Twilight woke slowly, blinking rapidly and shielding her eyes with her hooves at the bright light that was shining onto her face above her.
Twilight groaned softly as she tried to sit up, hearing voices off to her side as she did so. She turned her head and found two ponies sitting in front of a lit fireplace, talking among themselves.
Twilight made an attempt to stand up, but felt a sharp pain in her chest that caused her to cry out in pain.
Both of the ponies turned their heads when they heard her, one of them standing up and walking to Twilight, putting his hoof on her shoulder and laying her back down.
“I would recommend you take it easy Ms. Sparkle. The sedatives are just wearing off it seems, so you must be careful.” The stallion said with a noticeable accent that sounded somewhat like one from Canterlot.
The stallion reached over her to her side and messed with something, Twilight turned her head but found her eyes covered by the stallion’s hooves just as her head was turned.
“Now... Ms. Sparkle... I need you to promise that you will keep your head leveled, okay? Promise me you’ll stay calm.” He said.
Twilight’s heart was beating faster as he finished, but she nodded her head anyways. What’s over there?
The stallion sighed heavily and moved his hoof slowly, allowing Twilight to see a small table next to the table that she was laying on, with a large, rectangular battery on it. Twilight noticed the cords coming from the top of the battery and followed them, her breath becoming increasingly shaky as her heart started breathing faster as she followed the cords closer and closer to her own body.
Twilight’s eyes began watering up as she found where the cords had ended on her chest, a small, glowing, metal object in her chest in the shape of a circle. The object was connected to all of the cords that Twilight had followed from the battery.
Twilight let the tears flow from her eyes as she began to push against the stallion to try and stand up.
“Uh, Ms. Sparkle, I wouldn’t really recommend you stand up quite so fast. That magnet isn’t the most effective thing in the world,” the stallion said, motioning for the other figure by the fire to come to them, “It gets the job done, but sudden movements can stop it.”
“You heard the doc Ms. Sparkle, go easy.” Twilight stopped as she heard the familiar voice. Lifting her head she smiled as she saw Spitfire walking towards them, she was dirty and had a large number of scars across her body, but Twilight was just happy to see she was alive.
Twilight saw Spitfire’s side and a frown instantly formed on her face as she remembered what they had done to her. She lifted her horn and felt her sawn off horn and had to hold back even more tears from bursting free. While she was successful as holding back her tears she couldn’t hold back her sobs as Spitfire and the stallion looked at her with sadness.
“They’re monsters, the lot of them.” The stallion said.
Twilight stood up but felt herself get pulled back by the cords. She reached her hoof out and picked up the battery, carrying it with her in her hooves.
“I’m afraid that you’ll have to carry that around with you everywhere you go Ms. Sparkle.” The stallion said.
“So, Mr....” Twilight began, holding onto the word, signalling for the stallion to answer.
“Oh, sorry. My name’s Hooves. Dr. Hooves.” Dr. Hooves extended his brown hoof and Twilight bumped hers with one of hers, holding on tighter to the battery and trying her hardest to not fall over from the lack of support on the front of her body.
“W-Well Dr. Hooves, where.... Where exactly are we?” Twilight asked, looking around the cave.
“Ah. We are currently in the Zebra Kingdom in the Zedamantium mines. Or that’s what they call the metal anyway. The rest of Equus knows it as Adaman-I digress. The group holding us captive is the Four Rings, a group that is evidently very interested in your weapons division Twilight Sparkle.” Dr. Hooves said, moving to the fireplace, sitting down as he picked up a cup and began sipping from it.
“What do they want from me...?” Twilight asked, sitting down next to Hooves with Spitfire next to her.
“I’m not exactly sure, but I do think however they are after your brilliant mind for a new weapon they would like you to make for them.” Dr Hooves said, continuing to sip his drink.
“I’ll never make anything for them!” Twilight exclaimed, stomping one of her hooves to try and make her statement stronger as she had seen Celestia do on several meetings with the Council. Twilight had always wondered just how Celestia’s mane hadn’t gone completely gray from the stressful meetings with the Council.
Dr. Hooves just stared at Twilight with a raised eyebrow, looking her up and down as he continued to drink. He put the drink down and continued for two heartbeats before he simply chuckled.
“Ms. Sparkle, surely you’re smart enough to know that if you don’t give them what they want then they will kill you.” Dr. Hooves said.
Twilight looked down, knowing that he was right. But she couldn’t just give those monsters any of her tech. Not even a DragonFireDroid. "I don't ca-" Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard noises coming from outside the door on the other side of the room, Dr. Hooves and Spitfire standing straight as they heard it. Spitfire helped Twilight up and picked up her battery, carrying it and staying close to Twilight.
The doors swung open and Twilight saw several muscular zebras in front of several muscular stallion ponies. They all stared at Twilight and whispered among themselves, chuckling. A voice was heard from behind them and they all stiffened, moving to the sides to make a path in the middle where a single zebra walked from.
The zebra walked to the three slowly, looking up and down each of them as if he was looking for a weapon of any kind. His face was stiff and emotionless, but his eyes showed extreme caution as he walked to the three. He stopped just a couple feet in front of the three and spoke to Dr. Hooves in a foreign language Twilight didn’t know. Hooves responded in the same language and they had a short talk before the zebra turned to Twilight, a small smile formed on his lips.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Hooves said, “This is Mr. Ahmed, and he would like to apologize for how the workers had treated you earlier.”
Twilight looked back and forth between Hooves and Ahmed, Ahmed still holding onto his warm smile but cautious look. Twilight didn’t accept their apology, but she had to say she did. “I accept your apology.” Dr. Hooves turned to Ahmed and said something, Ahmed crying out in joy and clapping his hooves together as Hooves finished. Ahmed turned to Twilight and spoke.
“He said he would like for us to talk to his boss so that he may tell us why you are here.” Hooves said.
“I see no reason to disagree.” Twilight said, which Hooves translated for her.
The zebra turned to the buffer guards by the door, who Twilight now noticed were staring at her as they continued to talk amongst themselves, and shouted something at them. One of them ran out the door, and Ahmed walked to the door to talk to his guards.
“So what are they saying over there doc?” Spitfire whispered.
“They’re talking about something called the ‘Hydra Cannon’.” Hooves said, furrowing his eyebrows, “I don’t know what that is. Twilight?”
Twilight’s heart stopped when she heard the name come from Dr. Hooves’ mouth, her eyes growing wide and her legs began to shake violently.
“Uh... Doc? That’s the name of the weapon that Twilight was over here to spectate.” Spitfire said, causing Hooves’ bottom jaw to fall to the floor, “are you absolutely sure that’s what they said?”
“P-Positive....” Dr. Hooves said.
Ahmed said something, causing the three to break from their private conversation and turn their heads forward the crowd, seeing Ahmed talking to another zebra. The zebra looked like a normal zebra in his early 30s, until he turned his head and showed his left eye, which was just a pool of white without a pupil. The eye was split with a giant scar that ran up and down the eye, the scar clearly in need of medical attention soon.
The zebra walked over to Twilight and towered over her, making her crouch down and feel completely helpless. The zebra held up a picture of the Hydra Cannon and said something to her, Hooves immediately translating it for her.
“He wants you to build the Hydra Cannon.” Hooves said, the zebra staring intently at Twilight with his one eye as if he was staring into her soul and trying to break it in two.
Twilight then furrowed her brow and stood up straight. She looked into the stallion’s eyes and said one word. “No.”
Dr. Hooves’ jaw fell to the floor one more time as the zebra still stared directly into Twilight’s eyes.
Hooves then said something that caused the zebra’s mouth to form into a wicked grin, bearing out his yellow teeth.
“That’s what I thought she had said.” The zebra said, his evil grin and accented voice sending chills down Twilight’s spine.
The zebra walked to the door and stopped, turning back to Twilight. “I’ll have my men bring in any equipment you will need for this Twilight Sparkle, the world’s most notorious serial killer, all you have to do is ask and it will be delivered.”
The zebra left, but his words were etched into Twilight’s brain. ‘The world’s most notorious serial killer?’ Is that what Twilight was? Because of her weapon’s division? Twilight wanted to deny it, say that it wasn’t true, but she knew that it was. She was responsible for the deaths of anypony that are killed from any of her machines.
An hour of talking and waiting passed before the large doors swung open, Ahmed, the zebra from earlier, walked in with several of the muscular guards from earlier who were carrying large boxes on their backs. The boxes were filled with metal parts, each of them carrying one distinct feature that made Twilight’s blood freeze when she saw it: They all carried her company's’ logo.
Ahmed said something to Hooves who translated, “He says, ‘so, what do you think?’”
Twilight stood quiet for a minute, staring at each of the box that was brought in before she took in a shaky breath and answered. “I think you have a lot of my technology.”
“Well of course we do,” a familiar and thickly accented voice said, “after all Ms. Sparkle, we are your most loyal customers.”
Twilight turned back to the door to see the one eyed zebra staring at Twilight, his pupil was just a tiny black hole in his eye as he stared at Twilight with his emotionless face. He opened his mouth and spoke again, each word causing Twilight’s heart to skip a whole beat.
“We’ve given you everything that we’ve bought from you Ms. Sparkle, it is your job to build the Hydra Cannon for us. Let us know if you need any additional supplies, please let us know and we will bring them to you. And when the Hydra Cannon is completed we will let you go free,” The zebra gave Twilight an toothy grin, “do we have an deal?”
Hooves leaned over to Twilight’s ear and whispered quietly, “You know they won’t let you go, right?”
Twilight felt more warm tears fall down her cheek as she nodded her head, the zebra nodding back and walking off as Twilight answered, “I know.”
“Ms. Sparkle! You can’t build this for them! They’re terrorists! If we give them this kind of technology then we might as well be giving them the bucking arc reactor!” Spitfire pounded her hoof on the floor, using her other one to hold tightly onto Twilight’s battery as Twilight walked to the boxes and began sorting through them, placing every part she took out down next to others that looked just like it, as if she were categorizing them. While she did this Hooves and Spitfire’s bickering carried on.
“We can’t do this Ms. Sparkle!” Spitfire continued, grabbing Twilight’s hoof with her free one.
“... What other choice do we have?” Twilight said softly, her voice so low that Spitfire could have missed what she had said completely.
“We bust out!” Spitfire said, leaning into Twilight’s ear and whispering, “We can make a break for it!”
“Uh, no.” Hooves said, looking up to Spitfire raising his eyebrow with a questioning gaze, “They have the most advanced technology that Sparkle Industries has to offer, we have nothing but spare parts and rocks.”
“Well going down fighting will be better than just doing what they want!” Spitfire slammed her hoof on a nearby table, glaring at Hooves with an stare that made him freeze dead in his pose.
“Stop it!” Twilight said, “We have no.... other.... ch-choice....” Twilight lowered her head as her voice went quiet again, and her eyes were narrow, as if she were deep in thought.
“Ms. Sparkle?” Spitfire said.
Twilight looked up to Spitfire, thrown out of her thoughts, "Yes?" She asked.
"Sorry Ma'am, you just kind of checked out there for a second," Spitfire replied.
"I was just thinking... Trying to find a way that we could possibly have a way to escape.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin in deep thought, her brain racking through idea after idea of ways that they could all escape.
“Hm.... Wait....” Spitfire said, “I think I’ve got an idea!” She continued, turning to Twilight with a wide grin spread across her face. “Make us some armor!”
“Armor?” Dr. Hooves said, raising his eyebrow with sarcasm sprayed all over his voice.
“Yeah! Really strong armor! And we hide it from them and act like we’re making the Hydra Cannon!” Spitfire said, her idea still not selling well with Twilight and Hooves.
“How do we hide that we’re making armor?” Hooves said.
“We’ll make it piece by piece. And connect the pieces together as they each get finished.” Twilight said.
“Well okay. Great. Armor. But how exactly are we going to be able to compete with Twilight Sparkle’s own weaponry?” Hooves said.
Twilight looked up for a while, deep in thought, before she had an idea form in her head. “I got it! Back at home I found a way to use the Element of Magic as a way to make more efficient energy rather than the polluting ways we were using. Perhaps... if there was some way to get a small amount of that energy from my.... magic....” Twilight trailed off, remembering the loss of her horn. She felt like she couldn’t do anything without it. She felt like she had pretty much lost her ability to create anything without her horn, her ability to do anything.
“Well.... Due to the lack of your horn I’m sure there’s something else we can do?” Hooves said.
Twilight thought for a moment of another way for them to get enough energy to possibly compete against Twilight Sparkle’s own weaponry, but maybe that was just it! Twilight began running the schematics of her own weapons in her head, and thinking about how she could melt the metal to make three suits of armor that Hooves, Spitfire and herself could protect themselves with during their escape attempt.
“Ms. Sparkle,” Twilight was slightly thrown out of her thoughts as she heard Spitfire’s voice call her name, Twilight turning to face Spitfire, “do you have an idea?”
Twilight just nodded her head on instinct and reached her hoof to the box, picking up a flat piece of metal with a large hole on one of its sides, holding it up to her face with her right eye looking out the hole.
Twilight didn’t have to say anything, Hooves and Spitfire’s reactions both showed her that. While Hooves showed a more cautious and somewhat scared reaction, Spitfire showed approval to Twilight’s plan.
“A suit of armor will help us get out of here, huh?” Hooves said, lowering his voice so their captors couldn’t hear him.
“It won’t be easy to make this with them watching us, but I have faith in you Ms. Sparkle.” Spitfire said, lowering her voice as well. She began digging through the box again, taking out all the pieces of metal and putting them on the floor, completely ruining the piles Twilight had divided the scraps by.
“We’ll build the armor in pieces. And we’ll build it one piece at a time,” Twilight whispered, barely audible to Hooves and Spitfire, “But it will still be difficult when we finally put them on. And we don’t have enough metal to cover our entire bodies with each suit.”
“Don’t worry ma’am, cover yourself and the Doc up with more armor and just cover my most important parts. Chest, head, all that stuff, and I’ll protect you two.” Spitfire said, taking a break from tossing the metal around like a child looking through its toy box and giving Twilight a slight smile.
Twilight sighed and nodded slightly, moving back to the boxes and looking through the one that was filled with several batteries and wires, all of them bearing the logo of Twilight’s company, making her shudder slightly and feel something rising in her throat.
Now that she thought of it, Twilight was starving. She hadn’t eaten much before she left for the Zebra Kingdom, and now it was coming back to her.
She shrugged off the thought of food for now, knowing that Hooves probably had food stored, or that their captors would feed them soon. They needed Twilight if they wanted the Hydra Cannon, they couldn’t risk losing her from mere starvation.
Twilight sighed to herself as she began racking her brain to how she’s going to make the armor for all three of them, and how she’ll make the armor fit comfortably on them, allowing them to move quickly enough to get out of the caves before they all get shot down. Or.... Maybe.... Maybe they just needed one set of armor!
Twilight began thinking on how she could make a suit of armor that the three of them could fit in. She finally decided upon a bipedal design, much like a Minotaur, but with a bulkier design. And with much smaller eyes, but big enough that they can still see out of.
The three of them will have to learn to stand on each other’s backs, and they’ll most likely have to do it while standing on their hind legs, but if they want to get out with the most protection in the biggest armor, they’ll have to learn fast.
Oh sweet Celestia, please find me...