeah," her human friend says, "I did. There's a protest here, though, and so some of us from the department decided we'd better, uh, make sure everyone behaves."

"Whadda ya mean, make sure we behave?" Applejack glares at her. "We've been behavin' these last few weeks, haven't we?" Rachel rolls her eyes.

"Applejack, dear," Rarity says, "she means they're here because they've heard things that make them worried about our safety. They don't want to make sure we behave."

"Oh," Applejack stops glaring, but grumbles at Rarity, "well why couldn't she just say that?"

"I assume because they're worried some other part of their government will cause trouble, but don't want to be quoted as saying that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Rachel says, "we just know street gatherings have a tendency for violence. Clearly we've had officers present the whole time." She glances at Applejack and throws a tiny wink.

"I'm never gonna get used to this place," Applejack sighs. "Humans can't ever seem to say what they mean."

"Well, Rachel can speak for herself, but I'm here because I think you folks have a good point, and Twilight's my friend," Annie-Jane says, "and that's the whole truth." The other humans nod. "I'm gonna go see who I can talk into making me one of these signs."

"We missed you at the bar," Rosie smiles at Twilight, "but when Rachel said there might be something going on here, we decided maybe we'd bring it to you." She flashes some bottles of cider in a bag. "I called your former coworkers, most of 'em are on their way, and I left a sign at the bar."

Twilight can't resist nuzzling each of them. "Thank you so much. Whatever's coming, I'm glad you're here with me."

The sun slips below the horizon as they go off to find a place, and even among all these supporters, the presence of people she knows and respects makes her feel better. Her pony friends press up against her too, and she feels some of the knot in her stomach unravel. She looks out over the street, feeling a bit more at peace. The long shadows of sunset stretch along the empty street, casting it in lines of black and orange.

The empty street.

Heart sinking, Twilight steps to the edge of the street and looks in both directions. The last few cars disappear around the corner into Harvard Square, and then it's totally empty, devoid of cars as far as she can see. Heart sinking, she flies slightly up, just high enough to see over the humans. On every side of the park, the roads are completely empty. She's reminded of an anecdote she read (of course!) about the sea before a tidal wave, or a river before certain kinds of flash flood, how the water disappears for a little while before the deluge. Throat bone dry again, she lands next to her friends.

"All the cars are gone..." she murmurs.

"I saw," Rachel says softly, "I guess it could happen this early, but probably means they've cut off the roads."

"Why would they do that?"

"Probably because they want to fill them with a lot of police. Maybe the National Guard."

Three of Twilgiht's purple-clad followers have appeared out of the crowd, staves held ready. The rest of the crowd has noticed something's up now, and they've gone quiet, looking at the road. Around the corner from the square, going against the now-irrelevant normal flow of traffic, several large vehicles roll into view, bigger even than the police vans Twilight's seen parked outside Rachel's station. A few more appear from the other side. Rachel swears under her breath.

"Yep, Guard. Damn, Twilight, you're in the big leagues now."

"I take it that's not a good thing in this case," Rarity murmurs.

"Not so much. I hope they just needed to transport more bodies, and left the actual work to the SWAT. If they're dumb enough to have sent live rounds, this is getting even uglier."

Black-armored figures start pouring from the sides of the vehicles, and Twilight notes to her relief they're carrying the characteristic plastic shields and clubs of riot squads, rather than long arms. Beside her Rachel breathes out.

"Okay, at least there's that. Maybe we'll get out of this without anyone getting killed. How's that shield of yours, Twilight? Now might be a good time."

Twilight nods, and the energy shield snaps into being around the edges of the park. A black SUV pulls out in front of the assembling SWAT officers, stopping not far from the shield, and Mr. Gray steps out of the passenger seat.

"You again," Rainbow Dash calls at him, "you've got some nerve showing up here!'

"I tried to be reasonable with you," he replies, "but you're harboring a defector, and none of you ponies are authorized to be in the country. While your legal appeal is going on, I've been authorized to take you into custody, and place your 'guest' under arrest for treason. The governor's office has also informed me this protest is disrupting the intended use of the park and it needs to disperse."

"That's bullshit!" Rosie calls out. "If we can't protest on public property, what does our right to assemble even mean?"

"I have my orders," Mr. Gray says, "now are you going to lower this nonsense and listen to the law?"

An angry rumble rises from the crowd. Twilight's friends array in combat stance around her, and her human guards press close.

"Officer Diaz, I see you in there! Some of the rest of you are police too! Are you going to ignore my orders?"

"Fuck your orders!" Rachel shouts back. "You aren't my superior, and I haven't heard anything from my chief! I'm off the clock engaged in a legal protest!" She hastily takes off her hat and uniform jacket.

"Yes, all your direct superiors seem to be mysteriously out of contact," Mr. Gray grumbles. "Fine, but don't say I didn't give you the chance."

He steps back and his mouth moves as he says something softly into an earpiece. A loud, mechanical racket fills the air as several helicopters clear the surrounding buildings, flying low over the park. Twilight wonders if they don't realize that the shield is a bubble, or if they plan to drop bombs on it, though she's pretty confident it can hold. In the streets, the heavy vehicles turn, facing the open troop compartments towards her. She wonders what's going on for a moment, before she catches sight of the large speaker in the back of one.

"They didn't need to carry more troops," she yells, "they needed the room for equipment! They're going to pump that noise out again! Get ready, everyone!"

She braces herself, hoping she'll be able to keep the shield up despite the distracting noise. The SWAT officers are nearly assembled, stretching in a single long line all around the perimeter of the park.

"Princess," one of her human guards says, "we need to fall back. If something goes wrong, we need to buy you time to recover. We won't be able to hold them off alone."

"But, what about--" she begins, but Applejack cuts her off.

"He's right, Twi', if that shield goes they're gonna try to rush you and take you out. The rest of us can try to take those contraptions out but it won't do a lick of good if they get to you first."

She tries to protest again, but Applejack's already picked her up, and she doesn't have the heart to fight.

"Stay safe, y'hear?" Applejack drops her off at the base of the statue and gives her a nuzzle before running back to the front line.

Twilight backs herself up against the marble base. Her three human guards nearly block out her sight, but she can see the lines are assembled completely now.

The ear-splitting noise fills the air, and even prepared she can't help but wince. It's incredibly loud this time, and coming from all directions, each speaker giving out a slightly different range, making her head spin. Still, she's just barely holding the shield; she couldn't put it up with this distraction, but she can keep it going.

Then, with a yell, the whole mass of SWAT officers raises their shields and charges into the bubble. Twilight's strained on all sides, her horn aches as she struggles to channel enough power in all directions to keep it from buckling, despite the pain in her head and the bizarre resonance.

For almost a minute, she thinks she's got it. Then one of the massive APCs slams into the barrier, and the whole thing buckles. The purple shield cracks and collapses.

Comments

[Zerodius]

I've not replied in a while so just going to say I'm still reading and still finding it interesting. No big theory or comment at this time, though.

[ultiville]

4729429 Glad you're still enjoying it! We're in the last act, after all, so less speculation isn't surprising.