A Distant Star

by Dr Atom Discharge

Chapter Twelve: The End

Last time: Between the guards, stretched across the bloodied stretcher, was the twisted and broken body of Dr Atom Discharge. Twilight’s vision narrowed in on the still lifeless body, as she felt not only her heart, but her whole world shatter into a thousand pieces. No amount of will power could have held back her emotions. A single silent tear rolled down her cheek and fell; The small perfectly smooth droplet fell through the air for a few seconds. It burst as it impacted against the hard, cold stone floor…

The two guards slowly approached the Princess as Blade slipped away to stand by the still shell shocked Twilight. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear.
“Young lady, you need to have more faith in him.”
Twilight turned her head to look at him, tears spraying out to the side.
“W-what do you mean? I-“ Twilight was cut off as the Princess spoke.
“Let me see him closer.” She walked down the steps towards the two guards. Princess Celestia leaned down and inspected the twisted body, but after a few seconds her eyes widened and she jumped back several feet. “NO! YOU FOALS!”

In that moment there was a blinding flash of light that made everypony, even the Princess turn away and shield their eyes. When they looked back Atom stood triumphant. The two guards were unconscious on the floor, and the stretcher in pieces.
“It looks like your guards need to get better at detecting illusions.” Atom said in a confident tone with a smirk on his face. The Princess was awestruck as was Twilight, though Celestia was the first to move. She stood up straight and confident, and then stared at Blade.

“You should have seen this… how-“ The Princess stopped talking as Blade strode over and stood by Atom with a smug grin on his face,
“Did you really expect me to betray my oldest friend?” Blade's tone seemed to mock the Princess as he went to barricade all of the doors to the throne room. Atom took a step towards the Princess. Twilight was still completely frozen to the spot, unable to even comprehend what was happening.

Atom began to talk, calm and collected.
“Princess, this has to end… I mean you no harm, I never have. It was a simple mistake, and it was years ago, I am older and wiser now. We have to stop this silly squabble before ponies start getting hurt. I just want to be able to come home. I haven’t seen my father since I was fifteen. I know things will never go back to the way they were, but please. Can’t we make amends..?” Atom almost pleaded to Celestia, who’s expression began to soften.

“Atom, you were my top student before Twilight. You were like a son to me. You were my friend. I’ve missed you so much these past few years.” The Princess said softly and kindly. But then, without warning, her expression hardened into one of grim determination. “But what you did, is unforgivable. You endangered the whole city and have endangered many more lives with this silly chase you have lead me on. Not to mention what you know… you are much too dangerous to have simply wandering around with your freedom. I am sorry Atom… but I cannot let you leave here.” Malice was evident in her voice as she spoke.
Twilight could do nothing but watch as the doors exploded inwards followed quickly by streams of guards. The guards quickly restrained the startled captain of the guard, but were having more trouble with Atom. He blasted them back with waves of magic that radiated from his horn, sending the guards flying into the air. As this commotion continued Celestia walked slowly down the steps. Atom turned to see the Princess at the last second, her horn glowing as a wall of magical energy hit him, sending him flying through the air and into the wall. He was instantly knocked unconscious.

Twilight was in her room, every emotion possible charging through her body: There was joy; He was alive. Sadness; he had been captured. Regret; if only she’d acted, she may have been able to help. She just didn’t know what to do. Everything around her had just been turned on its head and back again, everything she’d known shattered and pieced back together. Nothing seemed to make sense any more.

She sat up and looked out of her window. It was night now. She could easily sneak down to the prison. She got up, and looked out of the door, checking the corridor for any guards. There weren’t any so she slipped out. It was dark in the palace, and the only ponies who would be awake would be Luna and her guards. And that was who she would have to avoid. She kept close to the walls, but still trying to seem casual, in case she was seen.

In the end it only took about half an hour to get to the prison, and she didn’t bump into anypony other than the prison guard, who she knew, and who let her though without any trouble. She walked through the almost empty prison, filled only by the odd sleeping convict in one of the cells. Then she reached the high security area. Oddly there wasn’t a guard posted at the door, which made Twilight suspicious, but she had to keep going.

She had only been here once with the princess, but had caught enough of a look at the code the princess had used to get in. Twilight replicated it and the door let out a small clunk and then swung outwards. She crept in and shut the door behind her, the latch clicking. She hadn’t liked how the door sealed behind her the first time she had been here, nor did she like it this time, but she was on a mission. Thus she was easily able to ignore it. She sneaked through the corridors, with cells made of reinforced glass. This area was more busy, since most of the convicts here were on life sentences. The lights were on here, brilliant white; At first it hurt Twilight’s eyes but she soon adjusted.

What struck Twilight as she walked the corridors was how unlike most of Canterlot’s usual architecture this was. Obviously this area was modern and as up to date as it got, and for good reason. This area of the prison wasn’t even known to most members of the public, it was were the worst members of society were kept. She knew this was exactly where Celestia would be keeping Atom.

The prison was almost unnavigable, the glass cells making the lay out of the prison disorientating. Obviously meant to confuse anyone who did not know it’s true layout. Thankfully Twilight was an intelligent mare, and she managed to work her way through it, and memorize the way back out. Eventually she found Atom’s Cell, right next to Blade’s. They were busy trying to communicate through the glass by breathing on it and writing on it.

Twilight took note of the hoof marks on Blade’s cell, where he had obviously tried to buck his way out. This brought a pang of homesickness in her gut as it reminded her of exactly what Apple Jack would have done. She also took note of the strange engraved ‘Bracelet’ around Atom’s horn which, she presumed, was to prevent him from using magic.

She banged on the glass to Atom’s cell causing him to swivel around and look at her, relief spreading through his face as he did. Blade also looked over and smiled politely. Twilight moved over to the little radio set next to the triple key lock for the door. She pressed the little button to activate it.
“Atom, I am so sorry… I should have done something, I could have stopped them from capturing you and-“ Twilight was cut off as Atom raised a hoof.
“Twilight, it’s okay. I am glad you didn’t, now we have a way to get out if we do this right.” Atom's tone was serious, love was clear in his words. He was obviously over the moon to see her, for more reasons than one.

“Twilight, listen. There is something wrong here. Celestia shouldn’t have reacted like that/ I know her, and something is definitely wrong. I need you to find out first why that is. Try the law section of the library, I have an inkling that’s where you’ll find what you need. But this kind of thing won’t be in the normal section… you’ll have to sneak into the restricted area. Okay?” Atom explained, and waited for Twilight to nod in approval before continuing. “Alright, after that I need you to find the keys, or another means of getting us out of here before, well, before whatever the Princess decides to do, happens. Can you do that Twilight?”

Twilight smiled, happy at the thought of getting him out. At least then they could finally run away from all of this and be together. As she thought that a pang of homesickness struck her again, but she ignored it and answered Atom.
“Alright, I’ll do it… don’t worry, I’ll get you both out.” Her determination was evident. Atom nodded and gave a warm smile. He gently placed his hoof against the glass and looked at lovingly at Twilight.
“I love you Twilight Sparkle.” He said gently. Twilight blushed lightly and placed her hoof against the glass.
“And I love you Atom… I won’t let you down.”

Twilight swiveled around and galloped out of the prison, remembering the way from making her way in. She now had a goal and a target, and she was going to reach it. She thought for a moment about the librarian. She would either have to sneak past him or knock him out. Either way, he was a problem, but one easily with. Once out of the prison, after passing out of the usual guard’s line of sight, she moved quickly. She took one of the side doors out of the palace into the gardens to avoid attracting attention.

As she passed through the rows of perfectly arranged flowers she slowed her pace a little. She had to calm down. She was rushed and confused. She needed to slow and take her time… her head was a mess. She took a moment to take in what had happened, and what had to happen. Firstly, Atom was alive, but had been captured when his attempt to reason with the princess failed. Now he and the old captain of the guard were locked in the maximum security area of the prison. She managed to get that ordered and analyzed in her head, so she moved on to what she would have to do. First, she had to go and discover why Celestia was acting like this. They wouldn’t have the chance to do so again after the escape.

Second was the escape itself. She would have to find a way to get them out of the prison. There were three options: The first option being to wait until a trial was held, and break out of the court room. But that would be difficult, and would require a larger wait, not to mention would be mostly riding on luck. Better to keep that in reserve if the other attempts failed. The other two were more likely to succeed. One, to find where the keys were, possibly from Celestia, and then break them out that way. Trouble would come in getting the keys to the prison before someone realized they were gone. The other was to somehow trick the attending guard into letting them out. Again, that was difficult and left room for mistakes and luck. She couldn’t decide on either, but at least she had options.

Now that her head was now, to some extent, in order she continued on, at a bit of a slower pace. The last thing she wanted was to attract unwanted attention. She managed to sneak across the gardens without being seen, and once she was into the city she didn’t have to worry about being seen. It was about midnight now, and the streets were mostly empty, apart from the odd couple who had planned to retire early from a night out. After about half an hour of walking she reached the tower library she remembered; it had been her home for years.

Twilight took the side entrance to make it less likely she’d run into the new librarian. Once inside she sneaked through the library until she reached an old stair case. She slinked down the old spiral stairs slowly and quietly. The staircase seemed to go on forever. She had no idea how far down she now was, and the darkness was getting denser and denser, making her feel claustrophobic. She had never been down here, and had only been told that this was where the classified documents were kept and to never let anyone get into here. “When ‘I’ was Librarian I made sure the side doors were locked.” Twilight thought to herself with a mental snort of derision.

Eventually the walls around Twilight began to become visible as an apparent new light source was ahead. Twilight came to the end of the stairs to a short corridor with an old fire torch, which seemed to be sustained by magic. Very old magic. On the other side of the corridor was an iron bound wooden door with a hefty lock on it. Twilight scanned the lock for magic and found it guarded by a powerful locking spell, but this spell was also old and starting to fray around the edges, and so Twilight was easily able to pick it.

When Twilight was done the lock clicked and swung open. She lifted it from the latch and opened to door. It swung outwards, followed by a hollow moan as a huge gust of warm, stuffy air flooded out from the old catacomb. The torch flickered and danced, casting a cascade of writhing shadows against the walls. Then, as Twilight took her first step through the ancient room, row upon row of torches burst into flame in and oddly white fire. The new light source revealed the long, tall chamber covered in book cases for as far as Twilight could see.

Twilight would normally be over the moon at such a vast store of knowledge. Even now while on such an important mission she found it hard to focus. Her eyes often drifting to look at the covers before snapping back to look at the category names until finally she found the massive section on law. She quickly began to search through the sections. This problem would fall under either Treason or Magical Law, and since Magical law was what she found first she decided to search there first.

Even after narrowing down the category she was still there for several hours, searching through each book quickly. She was about to give up on this section. She sighed as she pushed the last book back into its slot in the bookcase, but then heard the unmistakeable (To Twilight at least) sound of a crumpling page as the book slid home. Twilight frowned and pulled the book back out, along with whatever had been crushed.

But as Twilight brought it closer it became evident that this wasn’t a page from any book here; it was much too old. In fact, it seemed that the page should have fallen to dust, not simply crumpled. Twilight took it over to the nearest desk, slowly and carefully spreading it to stop it from getting damaged, and then began to read over what appeared to be a letter, but the words bore text far darker than anything she had ever sent to the Princess.

As Decreed by the Shrouded Conclave:

Any who discover or unravel the true nature of magic are to be imprisoned or sentenced to death so that they may not spread the secret to those who may misuse it or spread it further. This secret cannot be allowed to become general knowledge or all those who know of it and who have worked to spread it will be charged with high treason.

Conclave Member Celestia

Twilight’s eye widened as she read the letter. What was the Shrouded Conclave? Why had she not heard of it, and why did it mention Celestia as a member? And most of all, what did this mean for Atom? These thoughts flooded her mind until she felt a breath on her neck. And then the unmistakeable voice of Princess Celestia of Equestria sounded, in a low, menacing, whispered voice. “You were always such and inquisitive young filly… always had that nasty habit of finding out things you shouldn’t have…”