No one in the Canterlot dungeons slept a wink that night. Sweetie Belle drifted off a few times in the arms of her sister, but she awoke screaming when images of Twist’s shattered skull filled her dreams. Rainbow Dash, unwilling to depend on Flash to free them, spent the night trying to kick the door open. Soon her mowhawk was plastered to her head in sweat, but she worked tirelessly against their confinement. Applejack sat with one arm around Apple Bloom and the other around Scootaloo, trying to get both of them to stop crying, but she couldn’t tell them it would be all right, because she couldn’t believe that it would be. Even in such dire circumstances, she couldn’t lie to the girls to comfort them.
Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about Flash Sentry. Why was he so willing to help them, even though he knew what would happen to him for it? How was he planning on getting all of them out before the guards were alerted to their absence? Why had he looked at her like that?
There was no way of telling time in the dungeon; no sunlight penetrated into the underground prison complex. They could only wait for Flash Sentry to return and lead one of them away to face who-knows-what at the hands of their princess. It seemed like weeks before he finally appeared.
He removed his helmet, looking at all of them somberly. “Celestia would like to question the princess first,” he said, taking a key from the ring on his belt and unlocking the prison door. Twilight stepped forward with her head held high, adamant that if she were to die, she would do so with whatever dignity she could muster.
Flash took her arm and led her down the dark hallways. Neither of them said a word, until finally they came to a point in the hall where no other guard could see or hear them. He nudged her gently. “See that door? It goes to the stairwell. Just follow it up one floor and use the emergency exit.”
Twilight held his eyes for one second longer, then darted away from him and burst through the door into the stairwell. Much to her dismay, she found a guard leaning casually against the emergency exit door, a cigarette dangling loosely from his lips. Twilight cursed under her breath. Of all the times to find a guard on a smoke break!
She tried to get back through the door before he saw her, but he was already reaching for his gun. Twilight barely had time to dive out of the way before he loosed a shot towards her. The bullet connected with her left thigh and she hit the ground with a grunt of pain as the guard started toward her.
Flash heard the gunshot and was at her side in an instant, his own pistol aimed at his fellow guardsman. With one clean shot, he put a bullet through the man’s wrist, causing him to drop his gun and fall to his knees in pain, holding his arm. Flash grabbed Twilight and pulled her arm around his shoulders. “Hang on!” he ordered, and she obeyed, as he practically dragged her through the emergency exit and out into the blinding sunlight of Canterlot.
Without so much as pausing to think about it, Flash carried Twilight to a car that was parked at the curb, kicked open a window, unlocked the car from the inside, and put Twilight in the passenger seat. She tried to protest, but the pain in her leg and the bloodstain that was already growing on her jeans kept her occupied. Flash ran to the driver’s side of the car and hopped in, reaching under the dashboard to pull out a handful of wires, which he rearranged until the car roared to life. His foot slammed on the gas and in less than an hour they were out of Canterlot.
“We need to get that bullet wound taken care of,” Flash said, when they finally had room to breathe.
Twilight was pressing her hands against the wound as hard as she could to try and stop the bleeding. “We can’t just pull up to a hospital and ask them to fix it!” she insisted. “All of Equestria must be on high alert by now!”
“There must be something we can do.” Flash looked over at her. “We need to stop the bleeding. Did the bullet exit your leg or is it lodged in you?”
Carefully, the princess lifted her hands so she could look at her leg. There was no exit wound, and the pain suggested that the bullet was in fact still in her leg. “It’s lodged.”
The guard frowned, but didn’t let off the gas. “We need to get that out if we want it to heal.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Twilight asked, gritting her teeth in pain, pulling her sweatshirt off and pressing it against the wound to stop the bleeding. “And what about the others? What’s gonna happen to them?”
Flash shook his head. “I don’t know. Things didn’t really go according to my plan.”
“We have to go back for them!”
“No can do, princess,” he replied resolutely. “I’ve gotta get you someplace safe first.”
“Safe? Where would be safe for us now?”
“I don’t know,” Flash said. “We can’t go into a city; the whole country is going to be looking for us.”
Twilight sighed in defeat. She knew their only option, she had known it since last night, but she feared that it would be just as dangerous as Canterlot. “Head south,” she ordered. “Towards the Everfree Forest.”
“The forest?” Flash repeated. “Why?”
“To the Disharmonizer base.”
Flash Sentry almost drove the car off the road. “WHAT?”
“Just do it!”
“I thought you weren’t part of them!”
“I’m not. Or, I wasn’t.” She supposed she might as well be one, now that she was on the top of Celestia’s wanted list.
“Then how do you know where the base is?” Flash was watching her suspiciously. Just because he didn’t approve of Celestia’s methods did not mean that he wanted Discord to plunge Equestria into eternal chaos.
Twilight sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“It’s a long drive.”
“On the train here, the Disharmonizers hijacked it and took us to their base. They said they were trying to save Twist’s life, and that someone close to Celestia had taken the special cases and executed them without the princess’s knowledge. But my friends and I didn’t believe him.”
“Him?” Flash repeated. “You met Discord?”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah. He healed Twist from the injuries the guards had inflicted on the train and even gave her a new pair of glasses because hers had gotten broken in the struggle…” she looked down in shame, remembering how she and her friends had insisted on taking Twist to Canterlot instead of leaving her at the base. “She’d probably still be alive if we had listened to him.”
Flash Sentry turned on the windshield wipers as raindrops started to patter against the windshield as they sped down the highway.
Lifting her sweatshirt to check her wound, she groaned to see that it was still bleeding. “We left Fluttershy with him, because he wanted to make sure we wouldn’t tell Celestia the location of the base. She’s still there. Even if Discord won’t help us, Fluttershy will.”
“What can she do?”
“She could get this bullet out of my leg, in any case,” Twilight replied, grunting in pain as she tied her sweatshirt around her thigh, trying to keep it in place. “I just hope she’s okay.”
Flash sighed. “Well, she can’t be in any more danger than your other friends.”
“Once we get me fixed up we’re going back for them.”
“By then it might be too late, princess.”
She glared at him. “Don’t you say that. We’re going to get them out of there. And quit calling me princess. My name is Twilight.”
“Whatever you say, Twilight.” He didn’t let off the gas for an instant.
Back in the dungeon, the other prisoners heard the two gunshots and feared the worst.
“Do you think they got her?” Apple Bloom asked quietly.
Applejack tightened her grip on her sister. “I don’t know, sugarcube. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.”
They didn’t have long to wait before half a dozen guards stormed up to the bars of their cell, their guns drawn. “WHERE IS SHE?!” they demanded.
“Where’s who?” Rainbow Dash asked sarcastically.
The guards were in no mood for her attitude, and promptly unlocked the door of the cell and yanked her out, clanging the door shut behind her. One guard held Rainbow’s arms behind her back while another one landed a solid kick in her stomach. Scootaloo screamed.
“How dare you hurt Rainbow Dash! She’s the coolest person that ever—“ She cut off when the guards turned to glare at her and Applejack squeezed her shoulders to silence her.
Rainbow Dash crumpled to the ground, clutching her abdomen and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of her.
“You’re next, traitor,” one of the guards growled, roughly pulling her back to her feet. She struggled bravely, trying to pull out of his grasp, but another guard flanked her and held her other arm, and between the two of them they dragged her down the corridor and out of sight.
Scootaloo dashed forward and pressed herself against the bars. “Rainbow Dash!”
They could hear her protesting and threatening the guards all the way down the hallway.
Rarity looked up. “I guess that means Twilight made it out,” she whispered. The others nodded. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.
“I wonder what happened to that guard,” Sweetie Belle asked, looking up at her sister. “Do you think he’s okay? Or did they get him?”
Applejack shook her head. “I don’t know, sugarcube. I doubt we’ll ever find out.”
“Either way I don’t think he’s coming back for the rest of us,” Rarity observed.
“What’re they gonna do to Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, large tears starting to roll down her face.
“I doubt they’re gonna throw her a party,” Pinkie Pie said grimly.
At the Disharmonizer base, Discord had finished showing Fluttershy around every corner of the underground building, all except the 13th floor. She had taken Princess with her and carried the kitten all day long, for the little creature meowed and cried so plaintively at being left alone. Fortunately, Princess was small enough that she fit into the breast pocket of her sweater, where she rode quite contentedly. Now Discord dropped her back off at her room, with enough time to change for dinner.
“You should find everything you need in your closet,” he told her, offering her a warm smile and leaving her alone to change.
Fluttershy put Princess down on the bed and went to her closet. When she opened it, she found a wide array of beautiful dresses, all exactly her size, each more elegant than the last, with plenty of shoes and accessories to accompany each outfit. In a cabinet to the right of the closet, Fluttershy found a dazzling array of jewelry, and in the bathroom was a box full of makeup. She looked over everything carefully, then turned to her kitten.
“What do you think, Princess?” she asked. “What should we wear tonight?”
The little feline looked at her curiously. Fluttershy shook her head. “Now, be nice. He’s been nothing but kind to us since we got here. Now help me pick out a dress.”
First, she held up a dark blue gown, which glimmered like the night sky with tiny rhinestones. Upon further inspection, she discovered that they were not rhinestones, but diamonds that studded the dress. She looked at it in the mirror, swishing the skirt around. “What do you think, Princess?”
The kitten mewed. Fluttershy nodded. “You’re right. It’s much more Rarity’s style than mine. Let’s try something else.”
She went back to the closet and pulled out a yellow dress with a halter top and a skirt that hung just above her knees in the front, and brushed the ground in the back, but she shook her head almost immediately. “I think I ought to look a little more formal than this. This is more of a sundress.” Princess meowed in agreement.
Finally, Fluttershy found a rosy pink gown with a full skirt and golden lace trim on the bodice and the sleeves, which hung loosely off her shoulders. After one look in the mirror, she nodded decisively. “This one.” She pulled a pair of golden high heels and bauble earrings to go with it, then braided her hair and coiled the braid around into a bun on the back of her head. She didn’t normally wear makeup, but a touch of blush and a little mascara completed her evening look.
“All right, Princess,” she said, twirling in the mirror. “You need to stay in here while I’m at dinner.” The kitten mewed in protest, but Fluttershy shook her head. “No, just wait here. I won’t be long.”
When she walked into the private dining hall, she gasped to see it decorated completely differently from the previous night. Instead of red draperies, the walls were adorned with golden art-deco style molding, covered in what she was sure was real gold leaf, with royal blue accents. The table was light oak wood with a glass tabletop, and the chairs had high, ornate backs, covered in the same gold leaf. Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier, but it looked nothing like last night’s. This one was a complex arrangement of mirrors that reflected the light from blue candles.
After a moment, Discord appeared at her side in a white suit with a blue tie, smiling suavely down at her. “My dear, you look absolutely stunning.”
Fluttershy blushed and giggled shyly, holding her hands behind her back. “You look nice, too,” she said, wishing she were more adept at flattery. He always seemed to know just what to say.
They passed their meal chatting like old friends, talking about everything either of them could think of. Discord asked about her animals back at home, and Fluttershy took great delight in relating to him the different personalities of each of her furry friends. She asked him about the extent of his magic, and he made a miniature fireworks display that crackled overhead while they ate.
When they had both finally had enough, a single violin appeared in the air behind Discord’s head, playing a lilting waltz. He grinned and rose from his chair. “May I have this dance, Miss Fluttershy?” he asked, offering his hand to her.
She blushed and looked down at her lap. “Oh…I don’t know how.”
“I’ll show you,” he whispered, helping her to her feet and snapping away the table and chairs, leaving them with an empty floor. “One hand stays in mine, and the other goes here,” he instructed, gently placing her left hand on his shoulder. He slid his free hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “Now,” he whispered, smiling down at her, “just follow my lead.”
He began to lead her around the floor, stepping to the beat of the violin’s song. Fluttershy became vaguely aware that the instrument was now accompanied by a cello and a piano, and she smiled timidly up at him, trying to follow his footsteps.
“There, you’re catching on,” Discord encouraged. “Just one-two-three, one-two-three, that’s perfect. Are you sure you’ve never danced before?”
Fluttershy shook her head modestly, and he made a face of disbelief. “For someone as beautiful as you, for no one to have taught you to dance, it’s positively criminal.”
She flushed dark red, but even her embarrassment could not stifle the smile that seemed to have permanently brightened her face. Discord couldn’t take his eyes off her, and pulled her closer with every step. In the background, the music slowed, and he started to lean forward. Fluttershy closed her eyes...and suddenly Derpy burst through the door. “Discord!”
They both looked up in surprise, and Discord glared daggers at his assistant, who immediately realized what was happening and tried to hide behind the door, just in case her boss decided to throw actual daggers at her.
“What is it, Derpy?!” Discord demanded, reluctantly letting Fluttershy leave his embrace.
The blonde woman hesitated, but eventually replied, “We have some unexpected visitors, sir.”