Twilight’s adrenaline kicked in. The room was dark, save for dim chemical lights in its corners. To drive herself forward, she rememebered how she came to be here. There was a rush in Ponyville. A group of Kushan came by, everything happened too fast.
Rainbow was out of the library, Applejack went out to get her. They’d later told her it was at the farm where the Kushan got them. They saw two of them emerge from between the trees, point their weapons at them. They didn’t have the time to dodge, or to run off.
When they walked into the village, most ponies mistrusted them. Some were scared, but through the crack in door of the library, gathered with all her friends, she saw what happened outside. Big Mac, then a couple of other villagers stood before the door, barring the Kushan the entrance. When she saw them raising their weapons, she closed her eyes, preparing a teleportation spell.
The Elements had to be found and gathered, that’s what Celestia would’ve wanted. She’d teleport the whole group to the Apple orchards. They surely hadn’t gotten there yet…
She didn’t have the time to think. Bare the group before the door, someone kicked the windows upstairs in, shattering her concentration. Before she had the time to form any spell patterns, she saw three or four barrels pointed at her. Then... darkness.
Now, from the prey, she became the hunter, even if unable to see well in the dark. For the slightest fraction of a second she caught a slight shine above her: the Kushan’s eyes.
He was terrified, like a cornered animal with nothing to lose that would lash out desperately at both friend and foe to get out. What he did to Fluttershy was still indescribable.
Twilight teleported out of the room and ran. She didn’t yet know where.
“In fifteen minutes,” he had whispered right in her ear, hiding his lips from the cameras and her friends, “the power will go out, the Inhibitor too. The Elements are on the ship. You’ll leave this room and find them, then go back and use them. You’ll have fifteen minutes. Now blush and smile as if I complimented you.”
Twilight’s horn flashed briefly when she was at least moderately sure there was no one nearby. The Elements were indeed on the ship, somewhere deeper into the corridors she didn’t know. A tracking spell had to do. The Elements’ position was slightly glowing in her mind.
Her horn dimmed, she ran.
She didn’t stumble, and was thankful for the persistently flat floors of the ship, especially in the darkness. They were hard, however, and the clops of her hooves echoed loudly through the empty spaces. Once or twice she crashed onto someone, sending them tumbling to the floor while she herself teleported away and ran, and ran, and ran.
“Prisoner on the run!” echo carried through the corridors.
She was closer. Closer.
“Get the flashlights! Find her!”
Just one more turn.
“Box them and get them to the Research Vessel! At once!”
A room in the darkness, lit by a few flashlights held by Kushan in white scientific gowns. Two of them had soldier uniforms and the devices in their hands. She remembered these same devices shooting at her, the static charge clenching her muscles forcefully, the dreadful powerlessness she felt. Then the cold floor of their confinement room she had been trapped in with her friends.
She jumped into the middle of the room, illuminating it, blinding the Kushan. The attention turned at her, she scanned the surroundings briefly. The Elements were scattered at some advanced contraptions whose purpose she didn’t have the presence of mind to discern.
There were two paralysing devices pointed at her, held by the unchangingly indifferent guards.
In the last second, she conjured up a shield, allowing the static-bearing darts to bounce off of it. To the horror and powerlessness of the guards, she levitated the darts back at the owners. They fell to the floor, twitching spasmodically, but nowhere near dead.
At this point the scientists had either ran off, or were cowering away from her. Not paying them any heed, she grabbed the Elements, counting them in her mind: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, Magic-crown-thingy.
Not a second later she was off, blasting through the corridors. If anyone was unlucky enough to stand in her way they’d fall to the floor and have their muscles clench too tight to move, or do anything, to stop her. She didn’t kill anyone, though. She would never resemble them, even remotely, no matter the circumstances.
The power was steadily going back on. She sometimes crossed a fully lit passage, and the light diffraction bathed the road she took in steel grey. The density of the guards and personnel was higher with each intersection, she was running out of time.
Finally, there it was. The interrogation room. She paralysed the guards outside, then teleported in and paralysed in turn the guards within, to a great horror of her friends. There they stood, afraid, with Fluttershy whimpering in pain behind Rainbow, the advisor lying in the corner, body bruised.
She saw a glint of hope in the eyes of them all, even the advisor himself, when she levitated the necklaces in their rightful place. It was a routine by now as their bonds, by an unspoken command, were tested. Thankfully, they held.
There was a light. Indescribable to mortal senses, infinitely bright.