//------------------------------// // 18 - Welcome to Rock Prison // Story: Re:Harmony // by starcross7 //------------------------------// Chapter 18 - Welcome to Rock Prison   The taxi just dropped off the Professor right at the guard post at the long and expensive electric fence perimeter.  Typical government bureaucracy.  They could not afford an armed guard escort in a bulletproof government sedan to bring her over here.  There wasn't even a formal welcoming.  Then again, who would want to be welcomed into the infamous Rock Prison where ponies come in and were never heard from again? The guard post at the fence gate was just for show.  The poor and lightly armed guard probably had spoken out against his superiors once or twice, but it wouldn't surprise the Professor if he were one of the many "re-educated" prisoners under a new identity.  The Professor did not wait for an escort from the main building, and so she passed by the sleeping guard and took the simple dirt path leading to the massive monolithic jaws that was Rock Prison, which was identified by the large and white "T-02" markings on the side of the building.  The airship that just landed in its center "mouth" looked to be the size of a fly being devoured by this beast.   She could only imagine what terror the prisoners would be thinking if they marched down this long dirt path towards the building, though it was likely they would be beaten and stuffed into a paddy wagon. The Professor could sympathize.  It felt like walking into the jaws of the beast, and knowing the rumors of the secret police, this could be another way they would get to her.  Sure, Professor Covalent Bond would be meeting her here, she had hoped.  Another airship had just touched down, so maybe the recent transport had company.   The gruff senior guards at the entrance barely grumbled a "hello" when they met up with her at the building entrance.  The Professor went through the usual pat-downs and detailed bag searches before even allowing her to step into actual prison itself.  At least they did not tackle her right here and there, and then she would know she was in trouble.  Once again, an ounce of dignity had been lost due to these security checks, and the Professor was left alone in the long administrative hallway corridors. That was until she saw one light at the end of the hall in the form of Warden Bon Bon.  Too bad the burly mare known as Lieutenant Quake was right next to her.   "I saw the airship," said the Professor.  "Corsair Class, straight out of Gaeaopolis.  You must've captured a big one."           "The beautiful and honorable Chancellor was the one who took her down herself," said Bon Bon, proudly.  "We finally arrested the infamous Rebel Terrorist Applejack."   "Applejack?  Didn't she escape from this prison many years ago?"   "It's not something we like to tell the other ponies should they get any ideas.  Although, I am surprised that your division doesn't keep track of these things."   "Even though it's under Teddy's watch, the other divisions under Information Control generally don't share information with each other.  Heck, we even have divisions that do nothing but spy on each other."   "I'm certain that with the improved security measures, I won't suffer the same fate as our last warden, bless his heart, wherever he may be.  I assume you are here to take a look at a certain artifact that's on a certain celebrity prisoner.  Shall we?"   The Professor nodded. The Warden and the Lieutenant Warden led her through the central annex hallways where it contained the airship docks and helicopter pads, the torture chambers, the execution room, the mining station, the hospital, and solitary confinement.  It also served as the sole link between the male and female prison blocks.   The trio had to navigate through enclosed compartments and twisting pathways just to get into torture chambers. Inside, the room was very dark, and it might be bigger than she initially anticipated.  The Professor found the Rebel Applejack on her back and splayed out in the middle of the floor drenched in water.  Surrounding her were the infamous Flower Guards, Rose, Lily, and Daisy.  Not too far from them was a chained platform suspended over a large and rusty tank of odorous water.   The Rebel had seen better days.  The Rebel almost looked dead.  Her drenched fur made her appear sickly famished, and the lighting of this dim torture room seemed to have sucked the color out of her orange coat.  The Professor had barely paid attention to the terrorist Gaea had captured, the very same terrorist who had committed several bombings at Manehattan and Baltimare.  Yet here, the Professor, for the first time, beheld an actual Element in its golden necklace form: the Element of Truth.   "We had to make sure she was still alive," said Quake.   "You did give her first aid when she was brought here, did you?" asked the Professor.   "For an Apple?  Ha!  Everypony knows that you should never trust and Apple."   "Enough, Lieutenant," said Bon Bon.  "Professor, you are aware that she has one of the most sought-after artifacts in the entire world."   "Indeed," said the Professor as the sparkle of Applejack's Element of Truth drew her in.  "Seems like fate has brought two of the Elements of Creation together."   "Hey, what are you doing?  That artifact is cursed!  Haven't you heard about what happened to the last pony who tried to take it off?"   Click.   "Huh?" asked the Professor.  Maybe the magical properties of the Elements were mere exaggerations and rumors to scare off greedy ponies for taking them for themselves, and she could barely understand the shock on Bon Bon's face.  The Professor didn't burn to death, grow a horn, or collapse writhing in pain and speaking in tongues.  The Element of Truth was in her hoofed possession, and she promptly stuffed it into her saddlebag.            "I do offer you my gratitude for bringing me here in such short notice and allowing me to retrieve the Element of Truth," said the Professor   "Oh, it's nothing," said Bon Bon.  "Anyway, I'll escort you to the lower levels for our little meeting.  Lieutenant, take care of things here."   Bon Bon escorted the mint green Professor out of the room, leaving the Flower Guard to giggle with giddy, and the Lieutenant to roll her eyes in mild annoyance.  She quickly silenced her coworkers with an aggressive glare, and the Flower Guard stood at attention.   "Lieutenant," said Daisy.  "What shall we do with the rebel?"   "Throw her in with the crazy one," replied Quake.  "You know who I'm talking about."   "Yes ma'am!"   The devilishly chuckling Flower Guards did not bother to check if Applejack was still conscious, or bother to dry her before slipping on her the neon-orange prison jumpsuit.  Instead, they took turns dragging her on her back across the coarse concrete floor and up a few flights of stairs.  Traversing past overcrowded cells filled with frightened or hardened mares, they threw Applejack to the last cell in the corner of the highest floor.   "In you go, rebel," said Daisy.   "How long do you think she'll last in there?" asked Lily.   "I'll give it one hour after she wakes up," said Rose.   The Flower Guard giggled as they cantered off.  With them gone, Applejack finally mustered the strength to open her eyes from her faking her unconsciousness, and she finally felt the weight of despair of losing her Element of Truth and losing Twilight.   She was ready to cry when she heard a high-pitched giggle in the darkened corner of her cell. Emerging from the shadows dressed in the same orange prison outfit was a pink, blue-eyed pony with a raspberry-colored mane and a murderous grin.   Applejack decided to play dead for a little while longer.     She couldn't be sure if she was dead or floating in complete darkness.  Twilight could not see or feel anything, and yet she retained all her mental faculties.  She remembered herself, her own name, her own desires, and the faces of all the other ponies she had met.  She remembered being in the Palace of the Earth before she fell unconscious in the middle of her duel against Trixie.   "Twilight Sparkle."   "Who's there?"  It didn't feel like she moved her mouth, and she couldn't hear her own voice.  Then, from a single thread of white light formed an outline of a vaguely pony-like being.  It was hard to tell if the being was small or surrounding Twilight, and it craned its "neck" to where the mind of the unicorn lied.   "It is not time for your passing," the Darkness spoke in a thunderous whisper.  "My beloved remains trapped within her shell.  She continues to be in pain."   "But I set her free, just like you said."   "Her awakening is not complete.  Each Element contains a gift that will be bestowed upon to those deemed worthy of wielding the power of Creation, and each Element contains a part of Her."   "Is it Sunny?  Is Sunny the one you referred to as your beloved?  Tell me, why are you telling me this?"   "You can't remain here for too long, Twilight Sparkle.  Time marches on, and you must help your friends before it is too late…"   "Wait!  Everlasting Darkness, come back!"     The sensation of repeated licking on cheek finally woke her up.  When Twilight opened her eyes, she beheld the ruins of a stone-made throne room surrounded by night and illuminated by the Mare in the Moon hanging in the heavens.   Still she couldn't move, and still she couldn't feel anything.  Towards her side she, Sunny, still in her maid outfit, stood before her with a worried look on her face.  Seeing Twilight's eyes for the first time in a while drew a smile across the mute, pink-maned Earth-Alicorn, who then rose to canter off from Twilight's view.  She came back shortly after to the unicorn and placed on the ground two chipped and cracked porcelain bowls that contained water and a tiny cornucopia of nuts and berries.  Twilight consumed what she could in her severely weakened state.  She struggled to chew her food, and she risked choking herself with a slow swallow.  It did not help that whatever she ate tasted dead to her.   "Where's Spike?" the unicorn asked.   Sunny stood on her hind legs in a silly attempt to pantomime the answer, which involved running in place, filling up her lungs and blowing, writing to an imaginary paper in the air, and then crouched down on all fours to mimic a sneaking trot.   "So, he is doing okay, right?"   Sunny nodded.   "I'm sorry you guys had to get involved in all this," said Twilight.  "The truth is, we wanted to kidnap you so we can find the Elements of Creation, mainly for our selfish desires.  I'm not sure if I asked you or not, but did you want to come with us in our search?"   Sunny happily replied with a lick on Twilight's cheek.   "Do you think Spike agrees?"   Sunny nodded.   Twilight rocked left and right to get a bearing of her movements, and realized that Applejack's Stetson hat had been situated on top of her head the entire time.  She pulled it down and stared at it before hugging it somberly.  It was fortunate that she was extremely weak to crush it by accident.   "Applejack, I'm so sorry."   Sunny shook her head.   "You're not blaming me?"   Sunny nodded "yes", and then softly nuzzled Twilight's face with her own muzzle.   "Thank you, Sunny," Twilight smiled.  "I am glad you're here with me."   The Earth-Alicorn whinnied happily as she jumped and danced on the mossy cobblestone floor.  Even at near-death, Sunny's happiness was infectious, but it did not give Twilight enough strength to rise up back to her own.  At least she was still conscious with an active mind, and if she was still alive, then there was a chance that the Element of Truth was still active and its owner still alive.   Then a nearby khaki saddlebag squirmed as if possessed or jinxed.  Its flap undid itself, and the bag spat out a black and green orb that rolled right between Sunny and Twilight.  The Tele-Orb popped open.  A stream of green magical energy fissured from within, and soon that stream materialized a tattered piece of paper that fell on the ground.  Twilight was too far to read it.  Sunny read it, and she grabbed the paper with her mouth and laid it in front of Twilight.   The letter was poorly handwritten, with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes abound.  Its childish style could only mean that the letter came from Spike.  Twilight managed to get the gist of the message and the most important information of them all: Applejack's whereabouts.   That information was the spark of hope she had praying for since she came to.  Twilight grunted in her struggle to rise back to her hooves, and frustration of her weakness began to dampen her hopes.  Yet the Earth-Alicorn had sensed her dear friend's desires, and she placed the unicorn on her back for a wild ride.  The utter weakness within Twilight altered her perception that for her, any movement none done by her appeared fast.  Where Sunny carried her, the ruined castle vanished in a blur, and they had already crossed a rickety rope bridge when they dove right into the dark jungle of the forest.  The very few light sources Twilight could gather were the glowing eyes of the creatures that lurked among the trees.  She heard screeches of nocturnal bats, the hissing of reptiles, the hooting of owls, and the howls of wolves and others.  So many times did Twilight feel that Sunny might slip up and run into a tree or fall into a swampy stream.  Sunny moved too fast for Twilight's consciousness to take in.   Soon, Sunny slid to a halt at the edge of a cliff next to a tree.  From that tree, Spike, now out of his maid outfit, climbed down to greet Twilight a smile.   "Twilight, you're awake!" Spike cried as she gave his new guardian a squeezing hug.   "I'm glad to see you all right," Twilight smiled.  "I read your letter, and let me tell you, you're due for some remedial lessons."   "Oh, come on!  We're on the run!  And aren't you supposed to be, you know, half-dead with half your soul missing?"   "I'm surprised you and Sunny hadn't left me yet."   "You think I would after how nice you treated me?  Sunny and I would never abandon our friends, and fortunately, I managed to find where AJ is being held at."   "You know where she is?"   Spike nodded.  To what Spike pointed to, Twilight didn't expect the location to be this close.  She had to blink her eyes twice to make sure she wasn't hallucinating the entirety of its structure.   This didn't look any prison Twilight had seen in the old Earthian books she found washed up on the shores of the underground river of her home.  This dark monolithic structure took the appearance of a cold mechanical beast with its jaws rising from the earth.  Small yet heavily armed airships constantly patrolled the airspace.   Ominous floodlights from behind the walls cut through the sky and down towards the ground outside.  Armored patrol vehicles roamed across the nearby land behind the perimeter fencing.  Guard towers had earth ponies stoically standing by with cannons and machine guns armed, pointed and ready.  The prison's concrete walls towered high, obscuring the outdoor yards and the prison wings.  Only the mountains behind it were taller than the prison.   The relatively exposed center section contained a sizable airship landing pad.  Aside from the familiar black airship that had been docked beforehand, another one descended from the sky. Twilight watched carefully as the occupants of the second airship stepped out.  However tiny they appeared in her weakened vision, she recognized two of them from the party she briefly worked during her disguise: Teddy the President-Adviser of Information Control and Ace the President-Adviser of Economics.  Meeting them on the landing pad appeared to be a bespectacled gray stallion.  Something about him reminded her of Gizmo.