Luna ran for her life. The hoofsteps behind her got closer again and she changed directions. She knew the labyrinth of alleys and streets like the back of her hoof, if she could lose her pursuers in there, she’d be safe.
The buildings around her were dark but she could still make out the way. She ran as fast as she could, faster than any guard or soldier she knew. She could just make it.
A new set of hoofsteps came from her left and forced her to take another alley than she wanted. She reached the end, but more hooves clacked on the crystal ground. They weren’t just chasing her, she realized. They were driving her away from the market, out of the city. But why?
Luna couldn’t waste energy on thinking, she just had to run faster. Out of town, she could hide and then sneak back in. Back to find her sister.
Realizing that the guards were closing in from multiple directions, Luna knew she only had one chance. She’d have to leave the narrow alleys and get into the open so she could outrace them. She dashed into the wide main street and forced her legs into a wild canter. In the bright moonlight, for everypony to see, Luna ran for her life.
As soon as the light of her moon reached her, Luna snapped back into awareness. Where was she and how did she know the way? Why was she running and not flying? Why wouldn’t she face the guards?
Luna heard a panting in a voice that was not her own and she felt the motions of a furious canter in legs that didn’t belong to her. Then she suddenly understood and remembered. They memory had been locked more tightly that she had expected. Once she pushed in, an enormous wave of strong emotions had taken hold of her. This would be different from before. Instead of being an observer, she was bound to Crystal Note to relive the events as they happened to her. Bracing herself, Luna focused back on what was happening around her, trying her best to not be overwhelmed again.
Crystal Note felt the stinging in her legs that told her she needed to slow down soon, but she ignored it. She could already see the outer borders and she hoped the soldiers wouldn’t dare to follow her past them.
Even with her mind locked on running, she couldn’t help but noticed how strange this was. She’d been spotted by guards before, but they had never been this persistent. They cut her paths multiple times, which was clever, but weird. They never acted clever because King Sombra didn’t want them to be clever. They just had to function, like everypony else. So why now, after all that time, did they suddenly almost manage to catch her?
Crystal Note wasn’t dumb, even though she hadn’t been to school. She knew of her strengths and how to use them. She knew she was fast, so she’d always been a runner, a decoy or a distraction. Most of the plans the crystal ponies and she had come up with relied heavily on that, and the fact that the guards usually weren’t that clever.
While they weren’t, King Sombra was. She had to admit this, even if it gave her the creeps.
She didn’t have time to think this through now. In the distance, she saw a few bushes already. She’d slip into the berry fields and hide in the shrubbery. Then she’d slip back into town. Pinky was safe, hiding in the plaza. She’d get back there and then they’d leave together. No matter where they’d end up, Crystal Note was sure it’d be better than staying here even a day longer.
She couldn’t hear the hoofsteps anymore. She slowed down into a trot and panted, her legs burning and with stings in her sides. She had to take a breather before she could dive right into danger.
“Well, well. Who have we here? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I admit this makes things a lot more interesting.”
Crystal Note jumped with a shriek when she suddenly heard a voice right behind her. There had been nopony just a second ago, who…?
Her brain froze along with the rest of her body when she stared at the pony who had managed to sneak up on her and every thought turned into cold fear.
She was staring at King Sombra.
The dark king grinned at her with an evil smirk, his sharp teeth looking more like they belonged to a predator than anything else. His eyes glowed in the dark and his red horn gleamed like a dagger in the light of the moon.
RUN!
A single though made it through and her body reacted instantly. Her legs moved as she threw her body around and started to run, any direction, just away from the dark unicorn.
Before she made a single step though, her body froze again, but this time not by its own violation. Her hooves lost touch to the ground and she was turned around to face the king again, hovering a few feet in the air. Of course she struggled, all her muscles twitching and squirming to get free but deep down she knew it was useless.
There was a sickly green glow around King Sombra’s horn and his magic held her in an iron grip. He was still grinning and the grip grew even more firm, causing the young mare to whimper in pain, much to the king’s delight
“Well Harmony, is that the way to treat your beloved king?”
His voice was thick with malicious glee
“I’m sure your father thought you better than this, Harmony. Go ahead. Bow to your king!”
The last words ended in a shout and Crystal Note was slammed down by the magic. Her body was pressed against the ground and she could taste dirt in her slightly ajar mouth.
With a guttural laugh, the magic grip faded and Crystal Note scrambled back on her hooves. The king gave her a taunting smirk, like a cat that enjoyed playing with its food. Crystal Note dug her hooves into the ground and stared back at the king. Her angry expression was betrayed by the shiver of her body, but she’d not give the king the satisfaction of backing away.
The king sighed, almost disappointed
“Ah well, just like that, the fun is over. You’re not as entertaining as I hoped, Harmony.”
Her ears twitched when he said her old name again, the one her not-father had given her. It only helped her get more angry so her voice didn’t waver when she called out boldly
“If you hurt me or do anything, my father won’t help you anymore!”
This was her only out, the only ace she ever had in a situation like this. The world fell apart around her when the king’s smirk returned
“Oh, please. Your father stopped being useful after the first month. I only keep him around because it is amusing to see him try so hard, struggle so much and fail so utterly each and every time.”
Crystal Note cowered down in fear when the glow around the horn returned. Even as an earth pony, she could feel that this kind of magic was wrong, sick and twisted.
“Since there’s no fun to be had with you, let’s cut down to business, shall we?”
The king’s voice changed, from taunting to velvety and charming. Crystal Note’s eyes opened wide, shameful and confused. How could she be afraid or, stars forbid, even be angry? This was King Sombra, wonderful, kind and benevolent King Sombra. He ruled over the Empire with wisdom and whatever she was asked, she would do anything for her beloved king
“You cannot lie to me.”
Crystal Note nodded and she smiled. Of course she would not lie, never lie to her king. She felt ecstatic to agree and she replied with a dreamy voice
“Yes, your Highness. I cannot lie.”
The king nodded and Crystal Note squealed in delight. She had pleased her king and it made her feel so good!
“Do you know about the rebellion in the Empire?”
Oh, that was an easy one! She would make her king happy again and not lie
“Yes your Highness!”
A grin on King Sombra’s lips and a joyful giggle from Crystal Note. She watched the king excited, eager for the next question
“Are you a part of the rebellion, Harmony?”
Crystal Note blinked surprised. Why her old name? Should she tell the king about her new one? No, that was not important! She had to answer all his questions, first
“Yes your Highness.”
The horn glowed brighter but all Crystal Note could see was the smile on her beloved king’s face
“Daddy will be so disappointed. What is the next thing the rebellion is planning?”
Daddy…
Crystal Note’s whole body tensed up. That word. She couldn’t take it. She saw images in her mind’s eye of her daddy, her real daddy. The crystal pony next door who’d taken her in when she was all alone, who had treated her like his own, who had shared his home and food, his family and his heart with her.
Her daddy who had been beaten to death by King Sombra’s soldiers, just mere days ago.
Her mind snapped into pieces under the pressure of her emotional turmoil and forbidden magic. A part, a small part of her grew aware again. She saw the evil king for what he really was. She saw the magic horn that played her mind like a lute. She realized a big part still stood under the evil spell. She couldn’t stop herself as she answered the king’s last question
“I don’t know, your Highness. I’m sorry.”
She was sorry, most of her was. Only the small fragment of her sighed in relief that she was truly unaware of any further plans. She could feel the disappointment in her mind and realized it was the king’s disappointment really. He was influencing her from the outside, but part of her was still in and free from him again.
“Oh, you will be. Tell me who else is part of the rebellion.”
There was an edge in the enchanting voice now. A flaw in the spell it had over her. She pushed against that flaw and whatever the other part wanted to say, she could stop it. She tried to push out words, a name that didn’t exist, but she could not. She could not lie.
The king tilted his head when no immediate answer came
“A name, Harmony. Tell me a name.”
The other part would answer truthfully, she couldn’t hold it back much longer. She couldn’t tell anything to the king, he’d torture and kill anypony like her daddy. But she couldn’t lie. She needed to say a name, but which one?
In the last second before she could not hold the spell back any longer, a desperate thought came to her and she just hoped and went with it
“Crystal Note!”
The king grinned, satisfied that his spell hadn’t failed. The entranced part of her mind clung on that smile with a sickening cheerfulness, but the part that was free kept on struggling to keep the magic out.
The next words of the king wrapped around her mind like silk as he poured more magic into his enchantment
“Ah, that’s a name I keep hearing in the gossips. Do you know this Crystal Note personally?”
“Yes, your Highness.”
Not a lie! Part of her wanted to cry out ‘It’s me!’ but she managed to weasel her way out of this one
“Lead me to Crystal Note, now.”
There was power behind this command and Crystal Note felt compelled to obey. The entranced mind clung on every word and smiled. She was already there, so she didn’t even need to stand up fulfil the king’s orders. The resistant part neglected to tell this to the king, after all she hadn’t been ordered to say anything.
When the mare in front of him didn’t move, King Sombra quickly lost his patience
“Well? What are you waiting for?”
“Nothing, your Highness.”
The edge in his voice grew sharper and instead of silk running through her mind, the voice suddenly felt like sandpaper. The perfect image of the king crumbled as the king grew more angry and annoyed and lost the finer control of his spell
“Are you mocking me, Harmony?”
“No your Highness.”
Not a lie! She wasn’t Harmony, she was Crystal Note. She clung desperately on that reason as the enchanted part of her mind started to see the angry face, the eyes that glared like daggers, the vile glow of the blood red horn. Her fear returned when she felt the pressure of the magic, sharp like needles and so wrong, she could feel her stomach turn over from it. Why would her king be angry at her when she obeyed all his orders? How would he react to somepony who wouldn’t obey? What if he ever found Rose Quartz?
With that last thought, the spell broke apart like a vase that got smashed by a hammer.
King Sombra recognized this of course, but he was already so lost in anger that he didn’t waste time finding out why his spell broke
“You want to fight your king? You try to resist my almighty magic? So be it!”
His words dripped in hatred and venom and his horn glowed brightly. There was no more subtleness, not more finesse or seduction. This was pure darkness and force, packed into a spell designed to break a mind.
Crystal Note whimpered when it drilled into her skull
“Who sent you here?”
The words burnt through her mind, infused with dark magic and beckoned words out of her mouth she could not stop
“Nopony. I wanted to run away. Please, make it stop.”
The king laughed and made the blood freeze in her veins. That was not the voice of a pony anymore. She screamed in pain as more magic surged into her head
“The more you struggle, the more it hurts. And forget about lying to me.”
Her legs caved in under her and her forehooves grabbed her head as she squirmed in pain.
“Next question then. Who is leading this rebellion?”
Pain pulsed through her veins and made her head feel like it had to burst any second. A part of her body begged her to speak, to just say everything she knew, but a small part of her found the strength to resist. She would not betray the ponies who took her in. She screamed at the top of her voice when the magic intensified.
Then suddenly, the world came to a stop. The pain was gone. The magic was gone. The king was gone.
She couldn’t move. Not even to breathe. Was she dead? No, it didn’t feel like that. Her eyes were still open. Maybe she could see something.
The world around her was blurry, like she was looking through fog. No, more like she was trying to see through a dirty window. There were shapes and some colours. She found a few spots she could see clearly.
Fear returned to her, stronger than before when one of the shapes turned out to be King Sombra. He was furious, seething anger radiated off him. His horn flared brightly and his eyes had an evil, devilish green glow around them and wisps of purple smoke as if they were burning with unholy fire.
The king stared right at her and she could hear his voice, although dampened by whatever it was that surrounded her
“You! How can you still resist me! I’ve taken all your magic, I’ve enslaved your precious crystal ponies. There is no more light in them to feed you. Submit to my power!”
Crystal Note would have blinked if she could move any muscle. The words made no sense to her whatsoever. She didn’t understand what was happening around her.
The king shot a blast of magic at her, but nothing seemed to happen. She expected pain like before, but instead the magic seemed to be absorbed. In the light of the magic, she could finally see clearly. Her whole body was encased in crystal.
She thought she should be scared, or worried. She felt none of that in the least. Instead she felt safe, protected. Something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. The crystal around her felt warm, almost alive and even though she could not breathe, she knew deep inside that she was completely safe in here.
The king screamed in frustration when his magic was blocked by the crystal
“This changes nothing! I will have your power, sooner or later. This pony proved to be useless like her father, but still she will serve one final purpose to me. There is a curse I’ve been eager to test.”
With that, his horn glowed up brightly and pointed at her.
Crystal Note felt the crystal compress around her. To her, it felt like an embrace. All her senses dulled down until they faded completely. The last she felt was a blinding light that engulfed her before she became oblivious.
Crystal Note gasped and summoned all her strength to get back on her hooves. Her head trashed around and her eyes rolled in every direction. She did not know where she was or how she had gotten here. She didn’t know why she felt so scared.
Her eyes found something to look at and her body froze in fear.
She saw a city made out of crystal. Buildings made of dull, greyish spires that reached into the sky. They were covered by smaller, deep black crystals. Like a rash or an infection, they spread out all over the city.
Panic burned through her guts like acid. She couldn’t look at this any longer. Her body moved and she ran. Away from the black crystals and the sickening feeling she had when she saw them. She just ran, towards some mountains in the distance.
She’d been running for hours when she heard a voice, barely even a whisper, inside her head
Why are you running?
I need to get away, I can’t stay any second longer.
What are you afraid of?
Black, it’s everywhere. I can’t let it get me. I’m scared.
Breathe. Relax. You’re safe.
I can’t stop running. I have to get away. I can’t!
The winds were icy and biting. She didn’t care. She just kept running. She stopped listening, she stopped thinking. She just ran, for hours without rest. Until she passed out.