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Twilight Sparkle Is....4,316 words
Held and Tortured3,289 words
Escape4,346 words
Soaring to Freedom1,312 words
Back Home2,330 words
Titanium Findings2,609 words
Losing Time and Working1,362 words
A Pain in the Chest and Early Concepts2,220 words
Too Late5,616 words
Finding The Arc4,255 words
A Nuisance in the Plans2,054 words
Titanium vs Iron5,469 words
Epilogue449 words

Twilight Sparkle Is....

Twilight Sparkle looked out the window of the carriage she was riding in with three of the royal guards, seeing vast amounts of desert outside, not a single building or pony in sight. She was visiting the desert of the Zebra Kingdom to spectate a new weapon that was being created by a smaller division of her company.

Twilight hated seeing her company, a company dedicated to benefiting the lives of ponies, build weapons that had the means to kill all who stood on the other end of it. If she had it her way then she would shut down the weapons division and make her company's’ focus on making anything that can help a pony's’ life, but it wasn’t in her control, she was forced to have a division in her company focused solely on making weapons by the Equestrian Council.

Twilight and Princess Celestia were cornered by the Council during the meeting that was discussing the future of Twilight’s company, Sparkle Industry, and had no way of getting out. Twilight and Celestia both felt as though Sparkle Industry should help a pony's life, but the rest of the nobles kept saying that her company should be focused solely on using Twilight's brilliant mind to focus on protecting Equestria with the creation of new weapons to fight off any invaders from the other nations. Twilight and Celestia both disagreed, but there was no way of fighting back when the Council felt the same way as the nobles. So the Council let Twilight focus half of her company on creating new inventions to help a pony's’ life be more convenient, while the other half focused on the creation of weapons to kill. Twilight didn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue with the Council. So she just nodded her head and kept her anger to herself.

“Sparkle,” Twilight’s ear twitched when she heard somepony call her name to show she was listening. “So how exactly do you feel about the whole weapons division?”

Twilight narrowed her brow and turned to the mare to her left who had asked the question, “What do you mean?”

“Well you clearly didn’t look all that happy seeing the show, so I’m just curious as to what your thoughts are.” The mare continued.

“Well I’d be lying if I said it was part of my vision for the future of the company.” Twilight said, sighing. She looked back out the window as the mare spoke.

“The Council?” The mare said.

Twilight nodded. “They believe that my company has the responsibility to protect Equestria,” Twilight looked back to the mare, “but at least they let me have half of my company focused on what we were really meant to do.”

The mare nodded and looked forward, out the front of the carriage before turning back to Twilight and holding out her hoof.

“Sorry ma’am. Name’s Spitfire.”

Twilight held her hoof to the mare’s side and they both rose their hoofs up and down, “A pleasure Spitfire.”

“I’m sorry Ms. Sparkle, but the pleasure it all mine.” Spitfire said.

Twilight nodded and looked back out the window, the carriage going quiet again except for the sound of the wheels rolling on the pony-made gravel road below.

Her horn began emitting a purple aura as Twilight levitated a small notepad and pen from her bag. She looked over the notepad and began scribbling on it, crossing out ‘spectate new hydra weapon show’ off the list.

Okay, so now I just have to go to the meeting with Celestia and Luna to discuss with the Council what to do about the strange creature attacking poachers in the Zebra Kingdom. Twilight bit the inside of her cheek and began thinking about the strange creature, that was described to be zebra shaped, but it was completely black and had two white eyes.

“WATCH OUT!” Twilight was pulled from her thoughts when she heard Spitfire scream next to her and hearing the loud explosion of the carriage in front of them.

The carriage came to an immediate stop and the soldiers began grabbing their specially made weapon gloves, along with their weapons, while Spitfire held Twilight down and told her to stay in the car and stay down.

Twilight did just that without a moment of hesitation by getting down onto the floor and covering her head with her hooves defensively, hearing explosions coming from outside.

Spitfire began shouting orders to the soldier ponies, staying inside with Twilight, but Twilight could only hear the explosions from outside and her own thoughts that were praying to Faust they would get out of this alive.

Twilight felt her whole body shaking and her breaths getting more frantic and rapid. She looked up a bit to look out the window, but was forced back down by Spitfire.

“Twilight! Stay down! We need you to stay here until we can get a hole in the enemy! Then you and I will get out and get as far from here as possible and send a message for pickup!” Spitfire yelled over the sounds of explosions.

Spitfire looked back out the window, her weapon glove ready to fire at any enemy she saw, and saw that almost half of the soldiers they had were already dead or injured. But Spitfire managed to spot a large hole in the enemy fire to the south-west of the carriage.

“Alright Ms. Sparkle, it’s time to get up and moving! There’s an opening in the enemy's’ fire at 7:00! We have to get there fast while our troops give us covering fire!” Twilight could barely hear Spitfire’s words through the explosions, even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs, but when she saw Spitfire open the carriage door and step out Twilight took it as her opportunity to run. So she took the chance.

Spitfire began firing on the enemy group that was in front of the carriage while Twilight ran south-west of the carriage as fast as she could, hoping that Spitfire and the rest of the soldiers would be able to keep the enemy at bay.

Twilight ran to a large rock and jumped behind it, crouching down and staying low with no intent to look up. She took out her DragonFireDroid, a small rectangular object that makes and receives letters based off of Dragon Fire magic, and instantly tried to make contact with Princess Celestia.

Come on, come on, come on, come on! Please! Twilight prayed that the call would go through every time she pushed redial when the Droid said the call couldn’t have been made.

THUMP

Twilight turned her head immediately when she heard the object come in contact with the ground, seeing a cylinder object sticking out of the ground that read ‘Sparkle Industries’.

Twilight began getting up, but the object exploded and sent her flying, blood flowing out of her body slowly as her body fell onto the ground.

She looked down to her chest and stomach, seeing the blood was continuing to flow out, and she could feel her consciousness slowly fading away as she turned to her right, seeing a group of soldiers trotting towards her with an unconscious Spitfire laying on one of the soldier’s back.

Twilight heard the ponies talking, but couldn’t make out what exactly they were saying. She tried to see exactly what was going on, but she couldn’t see anything through the potato sack that was covering her face, but she could make out bright lights and pony shaped silhouettes in the lights.

She was forced to shut her eyes when the sack was suddenly removed, hearing a pony with a very thick accent say her name. She looked around as her vision adjusted, seeing she was in a cave, surrounded by soldiers with their weapons aimed directly at her head.

She closed her eyes tight as she tried to use a spell to get out of there when she got her bearing as to where she was, but felt immense pain when she tried to perform the spell. She tried again and again, but found she just wasn’t able to perform the spell.

She felt streams of tears flow down her face as she continued to try a spell, any spell, and saw flashes of her time before arriving at the Zebra Kingdom desert to try to calm her down, but to no avail. She tried to open out her wings, hoping that somehow she’d be able to cut the ropes with her wings and somehow learn how to fly fast enough to escape the cave in ten seconds, but she felt immense pain crawl up her back as she tried to open her wings.

Eventually the immense pain emanating from her forehead and back caused her to black out slowly, her eyes slowly shutting as her she went unconscious as her captors continued to speak in their foreign language.

“Twilight!”

Twilight turned to see who had said her name, but was met with a several figures surrounding her and hugging her tightly.

“Girls!” Twilight strained to say, feeling the pressure of their hug crushing her. She saw a larger, white figure approach them, chuckling softly. “Princess Celestia!”

“Hello my faithful student, I must speak for all of us here when I say that we are so proud of you for winning your award.” Celestia said.

Twilight looked at the medal that was wrapped around her neck and frowned, taking the medal off and holding it out.

“I got it because of the weapons division....” She said, looking at the medal, “I got it for creating weapons that murder ponies.”

Celestia showed a frown of her own. “I know you’re not happy with the Council for forcing it onto your company, but until I can find some way to change their mind then this is the only way.”

“I just cannot believe that the Council would force Twilight to do such a thing.” The white fashionista unicorn, Rarity, said.

“They’re looking out for Equestria. They don’t want anypony from the other Kingdoms coming in and attacking us with us completely unprepared. I can see why they did it, but it’s not fair they had to force Twi to do it.” The cyan pegasus currently flying above the rest, named Rainbow Dash, said.

Twilight looked back to the large Canterlot building behind them, it’s architecture resembling something from the pony Victorian Era, with carriages parked outside as some left with nobels inside while others were left. The bright lights were on and the spotlights shown in the air, brightening up the midnight sky. The party was still on inside, but Twilight needed to step out for a breath of fresh air, feeling over cumbered by the amounts of nobles that surrounded Twilight as they all congratulated her on her medal.

“The Council shouldn’t have to ask or tell anypony to create weapons that were created for the sole intent of murdering anypony.” Celestia said, her voice sounding firm and filled with anger. She had been nearly begging the Council to reconsider their demands that Twilight be forced to make weapons of murder, but they always said the same thing every time.

Twilight looked up to her teacher, seeing she was looking down at the ground with fury in her eyes, it was rare for Twilight to see her teacher this angry before, but now that the Council is forcing Twilight’s company to make weapons the sight of Celestia angry is almost a common sight.

“Twilight, we should get going now. The Council has told us to meet with your top scientists in your weapons division in the desert in the Zebra Kingdom to test out the newest weapon they have created.” Celestia said.

“Did they ask or order?” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you think the Council said?” Celestia said, raising her head. She and her student shared a soft laugh while Applejack spoke.

“Why are the Zebra’s okay with y'all testing yer weapon thing in the desert in their kingdom?”

“We’re testing in the desert, miles and miles away from the nearest village. The Zebra’s still weren’t okay with us testing even in the desert though, but the Council eventually got them to let us do a quick test and leave immediately afterwards.” Twilight answered.

“We should really get going Twilight, we need to meet with the Council in a few hours.” Celestia said, looking up to the moon, which was already beginning to lower in the sky.

Twilight nodded and said her goodbyes to her friends as they said theirs as they trotted to the train station.

Celestia led Twilight to her chariot, which took them high to the sky and towards the east, to the Zebra Kingdom, while Celestia and Twilight enjoyed a chat.

“So, anything new that my student is working on currently?” Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded. “A couple things. Most notably a prototype for a new invention that should allow a pony to watch moving pictures taken from anywhere on Equus.”

Celestia gave Twilight a warm smile at this. “You’re really changing ponies’ lives my student. I’m so proud of what you and your company have accomplished.” Celestia turned her head to look out of the chariot and grit her teeth, whispering to herself but speaking loud enough that Twilight could hear what she was saying. “Except for the decision by the Council.”

Twilight turned to look out of the chariot with Celestia, seeing the Zebra kingdom approaching fast. “I’m sure one day you’ll be able to get the Council to change their minds Princess, they can’t ignore you forever.”

Celestia sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head softly. “I hope you are right Twilight.”

The chariot continued flying until it was in the desert of the Zebra Kingdom, seeing a large group of ponies standing next to a mountain in the shade the mountain gave off from the sun Celestia had just risen.

The chariot landed next to the ponies and Twilight saw that the Council was there, along with her top scientists from the weapons division, and a group of zebras that Twilight figured were here to watch them and make sure they were here to simply test the weapon and not cause harm to the kingdom.

The Council, which consisted of a earth pony stallion with a purple coat with a mane that was a darker shade of purple, a pegasus mare with a light blue mane and a dark gray coat, and finally a unicorn mare with a light pink mane and an equally colored coat, both colored lighter than Pinkie Pie’s mane and coat.

“Ah! Ms. Sparkle! We are glad to see you have finally made it!” The stallion said upon seeing Celestia and Twilight step out of the chariot. He was the kindest of the Council members, along with the pegasus mare, and even Celestia would say that she found him somewhat bearable.

“Now that you are both here we can finally begin with the demonstration to see if Ms. Sparkle has been following our instructions clearly.” The unicorn mare said. She was the Council member who first said that Twilight’s company should be focused on making weapons, if it wasn’t for the earth pony and the pegasus stepping in and suggesting that Twilight’s company was split in two divisions, then her whole company would be making weapons around the clock.

“I’m sure she has Flur, now please. Let us get this over with.” The pegasus mare said, looking to a small group of soldier ponies and nodding.

Twilight gulped, feeling her legs shaking softly as the soldiers began preparing the weapon to be fired.

“Now, Ms. Sparkle. Would you care to tell us exactly what the weapon should do?” The unicorn mare said.

Twilight looked over to her and gave her a friendly smile while nodding softly, but on the inside she wanted to blast the mare all the way to the moon. Or the sun.

She walked in front of the group of ponies while the soldiers finished preparing the weapon to be shot harmlessly a couple miles in front of them.

“The Council has asked us to answer the call that would allow us to attack our enemies across a wide range without our soldiers having to get close enough to be in danger of being harmed. We here at Sparkle Industries’ weapon division have answered that with what the scientists have taken to calling, the Hydra Cannon.” Twilight gestured to the Hydra Cannon, which had four large missiles sticking from its rectangular shape that was aimed to the sky, and the Council members looked to it. The unicorn mare nodded her head softly.

“With this cannon our soldiers can stand to a limit of four miles of the enemy and shoot this cannon, it’s four primary missiles will break into pieces of several smaller pieces and spread across a two mile wide area that will.... Harm.... Anything in it’s way,” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat as she took a break, not wanting to say that dreadful k-word, “I regret to say though that it cannot do damage to enemies that are hiding in underground bunkers, but it does to those who are above ground.”

Twilight turned to the soldiers, who were staring at her and waiting for their order, and nodded her head. The soldiers began pushing the buttons on the machine, which began giving off a low and deep rumbling noise as it activated.

Twilight rolled her eyes as she began her last part of the speech that the Council forced her to say at the end of every weapons presentation.

“Mares and gentlecolts, I, Twilight Sparkle, present to you...... The future.” Twilight held her hooves out to her sides lazily as the weapon shot, the four missiles breaking off into smaller pieces that crashed onto the ground miles away, creating a large boom, making the zebra’s there incredibly uncomfortable, that was soon followed by a large gust of wind blowing towards the group of ponies and zebras.

The Council members began clapping, the unicorn mare clapping with more enthusiasm than the rest.

Twilight lowered her hooves and walked to Celestia, standing next to her while the Council members talked to the zebras that were watching the whole show.

“Twilight, I must leave now, but you must stay. I am sending you with the soldiers on your way to the Zebra Kingdom’s capital to speak with them about the message they sent us last night.” Celestia said to her prized student.

“What message?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head to the side lightly.

“I still do not know. But you should hurry to them, they made their message seem urgent. They claim to have more information for us in Equestria about the one they refer to as the ‘Black Panther.’” Celestia said, causing Twilight to become even more confused.

“The Black Panther? You mean that strange, black creature running around the jungles here?” Twilight said.

“Exactly, they claim that the information was for us specifically. I do not have even the slightest guess on what they would like to share with us, or even what the Black Panther has to do with us, but they would not call for us without reason.” Celestia said, walking to her chariot, “Good luck my student.”

Twilight nodded and waved Celestia off as her chariot flew off, followed soon by the Council’s chariot. She turned and saw the group of soldiers packing the weapon up in one of their carriages, breaking it down into a smaller shape to fit inside.

One of the soldiers walked up to her, a pegasus mare with a fiery mane and coat color, and saluted to her, leading her to the carriage. The carriages began moving and they were quickly on their way to the Zebra Kingdom’s capital.

Twilight woke up with the feeling of her head being submerged under water, feeling the cold liquid surround her she began to spastically move around, desperate to escape the grip of her captor and run as fast as she could.

But she had no avail and was held under the water long enough for her consciousness to slowly begin slipping away, but only for her head to be pulled back up and slapped hard.

“Uh, uh, uh.” She heard a deep voice with a thick accent say.

Twilight tried again to cast a spell, but felt more pain when she attempted, hearing numerous amounts of chuckling around her as she cried out in pain.

She was forcefully turned to the right and shown a mirror, showing her a sight that caused tears to flow from her eyes.

They had sawed off her horn, her wings included.

Her tears began flowing down as she cried out in fear, only causing a bit more chuckling from her captors that surrounded her.

She was turned back left and met with a zebra, a large gash going down his left eye that left it completely white, absolutely useless. The zebra was munching on an apple as it watched Twilight as if he were studying her. The zebra then grinned.

He turned to his back and nodded, a pair of large earth pony stallions carrying something between them walked towards Twilight. Upon closer look Twilight saw that the thing they were carrying was a pony! And not just any pony, a pegasus pony with a fiery color scheme.

Twilight’s eyes widened when she realized the mare they were carrying was Spitfire, one of her guards. Since she’s the only one here, that means the others must be....

Twilight shut her eyes tight, fighting off her tears that were forming at the thought of those ponies dying for her. She opened her eyes and took another look at Spitfire, only to have the tears she had been fighting back flow out of her eyes when she saw her back.

Just like Twilight’s horn and wings, Spitfire’s wings were also sawed off.

Twilight cried out to the unconscious mare, sighing in relief as she saw Spitfire shift around in the stallion’s arms.

The zebra in front of Twilight said something in a foreign language to the two stallions holding onto Spitfire, both of them nodding at what the zebra had said and walking off behind Twilight with Spitfire.

“Wait! Where-Where are you taking her?” Twilight screamed, more tears threatening to break free. She began frantically shifting in her captor’s grasp, trying to look behind her to see where the two stallions were taking Spitfire.

The zebra gave another order, this time to her captor, and Twilight was taken, kicking and screaming, to where the previous stallions had taken Spitfire. She was taken to a large doorway that opened up an even larger room, filled with tables that were filled with medical supplies all across the tables, on the other side of the room was an anvil with a large fireplace that was currently unlit. Twilight’s eyes went to the other side of the room, opposite of where she was, and, sitting in the middle while his eyes glanced downward as he tended to Spitfire, sat a stallion with a brown coat, mane, but his light blue eyes stayed focused on Spitfire as they glanced only once up to Twilight, with the glance lasting no longer than a second before he returned his attention to Spitfire.

Twilight was released from her grasp and pushed into the room, falling down onto her stomach as the stallion quickly ran to her, lowering his head underneath her stomach and pushing up, lifting her up down his neck and to his back as he carried her to the other side of the room with Spitfire. He placed her down softly on the rock floor and continued working with Spitfire again.

Twilight looked back to the door and saw the zebra and the stallions on the other side of the doorway. The zebra said something to the stallion in an foreign language, causing the stallion to jerk his head upwards and stare at the zebra with a face of absolute shock and horror, and then the doors were slammed shut with enough force to make Twilight think she felt the whole mountain shake slightly.

The stallion ran over to Twilight and laid her down on her back, spreading her front hooves, his face morphing to shock as he looked down on her chest.

Twilight, a slight blush on her face, tried to ask the stallion what was the matter, but she felt a stinging pain in her chest right as she opened her mouth to ask the question, causing her to cry out in pain.

The stallion ran to a table and came back with a large cylinder and a mask that he put onto Twilight’s snout quick before turning back to the cylinder and flipping a gear.

Twilight wanted to ask what was going on, to beg for answers, but she soon found consciousness fade away as her eyelids became harder and harder to keep open. Before her eyelids shut completely and she fell into unconsciousness she saw the stallion run back over to another table, walking over to her the stallion placed his hoof on the mare’s cheek.

“Don’t worry,” the stallion said, his voice showing he was doing his best to sound reassuring, “you’re going to be just fine, Ms. Sparkle.” And with his last words ringing in her head, Twilight fell into unconsciousness.

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