Blackout Shelter

by Brass Polish

3 Crimes Against Equinity

Spike easily found the cure for the minty poison. It was on the next page of the book that had fallen on him. The recipe wasn’t exactly a bedtime read. Spike looked around. There were plenty of jars lying among the books and sheets, and they were all labelled. Surely Spike would manage to find what he needed. He discovered a large empty jar and began scrambling around gathering ingredients and mixing various quantities. Whenever he came across a difficult step, he left the bunker to check on the princesses. The average was about once every two minutes. For hours, something was added to the mix, and no dangerous beasts approached any of the handicapped alicorns.

The sun was several hours overdue to be risen by the time Spike had reached the end of the complicated instructions. It was even later to rise than it had been when Nightmare Moon had escaped her thousand year prison. Spike had no confidence in his concoction. He was unable to find one of the ingredients and had been forced to skip one step, but his potion looked exactly like the illustration of the finished product (red, thick and glossy). He was staring at a warning written in bold letters at the bottom of the page.

Drink in any quantity to take effect. This potion is highly flammable. Tastes like shaving cream.

Spike spent an unpleasant minute trying to decide the safest way to get himself and his potion out of the bunker and up to the forest ground. He resorted to holding his jar with his tail while he did his pole vaulting act.

He went to Twilight first, who was still lying stock-still, but managed to open her mouth at Spike’s request. She wasn’t groaning now as Spike tipped about a third of his thick, red potion into her mouth. Right away, Twilight shook, and then stood up on all fours, her eyes alert, yet slightly unfocused.

“Twilight? How do you feel?”

Twilight started moaning again. She didn’t answer. She just stood there staring at nothing in particular. Spike couldn’t help but look in her line of sight.

“Huh?!”

For a second, Spike thought a group of Everfree creatures were advancing on Celestia and Luna, but soon he realised that they were pegasi. Members of the Royal Guard. Two were examining Celestia and two others were looking Luna over. A gold-plated carriage sat near them. And it was soon clear to Spike who its passenger had been.

“Auntie Celestia!” cried Prince Blueblood. “What happened to you?!”

Spike took a cautious step forward. He could hear Celestia moan, and then he heard her say “Twwwwwilight…”

Blueblood looked towards Spike. He spotted Twilight standing around, wide-eyed and, from what he could tell, with a nervous expression.

“Seize her!” he ordered to guards. “Princess Twilight has betrayed the throne!”

“No!” shouted Spike as the royal guards advanced. “She didn’t do this!”

The guards didn’t respond.

“I’ve got the cure! I’ve got…!”

“Grab her and send her to Tartarus!” bellowed the bombardier.

Panic absorbed Spike all over again. He threw his jar of cure towards the rapidly approaching guards. It shattered yards in front of them. Red liquid made a gooey strip on the grass. Spike took a quick breath and exhaled a fierce stream of fire. The guards were stopped in their tracks, obstructed by a wall of green flames.

“Fly over!” Spike heard Blueblood yell. “Fly over and arrest Twilight!”

Spike quickly knocked Twilight, who didn’t react at all, backwards into the underground bunker, and dived in after her, shutting the door behind him.

Spike was hanging onto the door handle and pressing his ear against the door. Before the sound of his impromptu bonfire had faded, he heard Blueblood and the guards shouting and rushing about.

“The traitor escaped!”

“Find her! Find her and lock her up!”

“Careful! She knows magic most of us have never heard of!”

“I always thought she’d go power mad!”

“Has everypony lost their minds?” Spike asked, desperately wishing he could sleep and get everything under control at the same time.

Twilight wasn’t in pain or anything, but she was insensible for almost a week. She could still walk around. Spike was able to spoon-feed her and she could drink through a straw, but she had virtually no thought in her head about… anything. And then, all of a sudden, her brain turned back on.

“W-what?! Huh?! What’s going on?! What are we doing here?!”

Spike jumped into the air.

“You’re OK!”

He hugged Twilight, who was still confused, but in control.

“Spike, what’s happening?”

Spike’s explanation made Twilight shudder. The actions of Prince Blueblood and the royal guards was a real concern to her.

“Rarity told me he was a bit of a nob, but…”

“It’s not just him,” Spike frowned. “Look at this.”

He held up a poster. Twilight tried to magic it out of his claws.

She gasped. “I’ve lost my magic!”

She tried again, to no avail.

“Rats! I knew that potion wouldn’t work right,” Spike punched the wall.

“Spike, please, don’t beat yourself up,” Twilight implored. “I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done.”

Spike managed a smile, but neither of them was happy when he showed her the poster.

“I managed to grab this when some royal guards came around searching this area again. They have no idea this bunker is here.”

Twilight read.

“Wanted: For crimes against equinity. Twilight Sparkle. Guilty of poisoning Princesses Celestia and Luna in order to take over Equestria. 1000 Bit reward for her capture. By order of Prince Blueblood, Princess Cadance, and Prince Shining Armour.”

Twilight was staring at the last line with a wild face.

“Why in Starswirl’s name do Cadance and my brother think I’m responsible for this?!”

“Here’s why,” said Spike.

Now he was holding a book, which was open to a page with an illustration of a full moon and a silhouette of a pony with spirally eyes.

“Another one of Tuckaway’s really old books,” Spike explained before Twilight began to read.

‘A prolonged absence of the sun causes a terrible debilitating effect on ponykind’s judgement and ability to think clearly. One of the many reasons it was absolutely vital that Nightmare Moon be stopped from bringing eternal night to Equestria.’

Twilight looked back at Spike. “How long have we been down here?”

“It’s hard to tell with it being night-time all the time,” said Spike. “But it’s definitely been longer than the time you and your friends took to find the Elements of Harmony.”

“It sounds like we were just in time to stop Nightmare Moon before ponies started losing their minds,” said Twilight. “But now it’s too late. Now everypony can’t think straight. Now they’re jumping to conclusions. Now I’m public enemy number one!”

Some time later, Twilight found she had no better luck with the mint poison antidote than Spike. Her ability to use magic didn’t return. She could still fly, but she didn’t have much space as it was risky to leave the bunker. They heard guards walking and talking above them on two occasions. They were speaking of criminals always returning to the scene of the crime.

“Why do you think Tuckaway hasn’t told them about this bunker?” Spike asked.

“Obviously, she can’t think straight. She hasn’t seen the sun in years, and she might never see it again,” Twilight answered solemnly. “Nopony might.”

Spike looked at the map they had followed to this place. “Any idea what B.S. stands for?”

Twilight was about to say no, but a possibility occurred to her.

“Blackout Shelter, maybe. If Tuckaway thought Nightmare Moon would succeed in darkening Equestria for always and always and always, that name would sound appropriate.”

Twilight spent a while looking through all the old and rare books Tuckaway had managed to get her hooves on. She had the same book that Pinkie Pie had found for her about the Elements of Harmony. It seemed Tuckaway thought gathering the first five and finding the sixth would be impossible. One night, Spike risked peeking out of the door to see if anyone or anything was around. He did see something; a newspaper. He dashed out of the bunker, snatched it up, and jumped back out of sight.

“That minty ink stuff took out Discord, too!” he cried, showing Twilight the headline. “He was found a few miles outside Canterlot stiff as a board and not making any sen-- well, any more sense than usual.”

“I forgot about him,” Twilight grimaced. “Why did I send him a note too? He could easily have sorted this whole thing out.”

“Would he have?” Spike asked.

“Of course he would have,” insisted Twilight. “He’s our friend.”

Eventually, it looked as though everyone who had devoted their time to hunting down Twilight had given up on that clearing in the Everfree Forest.

“I think I can go and get my friends’ help now,” said Twilight. “I’m sure our Rainbow Power will fix everything. I mean, I don’t seem to be effected by the overshot night. Maybe my friends aren’t either. Surely they don’t believe all this stuff about me being guilty. And that minty poison couldn’t possibly have taken the power of the Element of Magic from me.”

Spike agreed, and wished Twilight luck in her risky trip into Ponyville.

There were a few clouds floating about the Everfree Forest when Twilight left the Blackout Shelter after so long. There were no ponies in sight. Twilight grabbed a cloud, climbed onto it, and beat her wings to propel herself towards Ponyville. Eventually, she could see pegasus ponies in the distance. She recognised Thunderlane and Blossomforth, who seemed to be struggling with some stratocumuli.

“They just keep coming back,” she heard Thunderlane grumble. “Why can’t we make them leave forever?!”

“Don’t ask me,” Blossomforth replied, shoving a cloud aside.

Twilight could see that the two pegasi were just pushing clouds around the sky and coming back to them thinking they were different clouds. It was a pathetic sight.

Twilight managed to not be spotted by Thunderlane and Blossomforth, and her detour around them and their mess of clouds led her to the sky above Sweet Apple Acres.

“I’ll talk to Applejack first,” she decided.

Her first discovery upon arrival was that a lot of the apple trees had no leaves. Others had very few. Others were still entirely covered. There was movement amongst the nearly bald golden delicious trees. Twilight heard voices.

“Didn’t I tell y’all not to cut off all the leaves?!”

“Eeeyup.”

“The apples can’t grow if they can’t get nutrients from the leaves! Those red gala trees ain’t gonna grow nothin’ now, are they?!”

“Nnnnope.”

Twilight heard Applejack sigh heavily and say, “I need a break. I better not come back and find all the trees completely leafless!”

Applejack was exhausted. She’d never had such a challenge with her work in all her life. She staggered into the barn, struggled into her room, shut the door behind her, and flopped onto her bed, not closing her eyes. It was difficult to know when bedtime was these days. She didn’t think Minuette would be free for asking though. She’d been appointed as time keeper in Ponyville and she was definitely worse off than Applejack.

There was a knock on Applejack’s bedroom door.

“Forget where ya left the buckets again?!” snapped Applejack.

The door opened.

“Hi, Applejack,” smiled Twilight.

Applejack stuttered. Twilight couldn’t tell if she was shocked, delighted or scared.

“H… howdy, Twilight…”

She leapt off her bed and they hugged.

“Applejack, I need your help,” said Twilight.

“Huh… yeah, I guessed you’d… probably… um…”

“I’ve been staying in a secret bunker in the Everfree Forest,” Twilight started to explain.

Applejack couldn’t keep still. The exhaustion Twilight had seen in her wasn’t there anymore.

“I, uh…” she faltered. “I don’t know if you wanna, like, hide here or something…”

“Well…” Twilight began.

“But I can’t…” Applejack glanced out her window. “I can’t leave the field. I gotta stay. The farm’s… it’s really hard to farm without the sun. I can’t leave Big Mac, Granny and Apple Bloom to do the work alone. I gotta help them!”

She jumped out of her window, crawled along the roof and climbed down the water spout.

Twilight’s throat had a lump in it the size of an ice archery target.

“She… she thinks I’m guilty too…”

Twilight wanted to get out of there sharpish. She flew out of the window, snatched up her Everfree cloud, and flapped away from the orchard towards the forest.

“You missed another one, guys!” barked a familiar voice.

Twilight turned around just as somepony grabbed her cloud.

“Rainbow,” she gasped.

Rainbow Dash’s annoyed expression was instantly replaced by one of shock.

“Twilight. There you are,” she breathed, grasping Twilight’s front hooves.

“That’s right, Rainbow,” Twilight smiled.

“Where… where’ve you been?”

“In an underground bunker in the forest,” said Twilight. “And I…”

Rainbow starting getting jittery just like Applejack had. She was looking across the sky from cloud to cloud.

“I’m glad to see you, Twi,” she said, “but I have to get back to work. We’re trying to make the best use of the moonlight we can. I need to be here with the weather team at all times.”

Twilight realised that Rainbow Dash was shunting her and her cloud into the sky above the Everfree Forest.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” she finished, before taking off back into Ponyville.

Tuckaway had barely made a dent in the Blackout Shelter’s food and drink supply. Also, Spike had been delighted to discover a supply of diamonds in a drum. Tuckaway had collected them for an alternative poison she had attempted to make to slip to Nightmare Moon. Sometimes, Spike and Twilight played a few rounds of pool to kill time. The bunker was far from an unpleasant place to live for a long period of time. Yet Twilight felt sick to her stomach at the mere thought of having to return to it.

Spike heard two knocks, then three, then one. He pole vaulted on his cue and pushed the door open. Twilight entered, shut the door, touched down into the bunker and sat down.

“How’d it go?” Spike asked.

Twilight was thinking hard. She couldn’t stop there. Surely her other friends had faith in her. She ought to try and visit Pinkie Pie, Rarity and/or Fluttershy.

“Um, I couldn’t get into town,” she lied. “There were guards hanging around.”

Spike moaned.

“But I’ll try again later,” Twilight went on. “After I get some sleep.”

A windstorm picked up shortly after Twilight had kipped down. When she next woke, Spike said he’d gotten his claws on another newspaper that had blown into the forest from Ponyville.

“‘More guards posted at Ponyville Castle’,” Twilight read. “Whoa, I never even saw the castle when I went to see App-- uh, when I went into town.”

Another article spoke of an attempt to discover the long lost art of the sun raising spell. Any books that contained this spell had been out of print for centuries due to Princess Celestia being in complete control of sun and moon for so long. Of course, this whole rediscovering thing was going nowhere as Celestia couldn’t even string two words together and nopony else had much brain power between them. Another article mentioned how the continuous presence of the moon was effecting the economy. Several charts were printed on this page, and Twilight was relieved to find that Ponyville was faring well in comparison to most of the other cities in Equestria. Another article contained details about disputes over where clouds should go when they’re shunted away by weather crews. Many town leaders were badgering each other to “pick up their garbage”. Everyone in Equestria seemed to want to keep it from raining, even though their crops and fields would need water.

Without the sun, it was getting colder and colder outside as time went on. But when Twilight next left the Blackout Shelter, she hardly noticed how cold it was. She was determined to find out that her other friends still believed in her innocence. When she’d collected an Everfree cloud to conceal herself in, she approached Ponyville, where Thunderlane and Blossomforth were once again fumbling with the same clouds as before. She spotted Rainbow Dash nearby, lying on a cloud and drinking coffee from a thermos. Twilight gulped and decided to go the other way this time. This route led her to Fluttershy’s cottage.

“How to approach her without making her jump?” Twilight asked herself as she stood in front of Fluttershy’s back door.

The tiny flap on the door opened. Angel Bunny poked his head out, took one look at Twilight, and then was out of sight. Seconds later, the backdoor opened a crack.

“Are you there… Twilight?” came Fluttershy’s soft, frightened voice.

“Yes,” Twilight shivered out of hopefulness rather than coldness.

The door opened more. Fluttershy peered at Twilight, smiled, then frowned.

“Do you… have a place to hide?” she asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said. “But…”

Her heart sank. Fluttershy had the same look Applejack and Rainbow Dash had given her.

“I have a lot of responsibilities, Twilight. The moon’s got all my animal friends confused. Um… Owlowiscious’ sleep cycle is out of sync again. I’m so sorry. I wish…”

Twilight sighed. “Maybe I’ll go now.”

“Oh. OK. But please, be careful.”

They waited for a moment, just to look at each other. Then Fluttershy shut the door.

Twilight wouldn’t give up. She remounted her cloud and set off on her obstacle course through the weather team and their mess. She made it to Carousel Boutique, but Rarity didn’t seem to be home. Twilight took to peeking through the windows. She found Rarity’s bedroom. It was neat and the bed was made, but Rarity wasn’t in it. She found Sweetie Belle’s room. It was untidy and there was rubbish everywhere, and Sweetie Belle was asleep in her bed.

Twilight was on the verge of flying away from the boutique when she heard the door open. She looked around and spotted Rarity exiting her home with a cart in tow and her horn alight. She looked haggard, but when Twilight hissed her name from around a corner, she was quite alert.

“Twilight… you’re alright. How… how wonderful…”

Twilight could sense an evasion tactic coming and started talking quickly.

“I just came from my hideout to ask for your…”

She wasn’t quick enough.

“I have a lot of work to do, dear,” Rarity said, a lot more calmly than Twilight expected. “The Mayor has given me an important job. It’s my responsibility to collect gemstones to keep our economy going. Money is decreasing in value with this darkness, and there’s a lot of newfangled equipment needed to compensate for the missing sun.”

“So…”

“So I must carry out these duties. I hate to leave you, but my assistance is sorely needed for the greater good. I’ve never failed to collect a sufficient amount of jewels yet.”

Twilight watched Rarity disappear around a corner with her cart. Her last resort was Pinkie Pie. She had to get to Sugarcube Corner.

“This isn’t it… this isn’t it… this isn’t it…” she kept saying this as she maneuverered her way to the bakery, avoiding detection by ponies who were working outside.

Eventually, she was outside Pinkie Pie’s bedroom window. The room was empty. She moved over to the Twins’ bedroom window. She could see Pound Cake asleep in the crib. Pumpkin Cake was nowhere to be seen. Then Twilight saw a light come on in a downstairs window and flew down with her cloud to see who was in that room. The window was open, and Twilight could hear Pinkie talking in an exasperated voice.

“Why did you and Pound have to fall into opposite sleeping patterns? Oh, well. This is the way it is. Like, if Twilight showed up outta nowhere and tried to talk me into something weird, I’d have to tell her to leave me here.”

Twilight wanted to yell, but Pumpkin beat her to it.

“Twily! Bad Twily!”

The yearling filly was pointing wildly at the window. Twilight was out of sight before Pinkie Pie could turn around.

This time, when Twilight had made her safe return to the Blackout Shelter, she told Spike the truth about how her friends reacted to her.

“They’re all just as effected by this darkness as everyone else in Equestria,” she lamented as she lay on the cot, Spike patting her head while she brooded. “We’re stuck here. Forever.”

Author's Note:

I wouldn't be surprised if some Y2K bugger is still in some kind of underground bunker completely unaware that all is well in the world.

Comments

[RaritySimper44]

Your British aren't you? Good work again. Take your time with the updates and make the chapters good or we all will hate you forever, the pressure is on.

[Rayanne]

nopony believes in her!

[Fido]

“I have a lot of work to do, deer,” Rarity said