"ASU! Get your hands up! Up!"
"Twilight!" Rarity screamed. "Oh, darling!"
"I said hands up! Both of you! Do not fucking move!"
The profanity startled Twilight, for while swearing was common enough, it was rare for a word to be uttered with so much venom. She raised her hands above her head in a daze, the lights filling her eyes, leaving her blind and confused.
ASU...oh Sun, no...they found out...
"Grab that one," the female voice continued. "Get her! Hey, don't do it! Don't you do it!"
Twilight could see nothing, hear nothing but the shouts and cries.
But I didn't do anything bad! Not really!
"Don't reach! ASU, get your hands up!" a different voice, male this time. "Do not reach for that fucking gun!"
"Rarity?!" Twilight cried.
"Twilight!"
"Shit, she's running! Grab her!" The bed shook as somepony jumped onto it. Rarity screamed again. There was a flash of purple light, bright enough to cut through the cone of white that held Twilight in its grip, followed by the rapid, staccato barks of a dozen gunshots, one after the other. The light suddenly swung off of her. Twilight blinked desperately to clear her vision, her eyes full of stars. She crawled to the edge of the bed, but felt strong gloved hands grasp her. "Hands behind your back!"
"6-2, Shots fired, shots fired," the female voice again. "Start medical, we have an officer down and one suspect with gunshot wounds. Say again...? Negative, the target is in custody, over."
Twilight's hands were clasped behind her and slipped into a tight pair of handcuffs, while somepony slipped a horn-protector onto her, a magic-dampening device that locked in place and prevented any use of magic, something usually deployed for those suffering from severe mental episodes or the relatively few hardened criminals that operated in Equestria. Twilight squealed and struggled like a stuck pig, but the firm hands gripped her tighter than before, dragging her up into a sitting position. Only now could she see what was going on.
Half a dozen black-clad ponies with severe, uncompromising, faceless visors and compact machine-pistols all but filled the bedroom. One of them was propped up against the wall, missing an arm, groaning violently in pain and being tended to by another. Gunsmoke drifted in strange, swirling eddies in the light of their torches and the first traces of gold from the dawn outside the shattered window, where the thrum of jets told her a VTOL craft of some sort was hovering. Beneath the window, Rarity lay in a crumpled heap, bright, ruby-red blood oozing from her body, staining her white body, seeping into the carpet, her life draining away.
"Oh Sun...!" Twilight breathed. "Rarity! Rarity! What have you done to her?!"
"That's enough outta you," the same mare who had spoken before now spoke again, standing in front of Twilight. Her bulletproof vest read ASU, the Anti-Subversives Unit. Her rank markings indicated she was a Captain. Her nametag read Applejack. She glanced at the downed officer. Another pony had removed her helmet and was using magic to cauterise the bleeding stump of the wounded pony's arm. Nopony was helping Rarity.
Applejack removed her helmet, her face as stern as her blank visor had seemed, green eyes narrowed, blonde mane cropped short. She knew exactly what to say next, no need to look at a warrant. "Twilight Sparkle, you are under arrest for subversive activity, possession of a deviant creature, and possession of illegal documents."
"What...?" Twilight gasped, but deep down she knew it had really only been a matter of time until this day came. She knew she had done wrong. She knew it. Foolish mare. Fool. Fool, fool, fool! Nevertheless, she felt obliged to protest her innocence. It was mostly a mistake, after all, wasn't it? Oh, her brother Shining Armor would vouch for her, he was an officer in the army, they trusted the army!
"I haven't done anything!" she exclaimed. "I know you don't believe me, but...oh...Rarity! By the Sun, no...please, help her!"
Rarity had not moved.
"Your friend attacked us," Applejack replied gruffly, cocking her head in the direction of the wounded officer. "Can't take any chances with unicorns, never know what back alley spells they mighta learned. Ain't our fault. Some ponies can't or won't listen, this is the kinda thing that happens." She leaned down to face Twilight eye to eye. "N' if you hadn't started committin' crimes against the Sun, then your friend wouldn't have got herself shot, now would she?"
"I-i didn't...I haven't...I love the Sun!" Twilight blurted out helplessly. It was true, oh so true. But it didn't matter now.
"Sure ya do. On yer feet," Applejack grunted, grasping her arm tightly and dragging her upright. Two paramedics from the city ambulance service arrived in the bedroom, making it even more crowded, crackling radio traffic relaying information that was of importance, no doubt, to the ASU, but meaningless to Twilight. One of the paramedics checked on the wounded officer while the other knelt beside Rarity. Applejack and another, faceless ASU officer led Twilight out of the bedroom, leaving the bloody scene behind.
Twilight sobbed as she passed Rarity's motionless form. Had she killed her friend? Applejack was right; it was not happenstance which had led the ASU here this morning. It was her. They were here for her. Maybe Rarity had been foolish, maybe she had resisted arrest and fought with the officers, but she was panicked, afraid, terrified. It wasn't her they wanted, it was Twilight.
They came for me.
Her head bowed, tears streaking her cheeks, Twilight was led out of the bedroom. A female officer pulled a heavy winter jacket from Rarity's closet, used it to cover Twilight's naked form as they led her out to the turbovator. Down they went, seventy floors to the street, where local police cars had cordoned off the block. Two ASU wagons, armoured, six-wheeled monstrosities, were parked outside the entrance to the megabuilding. Applejack kept her hand firmly upon Twilight's arm, marching her out to the nearest truck. Onlookers from a thousand windows peered down, their early morning routine shattered by the howl of VTOL jets and the crackle of sudden gunfire. It would be all over the regional press by darkfall. One arrested, one killed in ASU crackdown! Brave officer wounded! Subversives lurk among you- do not let your guard down!
At least this was not her own building, her own neighbours watching her be taken away, muttering among themselves about how they always knew she was a strange one, or how they had definitely definitely seen for absolute certain her cavorting with Degenerate Races. Anything to make themselves seem even more devout and watchful, for letting a Subversive go unnoticed in your own building or workplace was a crime of incompetence in its own right. Her own building...Spike! At least he was safe...but, no! Applejack had said her charges included owning a deviant creature. Oh, they knew, they already had him...!
The back of the wagon was all bare metal, uncomfortable and spartan. Applejack and the other officer stepped in with her, forcing her to sit on a hard metal bench along one side while they seated themselves opposite her. The rear doors slammed shut, and they were moving. Where they were going, Twilight could only imagine. The local police precinct? But these were the ASU. They had a building downtown, offices, mostly, where investigators pored over reports, camera footage, data-logs and other technical information, seeking answers and seeking deviants. Subersives, as everypony knew, were the biggest threat to Equestria.
And now Twilight was one of them.
The cell was just as spartan as the truck had been, just smooth, bare walls, a simple bed, toilet and sink, all sharp edges removed, no hanging light fixtures, no high rails, nothing its inhabitant could theoretically use to commit suicide and escape their just punishment. Twilight rapidly lost track of time, for she had no chronometer. No natural light, either, just the incandescent haze of an artificial bulb embedded in the ceiling, blazing brightly, day and Even-Day.
Day and Night.
Once they had dumped her in there, Applejack returned some time later, no longer in her combat gear but a more relaxed outfit, perhaps what she wore beneath, a simple tank top and trousers, giving a good indication of her strong, muscular frame. Like all ASU agents, she was in good shape, smart, proficient, conscientious of her duty, as all good ponies should be. She had a simple message for Twilight.
"Your friend is dead."
Twilight had curled up into a ball, unconsciously adopting the same position Rarity had when her last breaths were leaving her body, crumpled beneath the window of her own bedroom, riddled with bullets.
"Officer Starbuck lost his arm. Have ta fit him with a cybernetic replacement," Applejack continued. "Not that you care, ah'm sure. If your friend had lived she'd be facin' an attempted murder charge."
"Go away!" Twilight wailed from her prone position on her cot-bed. "Go away!"
"Oh don't worry," Applejack grinned. "You ain't gonna see much more of me. Ah'm just the muscle. Interrogation ain't a specialty of mine. Somepony else'll take care of you. Real good care."
With that, she slammed the viewing hatch closed, and left Twilight alone in the unnatural glow.
Time. Time was something everypony thought they understood. A second begat a minute, a minute begat an hour. But when there was no reference, no frame within which to appreciate what time actually meant, it began to rapidly lose all meaning. The light in the cell was so false, so artificial, it seemed to drain all colour and all reality from Twilight's small, lonely world. Where was the Sun?
Where was the Sun?
Without the Sun there was nothing! Everypony knew that, raised from birth, inculcated in every young mind, firmed and shaped and molded as they were by the ever-present Princess, who was always with them even though she was never there. Her soothing voice, calming words, divine visage, were everywhere in Canterlot and every Equestrian city, ever household, every public building.
To be without her and without her light was painful, an unusual type of suffering, for it was not one that most ponies ever experienced. They could turn on a VR-adventure and see her face in the commercials, or go down to the lobby of their office to see her portrait, or open their curtains to see her blazing Sun in the sky above. It was impossible to conceive of life without the Sun, for even during the Even-Day ponies knew without fail that it would rise again the next morn, and in the darkness they could turn to images, words, sounds of the Princess to calm their irrational fears.
Most ponies had an instinctive dislike of the darkness. It heralded monsters, like in the foals' tales told to young ones. It heralded a lack of knowledge, an emptiness. They did not fear it, but they did not trust it entirely, either. Even in the brightly-lit cities with swathes of stars overhead, or with the Co-Orbital Body shining, darkness caused unease if one pondered on it or sat amongst it for too long. That was why there were so many neon signs everywhere in Canterlot. Criminals hide in the dark, everypony knew. Monsters hide in the dark. Evil hides in the dark.
Twilight had no idea how long she had been kept in her cell. Even meal times seemed to vary, perhaps to confuse her, or perhaps just an illusory shift because she was already confused. Somepony would shove a tray through the slot and depart. Once she was done they would collect it. Applejack kept true to her word; Twilight had not seen the ASU officer again. She had not seen anypony, in truth, for the meals were invariable delivered and collected when she was lying on her bed, not even able to glimpse the briefest moment of seeing somepony's arm through the hatch in the door. She was alone, though no doubt they were watching her. The Sun was always watching, and she had wronged it.
It was on the seventh- or maybe twelfth, or maybe twentieth- day that somepony finally opened the door. Two grim-faced ASU stallions took her by the arms, cuffed her, led her out of the cell (her horn protector, blocking her magic, had of course never been removed at all). They led her to an equally featureless room with just one chair in the middle, planted her firmly in it, removed her hands from the cuffs, fitted them into shackles on the chair, and left, the door closing with a metallic thud, leaving her with her thoughts once more. She realised now she had no actual idea what was involved in interrogating a subversive. She was not an ASU agent, she knew no other subversives. Those who had returned to the university after 're-education' never spoke of such things, just expressing their gladness that they had been given the opportunity to see the error of their failing ways.
For another indeterminate period, Twilight sat alone. She was sure- sure- that it had not been more than ten minutes or so, but what was a minute when one had almost forgotten what time itself meant? Then, the door opened again, and a single pony entered. Twilight gasped. She had good reason to.
"Brother...!"
She had not seen Shining Armor for almost a year. He had been away on deployment in the southern Degenerate Zone, according to his army records. Yet here he was, in the flesh, his smart red and white dress uniform and two-toned blue mane a vivid flash of colour in the otherwise drab world Twilight had been inhabiting.
"Twilight," he nodded at her.
"H-have you come to free me?" she smiled happily.
"No," he replied, with a slow shake of his head. "I have come to break you."