//------------------------------// // Daybreak: Jailbirds // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// The heavy cell bars came off the rollers and snapped shut with a clang. No sooner had they done so than the guard locking the three in turned and stepped away when Sunset sighed and put her hands up and on them. “Gee…just as I was getting used to not being in a cell…” At once, four rifles snapped up and aimed at her. “Hands off the bars! Step away from the door!” one of them barked. Gulping, she shrank back when she found herself confronted by the firearms. After a moment, she nervously took a few steps back before risking turning around and putting her back to the soldiers. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to find there in terms of relief. Twilight was already pacing back and forth in the small pen, but Rainbow Dash was giving her a look that could kill. “Sheesh…even when you’re not trying to kill us you still get us into trouble.” She craned her head and yelled. “Hey guard! We’re not even with her! She tried to slice us all up before turning into some raging she-demon that wanted to burn us to a crisp!” “Quiet!” Dash let out an angry mutter before slumping back where she was; propping her head up on her arms. “I got enough time getting in trouble with the law without having someone else drag me into it…” she muttered. “Alright you three! Look over here!” All three, in various states of irritation or fear, looked up to the guard at the door. He proceeded to step away from the back of the prisoner-model Steel Lion and gestured to what was right behind it…one of Fillydelphia’s own tank models. As its motor idled and it belched clouds of black smoke, its rather massive gun aimed directly at them. “The gunner’s got a dead eye and he can see every move you make. You raise your hands or do anything else funny and you all get blown to hell, got it?” Twilight swallowed at the threat. Sunset began to sweat all over again, but timidly nodded. Dash rolled her eyes and groaned. “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” The guard sneered at her. “Keep that attitude while you can. All three of you are looking to swing for this.” With that, he turned away and joined the rest of the guard…which numbered about thirty in all. That was aside from not one but two tanks following behind the Steel Lion that had the prisoner’s cell mounted in the back of it. That wasn’t counting the one in front of it with another gun barrel aimed at the vehicle and yet another Steel Lion after that transporting even more soldiers. This veritable parade was attracting more than its share of stares from the locals, who by now were treating this entire thing as a spectacle. Yet the soldiers were neither embarrassed nor deterred. They sharply came together to form ranks, squared their shoulders, and waited. Not long after, their CO gave the order to march and the Steel Lion along with the rest of the retinue began to chug down the road. Twilight looked up rather uncomfortably at all this. “Well…I think it’s safe to say we aren’t welcome in Fillydelphia…” Sunset rolled her eyes. “…Really? What was the first clue?” “Since this was your fault, I wouldn’t try to be such a smartass,” Dash retorted, before looking around the area a little. “I can’t believe we’re getting dragged all the way to Rider’s Island.” “Huh?” Twilight answered. “Rider’s Island? How do you know? They didn’t say where we were going.” “Trust me. They wouldn’t be sending all of these delivery boys out and not put us down on the spot if they weren’t taking us anywhere else. That’s the most secure prison they can put us in.” Sunset gave a weak chuckle as she moved over to the side of the pen, leaned against the bars, and let herself slowly sink to the floor. “So long as they feed us decent? It’ll be like a hotel compared to where we’ve been. At least until they hang us…” “Hang you, maybe,” Dash retorted. She glanced around her cell, especially at the tank that was following them, before turning her head away from it and speaking quietly. “Twilight, what do you say we bust outta here now?” She looked to her in surprise. “Huh?” She realized a moment later she had said that with her mouth in full view of the rear, and immediately she blanched and turned her back to the entrance. “I mean…what are you talking about?” “The two of us can get out of here easy once we put on our Anima Viris. Sure, it might be a little tight and we’ll have to be on the run for a bit, but no big deal after we got through Griffonstone. We can handle this in a snap.” Twilight hesitated. She looked back behind them, not only at the cell and the people looking into it, but also to Sunset. She picked up on this and immediately began to tense again. She looked almost fearful when Twilight laid eyes on her. “What about Sunset?” “What about her?” “They’re going to fire that tank the moment we try anything. Whether we dodge it or not, she’ll be hit. And she doesn’t have any protection like we do.” “So what?” Dash snorted back. “She didn’t really care about whether or not she killed us when she fired on us back at Mount Aris, did she? Or whether she’d kill her own soldiers back on the airships?” Sunset grimaced, tightening her fists and bowing her head. Twilight again turned back and glanced at her, this time staring for several seconds before looking back. “I’m sorry…but I’m not moving if we’re going to leave her behind to get hit by whatever we do.” “Oh, come on!” Dash outburst, nearly breaking their cover. “They could be serious about that hanging thing, you know! You’re wanting to stick around long enough to get stuck in some prison cell and make it harder for all of us to bust out of here and get back to Manehattan all on account of her? After everything she did to us? That’s crazy! You can’t want to keep her around just because she read some dumb old books that you didn’t! She’s not worth it!” Twilight glanced back at Sunset again. She bit her lip, twisting a little in place. “It’s…not just that.” “Well what is it then? Why should we all risk getting our heads stuck in a noose because she got her own head shoved into one?” Twilight held a moment longer, wincing a bit more, before she finally spat it out. “Because…it wouldn’t be right.” Sunset looked up at that in a show of genuine surprise. Dash stared at Twilight unblinking for several seconds, before her eyes narrowed dully at her. “You have got to be kidding me. Wouldn’t be right? Wouldn’t be right?!” “Look…” Twilight sighed, “we did have a deal, and she’s held up on her end so far. She kept me from blowing my cover in Trottingham and kept me out of being traded to some hormone-crazed perv. She helped me eat and stay hydrated when we were being transported across the ocean, and she helped me get on the boat and stay above water when the ship wrecked. Sure, I might have helped her out too, but I made it this far working with her and I wouldn’t have otherwise.” “But she’s just doing it to help herself!” “Be that as it may, she did still help me. And just because she might not care about leaving someone who can’t help themselves to die doesn’t mean I don’t care. And neither should you. I don’t know why I was born with this power, but at this point I know that Headmistress Celestia always thought because I had it that I needed to use it to help people. I respected her more than anyone and yet I spent most of the past eight years letting things get worse and worse because I felt too scared and too defeated to try and make a difference. And…well…” She grimaced a little, bowing her own head. “Well…if that’s the case, then I can’t say I did much better than Sunset when it came to trying to end the eternal night.” Sunset looked even more stunned; her jaw dropping a little on hearing that. Dash looked likewise surprised. She looked back up. “But I can help people now. And the only reason I need is that it’s the right thing to do, so that’s what I’m going to do. I really don’t want to hold you back if you get a chance to escape, but I’m staying here until I find a way to get all of us out. I’m sorry but that’s my decision.” The pen was silent. Sunset continued to stare at Twilight with an open-mouthed look, astonished at what she had just heard. Dash stared back at Twilight with quite a different look—this one a solid frown. However, she didn’t change. After about half a minute, Dash rolled her eyes, let out a massive groan, and slumped back where she was seated. “Great…I guess that means I’m stuck here too.” Hearing that made Twilight smile just a little. “Thank you.” “Don’t thank me,” she sharply retorted. “I’m staying behind because I’d never leave you behind. First chance we get to where I think I can get both you and me out of here and leave bacon-head back there behind, I’m taking it. But for now, I’m staying put.” She held a moment longer before sighing and leaning back. “Well, get comfy. It’s a ways to Rider’s Island.” The trip did speed up considerably once they got out of Baltimare. At that point, the soldiers loaded up again while the tanks remained trained on the cell, but the entire convoy picked up speed to where they were making a good 15 miles per hour. Because of that, they didn’t have to worry about being stuck on the road for longer than early afternoon. By the time that rolled around, they were already coming down and around on Rider’s Island. Fillydelphia had an inland sea that stretched for quite a distance and made up a good natural barrier between it and the defunct former nation of Cloudsdale. Within that sea were a number of small islands, of which Rider’s Island was one. Initially Fillydelphia had used the area as a fort to protect against potential sea-faring invasions and later airship attacks. Those times had come and gone, and since then the government had determined that the island was just as well-suited to keeping people inside it as it was as keeping people out of it. As a result, the fort had been converted into a maximum security prison for all the offenders not eligible for the country’s penal colonies. Thanks to the bars of the Steel Lion, the three saw it coming from a long way off. They abruptly began to descend downhill until they saw the sea looming large and spacious in front of them and could begin to hear its surf as it slowly lapped against the shore. A bit further on, and they were able to make the building itself out far from shore. Perched on an amount of rock and rising up above the waters was a block of fortified construction material stretching a good seven stories high. Rising above it was four separate towers: a large one in the center and three arranged around it that served to connect the main structure to a fortified wall that stretched around the perimeter of the entire island. As for the rest of the island itself, it was nothing but rough and jagged stone and cliffs—without a single visible place to land for embarking or disembarking. Even seeing it was an intimidating sight to Twilight. “Still think not busting out when we could was a good idea?” Dash sardonically asked. Getting there wasn’t easy either. Their parade of vehicles made its way down to the ocean shore and rolled along it until they came to a single heavily guarded ferry. There was only enough room for a single Steel Lion on board it, so the one holding them rolled into place while the rest of the guards disembarked for the sole purpose of surrounding them with their firearms ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Considering several of them looked “itchy” in terms of trigger fingers, everyone was too tense to make the slightest move as the ferry pushed away from shore. Fifteen minutes later, they reached the island. Seeing it up close, Twilight was rather astonished as well as puzzled to see the place was heavily armed. Not just with guards posted but with what looked like cannon emplacements, blockhouses, and even anti-aircraft artillery. And for a base that had supposedly been converted into a prison, all of the armaments looked fairly new and well-maintained. At any rate, the only place to land was in a small U-shaped area with a dock constructed over the rough land of the island. On docking there, the three were finally led out of their pens, but only to have their wrists and ankles chained together. After that, they were none-too-gently forced to walk along in on the island and toward the main structure. After passing through the fortified wall, which was nothing more than solid stone, iron, and barbed wire on top, they passed through the small inner court before entering the main building. Once inside, they crossed through a short stone corridor before finally going into what looked like a true prison. Nothing but a massive corridor with four stories worth of cells lining the walls on either side. Very dim gaslighting illuminated the ceiling with a glow that would have barely given enough light to see during the night, although, fortunately, it was day for now and the heavily-barred windows allowed in plenty of ample sunshine. They only crossed into this area a short distance before they spotted something up ahead. Another group was fast approaching them. This one too was surrounded by soldiers but, unlike their own group, there were several individuals in the center who were free to move. They also seemed to be talking fast. About what was anyone’s guess, although from the looks of them they were mostly men and women in suits with a few military officers. Hardly the type one would expect in a prison or a fort. Abruptly, their escort ordered them to halt. They did so as the other group began to approach. Their own talk diminished as they looked forward and zeroed in on the three of them. Most of the ones in suits and official attire soon began to look nervous and excused themselves or stood to one side on spotting them. Two, however, continued to focus on them as they neared. The first was a rather unfriendly-looking man. His hair had grown long and was combed back down to his neck, and his eyes held a perpetual look of disdain as well as seeming annoyance to them. He had no mustache, but his beard was pointed enough to be a spear tip. The second, running along at his side and struggling to keep up, as well as struggling with at least three heavy books or ledgers of a sort in her hands, was a girl with a head full of curly hair and a yellow ribbon tied to one side. Her look wasn’t exactly friendly either, but more uncomfortable and straining under the load she was bearing and the pace she had to maintain. The two, with the first in the lead, reached the three of them and came to a stop. The first looked them over a moment, giving them a rather cold glower and dismissive stare. The three stared back silently for several seconds. As it turned out, it was Twilight who broke it. She formed a look of puzzled realization. “Representative…Neighsay?” The man looked up a little at this, raising an eyebrow to her. “You know of me?” Dash and Sunset likewise turned to her, rather confused as well at her act of recognition. She suddenly appeared put on the spot. “Well, I…that is, I know who the current representatives of Fillydelphia are at least.” “Hmm,” he answered. “Well, I’m afraid to inform you that your information is outdated. It’s Acting-President Neighsay now.” Twilight looked surprised. “Did…did you say ‘Acting-President’?” “Yes I did, Twilight Sparkle.” Now she really looked surprised, as did Dash and Sunset along with her. “Surprised that I know your identity?” he remarked demurely. “Thought that Fillydelphia would simply side with Manehattan’s word and leave it at that as they have so many other times? I’m afraid things will be changing under my administration, Ms. Sparkle. Drastically changing. Even with the eternal night gone, it appears that matters for Fillydelphia have gotten worse than ever, and right now a new system of order and control is desperately wanting. We won’t be working with Manehattan again anytime soon. Especially not now…” He leveled a cold stare at the three of them. “Now that we have proof that their little ‘task force’ of abominations and mutants was working with the Fire Witch of Trottingham herself the whole time.” “Wait…what?!” Dash exclaimed. Twilight likewise stared open-mouthed for several seconds at the sudden accusation; left speechless in the wake of that unexpected statement. “Now hold on just a minute! We’re not-” “There’s no need for you to make some vain attempt to defend yourselves,” Neighsay snorted. “We already are fully aware that the last you were reported being seen was when you were going on your Manehattan-appointed mission directly into Equestria, when suddenly you were struck and supposedly killed by Trottingham forces. And yet, here you are. We have witnesses reporting that you rowed your way right into Baltimare with this woman…” He paused long enough to give Sunset a glare and a sneer. “…in spite of supposedly being on opposite sides of an international conflict. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this entire thing was indicative proof of Manehattan dealing behind Fillydelphia’s back with Trottingham. I assure you, under my administration, I shall not allow our country to be a mere stooge to this sort of backhanded dealing.” “But you’ve got it all wrong!” Twilight insisted. “I mean…I know this looks bad, but it’s just about how we ended up! We both had to escape Trottingham in a hurry and the only way was-” Neighsay interrupted by raising one of his eyebrows. “Trottingham? So you admit that you both departed from Trottingham?” “No!” Twilight quickly sputtered. “I mean…well…yes, but that’s not what it sounds like either! The only reason we were…I mean, the reason I was in Trottingham was because that’s where we were blown to after we broke the night over Equestria!” The man let out an unamused chuckle. “Utter ridiculousness. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you somehow survived an explosion that launched you all the way into Trottingham and that no one in the country would have immediately seen you land and responded? Even if there were such cannons in existence powerful enough to fire a shot that far, anything fired out would annihilate from the force alone. And yet somehow you were able to do it?” Twilight was stricken silent. “Well…” she fumbled, “I…I admit I don’t know how it happened exactly, but we’re here now!” “Hey!” Dash spoke up. “Doesn’t the fact that we’re the ones who took out the eternal night count for anything? Or are you trying to think that was a dumb Manehattan and Trottingham plot too?” “Whether or not you are the reason for why the eternal night over Equestria broke is irrelevant,” he responded. “There is only one fact that interests me right now.” He pointed right at Twilight’s hand bearing the Promethian Sigil. Put on the spot, she actually recoiled and covered it. “Whoever has one of those emblems bears incredible powers. Powers strong enough to destroy warships, obliterate factories, and raze entire metropolitan areas to the ground if so desired. Manehattan and Trottingham are both privy to the secrets of those symbols and I find it impossible to believe they don’t know something about why they are occurring, yet Manehattan refuses to share any of such secrets with their greatest ally and, now, we find that they are working right with our enemy behind their backs.” “That’s not true!” Twilight insisted. “Sunset is defecting to Manehattan! She’s not even with Trottingham anymore!” This, however, only made both Sunset and Dash wince and slap their palms against their faces. “All the more reason,” Neighsay sharply responded, “for us to be upset with the Manehattan government. They apparently orchestrated this entire thing behind our backs to consolidate this new power for themselves. Meanwhile, we’re left with citizens spontaneously developing these afflictions left and right, with no idea how many there are going to be or how to properly control them should they go wild, and the best they offer us is some song-and-dance ‘goodwill tour’ that only serves to attract an entire flood of abnormal Nighttouched to wipe out everything in its path!” The three looked curious on hearing that. “Wait…what was that about a flood of abnormal Nighttouched?” He sneered. “I’m not going to let you insult me any longer by pretending you don’t know, and I’m not going to let you waste my time any further with your flimsy alibis. I came here for one reason and one reason alone: to verify with my own eyes that Manehattan and Trottingham were in kahoots with one another when it comes to their so-called ‘eidolons’. Now that I’ve seen it, I’ll make sure it’s reported to our house of legislature at once. This should be the final straw they need to break off this pointless, one-sided alliance with Manehattan and work toward a truly autonomous Fillydelphia.” “Wait!” Twilight tried to protest. “Could you just-” Neighsay, however, was already looking away and to the girl at his side. “Make a note that all of my earlier suspicions were verified, and start tracking down the nearest telegram operators for the heads of the current congress. I want this vote to come to the floor tonight as soon as I’m sworn in. Also, wire the capitol. We’ll need the presidential airship to take us directly from here back to the legislature. We’ll wait upstairs for it to arrive.” As she nodded and quickly began to fumble with her ledgers, he turned to the main guards next while gesturing to the three. “Have them put under maximum security and keep a tight watch. I’ll give them a little time to come up with something useful to tell us, but if they insist on playing this game then I’ll have them executed as soon as we can perfect a method guaranteed to work on the likes of them. Until then…” He gave them another glance. “You know full well that the key is in their ability to call on whatever monsters they have living in their hands. And you know what to do to stop that.” Twilight looked rather uneasy when she heard that. Sunset cringed a bit again. Dash let out a groan. “I really don’t like the sound of that…” “MmmmmMmmmMMmmMMM!” Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what Rainbow Dash said, but assumed it had to be another string of cursing as she pranced around her cell frantically yanking at the very hard and uncomfortable headpieces they were forced to wear. Neither she nor Sunset felt much better about it themselves in spite of sitting quietly in their own positions. At this point, all three were shackled with what they could only describe as “horse bits”, considering the fact that they were pieces of iron headgear that stretched around their heads and forced mouthpieces into their mouths that prevented them from moving their tongues before slapping metal over their lips. It was hard to even breathe through the restraints, let alone actually make any noise through them. Other than angry mutters, they couldn’t even talk to one another. Twilight had wondered at one point how they were supposed to eat or drink through the restraints, but she soon began to realize it likely didn’t matter. The cell that the three of them had been shoved into was guarded by nine people (three guns for each of them) and from the looks on their faces the only thing they were planning on was waiting for the signal to either fire their weapons into them or haul them off to whatever grounds they would go to for interrogation or execution. Dash gave up her latest fit of trying to pry her headgear off, and stomped over to the bars to let out another tirade of angry chatter at them. Twilight let out the best sigh she was able to manage before leaning back in her seat. Yet on doing so, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. The cells that they were staying in weren’t terribly clean. They obviously had been out of service for a while, and they had only been shoved into them as a last minute change. A layer of dust had been on everything, including on the short benches where they could sit and on the floor. Most of it had been moved around and muddled by now, but there was an intact patch in front of where Sunset had been seated. Neither she nor the guards had noticed, but she had moved her toe around on it absent-mindedly since being placed in the cell, and now she had managed a message. Still think not cutting and running when you could was a good idea? Twilight grimaced as best as she could through the bit. She looked up to Sunset, who simply stared idly back. After a moment, she only exhaled and shrugged. Sunset didn’t react at first, before she bowed her head. She held in that position for a while, seemingly reluctant about what she was going to do next. After about two minutes she shifted her hands out to her sides and placed them on the bench near the intact dirt. On the hand between her and Twilight, she slowly extended a finger and wrote something else. Thanks. Twilight actually showed a small amount of surprise. She looked back up to Sunset, but she was already looking away and hunching over. She wasn’t going to get much more out of her than that. On realizing that, Twilight turned away and faced the floor as well. She might have formed just a hint of a smile, but it was impossible to see around the headgear. “…just be a few itty-bitty moments. President-Elect’s orders!” Twilight stirred to hear the sound of a rather young, bright, chipper, and eager voice sounding through the bars of the cell. She blinked a few times and leaned up from where she was seated, realizing she must have fallen asleep. Considering that there was far less lighting in her cell than there was when she last looked, she realized also that the sun had either gone down a bit or it had clouded up considerably. As her eyes cleared she looked around the cell. Sunset was stirring from her own spot, having obviously fallen asleep much as she had. Dash, on the other hand, was letting out muffled snores through her own headgear as she sprawled out on the floor. Through the bars, however, the guards had something else drawing their attention. A little to Twilight’s surprise, the same girl who was with Neighsay earlier was now talking to them. She still had the same ledgers that she had earlier, and at this point she began to shift them around in her grip until she got one on top. Once there, she cracked open the cover as she went for her pen. “He told me to get every bit of detail I could on them! Height, hair color, eye color, distinguishing marks… You know, that sort of thing! So we can finish filling out their dossier and get a file started! You never know…some of these folks with Promethian Sigils might have things in common!” The guard sighed and indicated back. “Alright, but be quick about it. We have to be ready to shoot in a hurry if they try anything and having someone at the bars blocking our shots doesn’t really help things.” “No problem!” she chirped as she began to walk up to the bars. “I’ll be in and out before you know it!” With that, she happily made her way up to the bars as she finished pulling out her pen. Once there, she paused a moment and looked inside. Sunset gave her a glare. Twilight looked a bit anxious at everything she had just heard her say. Dash continued to snooze away on the floor. “Golly! They sure don’t look like much, do they? Just the same as you and me!” she remarked before she began to write things down. However, Twilight noticed something almost immediately. Her jotting was rather erratic and sloppy. Like she didn’t have a true interest in what she was putting down… “I guess that means it really can happen to anyone! Boy, I’m glad this cell is right here!” She reached out and knocked on one of the bars, getting a metallic clang to ring out. “Those folks who made the Rider’s Island prison sure knew what they were doing! It’s amazing how tall they were able to make it and still have all these cells in working order!” She glanced into the cell a bit, before her eyes rested on the back. “Hard to believe that all of them get heated in the same way through the same big vent!” Twilight, a bit puzzled by this line of talk, turned and looked. Although she hadn’t paid it much mind before, there was, in fact, a single solitary vent in the back of the cell mounted into the wall with an iron grating. “Toilets are top of the line too!” she went on. “You three better get it over with and try it out if you got to go! You’re going to be in there for a while!” Twilight became even more puzzled that she would call that out, but the girl didn’t offer anything else besides that. She promptly withdrew her pen and shut her ledger with the sound of the heavy book shutting. “Well, that takes care of that! Keep up the good work, everyone!” Without another word, she spun around on her heel and made her way back through the rows of soldiers. Within a few moments, she had finished passing through them all, turned a corner, and departed. Twilight sat there still for several moments. She looked to the others in the cell. Sunset stared back with much the same befuddled expression. Dash, on the other hand, had slept through the whole thing. At length she looked back to the guards, then turned her eyes to the floor and stared. Time slowly passed as she thought over everything she had just seen and heard. Finally, hesitantly and uncertainly, she made a move. She rose from her spot. She froze a moment later when four guards snapped their heads to her, but they merely watched her rather than went for her weapons. She swallowed a lump, shrank a little, but then made her way gingerly and nervously over to the toilet. Once there, she looked it over a moment. In spite of the girl’s claims, she didn’t feel much like getting anywhere near it. However, it was one of the only spots free of dust and grime, indicating it had at least been cleaned recently. Grimacing and dreading the thought, she reached for her pants and began to unfasten them. One of the guards sighed and looked away. The others rapidly followed suit. It did little to make Twilight feel comfortable. After all, they were still in an open cell. Not to mention Sunset kept staring, seeming puzzled at her entire turn to use the commode. Nevertheless, after pulling down her pants, she sighed around the bit and slowly sat down. Nothing happened. Nevertheless, she sat there for some time, looking around idly, shifting her weight, and expecting some sort of reaction. Nothing came. It was just a regular toilet. After sitting there for a few minutes without doing anything, the guards were beginning to glance to her again; wondering what she was doing there. That made her tense up more. She had thought of looking into the water reservoir, but there was no way to do that without looking suspicious. Even then, what would that do? She sighed into the headgear, deciding to drop it. She nearly got up right there, but paused as she realized she should at least look like she had tried to do something. With that, she began to reach for the paper… And paused again. The roll was not merely thrown on there. Someone had gone to the trouble of folding the corners of the first square inward, much like one would see in a hotel or the like. Certainly not in a prison cell. She was curious about that a moment, before she reached out, grasped it, and unrolled a little. At once, she felt a small piece of metal fall from under the folded roll into her hand. Twilight’s eyes widened a little. She kept her hand right there momentarily, and slowly pulled it out from underneath the roll to see what was inside. A small key. Immediately, she went rigid. Her eyes turned upward, but by some miracle none of the guards had been staring at her at that time. They had gone back to giving her privacy now that she was using the paper. She looked back down to the key once more before quickly making a fist, concealing it from view. She tried to act as nonchalant as possible as she immediately went about the rest of her business, finishing up and flushing all while still hiding the key in her hand. Once done, she made her way back to the bench and sat down again. Sunset was staring at her, having picked up on her change, but Twilight tried to act as casually as possible. As she held the small prize in her hand, her mind worked over what kind of lock the small key could fit. Certainly not the cell, and it wouldn’t matter if it could. She couldn’t waltz right up to the guards and try with a key she found and expect not to get caught. However, the headpieces that they were wearing were secured with a small lock behind their heads… Twilight leaned up against the side of the cell, pretending to be trying to recline. Soon after, she pretended that she was still uncomfortable, and while she was shifting around she put her hands together and shifted the key unseen from one to another. After that, she leaned up again; this time bringing up a hand to prop her head up. In doing so, she passed the key up into the space behind her head. Seeing as the back of her skull was aimed inward toward Sunset, it was impossible for the woman to not see the key when Twilight produced it. Her own eyes widened, but she quickly composed herself and looked casual as well. As for Twilight, she moved the key slowly over to the lock behind her head, all while pretending to still be reclining. Moving very slowly and deliberately, with skill honed from years as a street magician, she inched the key over to the lock, extended it, and slowly felt around for the keyhole. It took her a moment, but when she found it and shoved inward she felt the key slide right in easily. Before she could do anything else, however, an alarm bell suddenly began to peel throughout the entire cell block. It was so sharp, piercing, and out of nowhere that Twilight jumped in place and moved her hand. As it was, a second later she winced and rapidly reached for the back of her head again, for fear of accidentally losing the key. Fortunately, it remained in the lock throughout the ordeal. As for the guards in the room, however, they immediately looked up and to the ceiling. Seconds later, the alarm bell broke off, only to peel again in a pattern of three short rings. It continued to peel out this pattern afterward. The guards hesitated. They looked down to one another, seeming to weigh their options and what to do next. Finally, however, one of them motioned to the others and quickly counted off three of them. The others shouldered their weapons, turned, and took off the same way the girl had gone earlier. Dash, by now, was groggily coming too and complaining into her headgear, but Sunset and Twilight both watched as this took place. They didn’t know what had caused the people to be called away, but the guard that was watching them had been lessened considerably. Twilight turned back to Sunset briefly. She stared back simply for a moment, before turning her head and looking nearby at the grating. The girl had mentioned that too… Twilight looked forward again. The three remaining guards looked uncomfortable at the fact that there were only three of them left, but they were staying posted. The alarm, whatever it was for, continued to blare and was loud enough to easily cover a whisper. She realized she wouldn’t get a better chance. After delaying for ten full seconds, during which she began to sweat and tense up, she made her move. With her hand still behind her head, she grasped the key and turned. A click went off, inaudible over the alarm, and she used the moment to pull the lock up and out. Part of her headgear was unhinged but, miraculously, it didn’t come off all together. It loosened just enough for her to move her mouth out. She held again for several seconds, nervous and hesitant, but realized she was at the point of no return. After a few moments more, she finally acted. Holding her hand up as little as she could, she began to draw with it while whispering out the arcane command words. She was nearly done with it when one of the guards turned their heads. In an instant, they saw the sigil that was being drawn in front of her. “Hey!” The shout alerted her two companions. Soon, all three were rapidly raising their weapons. Twilight, however, couldn’t stop now. As their rifles went up, she let her voice get louder to embolden the spell, and finally finished the symbol. While they were still taking aim, she executed it. The sigil melted away into three tendrils of smoke, which quickly streamed through the air and into the eyes of the three guards. They were able to fight it only for a second, before their expressions slackened, their vision glazed over, and their weapons dropped out of their hands. Seconds later, the rest of them fell to the floor alongside them. Twilight let out a massive sigh of relief as she let her hand fall, but also panted a little. “I didn’t know I could pull off that kind of sleep spell without an Anima Viri…” Dash, by now, was wide-awake and staring at Twilight in surprise. Sunset, however, wasn’t wasting time. She promptly got to her feet and rushed over to the grate. Dropping down on her knees, she reached out with both hands, laced her fingers around it, and gave a pull. She nearly fell to the ground soon after, for although the grating looked like it was mortared into the cell wall it popped out along with some of the masonry immediately; revealing it had been chipped away at for some time. What was left behind was a narrow opening, but one large enough for an individual to crawl through. Dash snapped to that and went even more wide-eyed. She began to mumble into her bit a stream of confused chatter. Twilight, on her part, quickly tore off the rest of her headgear before going for the key in the back. “We should talk later,” she told Dash. “Right now, we need to get out of here while we still can. I just hope there is a way out of here…” Fortunately, the siren kept blaring as the three got to work. Twilight hurried and fumbled with the key on Dash and Sunset’s headpieces, and then the three crammed into the hole. It was a rather tight squeeze for even the smallest of them, but they managed to wriggle through. Sure enough, on emerging on the other side, they found themselves in a massive air shaft that ran behind every cell both for plumbing as well as heating. More than that, it ran through every cell on both the lower blocks as well as the upper blocks. The three hesitated for a moment, looking around in this new area. “So…what now?” Sunset asked. Twilight looked skyward and squinted. “I think I see a bit of daylight up there. If we can climb up, there may be a way out.” “On the roof? That’s a way out?” “Hey, we definitely aren’t going to find one on the ground level,” Dash answered with a shrug. Sunset couldn’t argue with that. “Alright…then how do we get up there?” Twilight looked around before pointing. “The pipes. Let’s see if we can climb up them.” In moments, the three were scurrying up the plumbing running behind the cells as best as they could. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. There wasn’t much to grab onto and they were hardly meant as ladders. Twilight and Sunset themselves both fumbled multiple times before Dash moved in front of them and led the way, causing them to fall in behind her and mimic her movements. It also didn’t help that it was so dark behind the cells and nearly impossible to see handholds or footholds. At one point, Twilight put her hand on one brace of metal holding a pipe to the wall as a step only for it to break under her foot, nearly sending her falling back down on Sunset. Nevertheless, the climb wasn’t too far from their current floor to the top floor, where Twilight could see the light coming from. As a result, they were able to shimmy all the way to the top where a grating had been fastened to the wall to provide a place to stand upon right below the ceiling of the cellblock. Dash quickly dismounted onto it and helped Twilight and (far more reluctantly) Sunset onto it, and the three took a look around. Soon they spotted the light source again. It was gleaming from a square-shaped opening in the ceiling itself. Dash moved over to it and put her hand on it, giving it a light push. It gave, but soon ran into a stop. It was apparently locked or bolted from outside. That didn’t stop her. She simply made a fist and drove it up into the opening, sending it flying up so rapidly that it snapped loose whatever lock or bolt was holding it. It swung open wide and easily on its hinges soon after, and Dash pushed it aside and began to climb out to the other side. The other two followed, and the three emerged into a small shack-like covering over the opening they had just passed through, looking to be mostly just to prevent leakage during rainstorms and the like. Three walls surrounded them, but the fourth wall was gone; affording a rather stunning and somewhat nerve-wracking view of the rooftop area of Rider’s Island. Twilight herself was rather nervous to find that from their position they were mostly nestled behind one of the three surrounding towers that made up the perimeter structure of the prison, but nevertheless they still had a fairly good view of the main central tower and its several floors, as well as whatever guards would be posted on top. In short, it was impossible to tell how exposed they were. The only thing in their favor seemed to be that the skies had indeed clouded up, and as a result there was a shadow hanging over the small structure they now found themselves in. Dash let out an exhale. “Well…we’re on the roof at least.” “Yeah…” Sunset remarked. “Now I kind of wonder who got us here and why.” “Hello there!” The bright and chipper voice was all too familiar from before, and Twilight and Sunset immediately registered it before they turned around back to the aperture. Much to their surprise, poised on the other side of it against the back wall was the same girl from before, now beaming and grinning at them. “Golly, I’m glad you three managed to understand my directions! Sorry about that, but it’s the best I could do on such short notice!” “Uh…” Dash responded uncertainly, “who are you and what are we doing here?” “Gee, how silly of me! I haven’t even introduced myself!” the girl answered before stepping forward. “I’m Cozy Glow, official assistant for the President of Fillydelphia! As for why I helped you, the truth is Fillydelphia needs your help much more badly than the President knows!”